Don't Look Now

Nicholas Roeg, UK/Italy, 1973, 110 minutes

John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) and his wife Laura (Julie Christie) have sought refuge in Venice following their daughter's tragic drowning. Believing Laura is at last recovering, John is angered by her encounter with a woman (Hilary Mason) who claims to be in touch with the dead girl. Unsurprisingly, Laura seizes the opportunity to ease her pain and guilt, despite John's scepticism. Yet it is John who begins to catch glimpses of a small figure in a red coat - could this be the child he failed to save?

Based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, Don't Look Now was ignored at the Oscars and is still overlooked by modern audiences. The shadows and silence of a rarely-seen side of Venice are captured by the BAFTA-winning cinematography, providing a perfect backdrop for the anguish of a couple isolated by their grief. Roeg's decision to show little of the child around whom the plot pivots is well rewarded; her absence in the film mirroring her painful absence from her parent's lives. And there is of course the infamous sex scene, a last minute idea by Roeg, which prompted rumours that 'they did it for real'. This scene, interspersed with shots of the couple dressing, neatly encapsulates the couple's relationship, in which desire still exists despite their sadness and recrimination.

It is possible to find faults with the plot - for example, is a waterlogged city the place to forget a drowning? - and for some the ending may jar with the film's subtle psychological exploration. Yet this contemporary of The Exorcist (also with a young female protagonist) is far more deserving of that film's fame; it is a much more believable examination of what may be real, and its consideration of the redemption offered by the supernatural frames an equally shocking portrayal of evil.

Review by Jenny Jackson
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2004

The sex-scene in Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now is said to be a real one, the result of an off-screen love affair between the actors playing the two main characters, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. This lends a real passion to this scene in particular, but it is passion which is in evidence throughout the film, and leads to its dark intensity.

The script is based on a Daphne du Maurier short story, and is about a couple whose young daughter dies accidentally. To try and leave the event behind them, they go away on a working holiday; but instead of a relaxing break, they find themselves in a haunted off-season Venice, all empty canal-ways and strange characters. Worse follows, as they are befriended by two eccentric old sisters, one of them a blind psychic who warns them of impending danger, and then they think they catch a glimpse of their dead daughter - a ghost sent back to help them, or something else...?

Roeg's sometimes aggressive cross-cutting style works in a way which never quite came together in a film like Bad Timing, and the overall effect is a chilling and disturbing one. See this film on a dark night and then walk home alone, preferably in the rain, and you'll appreciate the psychological bite to its fullest.

Review by Iain Lang
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96