S. Michael WilsonDon't Look Now on DVD
November 11th 2006 05:11
Don’t Look Now (on DVD)
Directed by Nicolas Roeg.
Screenplay by Allan Scott.
Story by Daphne Du Maurier.
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland.
“Nothing is what it seems.”
Never before have I seen Venice portrayed in such a way on film. All that great architecture being slowly eaten away by the acidity in the air: worn away to raw, peeling stone. The dark streets tangle and wind until the city becomes a maze of black water and dead ends. It seems almost abandoned, many of the scenes playing out with only the main characters to occupy them – no background extras…nothing.
This is the Venice that John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie) come to after their daughter’s drowning. And no, nobody misses the irony of spending time in a city renowned for being largely composed of waterways. John Baxter is working on restoring a cathedral there. Their surviving child – a son – is off at boarding school. A series of murders have also been plaguing the city recently and there is a definite sense of palpable menace hanging in the air throughout the film.
Laura befriends a couple of elderly (and more than a little sinister) sisters, one of whom is blind but claims to have psychic abilities. She tells Laura that she sees a little girl sitting between her and her husband - shaking her hair and laughing. She insists that their daughter is happy and with them always. Unfortunately, she also reveals that John’s life is in danger if he remains in Venice. He, of course, is less than convinced.
Laura is called away from Venice (her son has had an accident) and while she is supposedly out of the city John catches a glimpse of her and the sisters drifting past him on a boat. He becomes consumed with paranoia. He needs to know if she is alright and, if so, why she has made no effort to contact him. He becomes increasingly suspicious of the sisters…what do they really want?
To make matters stranger he keeps glimpsing a tiny figure clad in a red coat – just like the one his daughter was wearing when she drowned (earlier the blind psychic announces that John possesses a mild psychic gift himself, but that he is unaware of it and cannot control it). Is it the ghost of his little girl, trying to warn him of this unnamed and imminent danger?
The narrative of the film progresses not in any conventional sense but rather as a series of incidents and coincidences. Images recur over and over: shattering glass, shivering water, the colour red. We see the grief that draws Laura and John further and further apart even as it is clear that they are deeply in love. A particularly telling scene is one that integrates their explicit love-making with scenes of them dressing and engaging in domestic chores, all scored with very delicate and plaintive music.
Little by little the multiple threads of the story come together…and when they do it is in one of the most startling and disturbing (and more than a little surreal) climaxes ever committed to film. You probably know it already; it’s been referenced that many times. Oddly enough knowing the outcome of Don’t Look Now doesn’t reduce its impact (it was, like, the only thing I knew about the film before I hunted it out).
It is a strange, disjointed film, with a pace that manages to be simultaneously languid and jagged. In storyline it recalls the work of Hitchcock (it is written by Du Maurier after all) while in execution it evokes the early work of Dario Argento, Roman Polanski and even Kubrick (particularly The Shining). Mostly, however, it is its own thing – a film that seems to be aimed almost exclusively at other filmmakers. The cinematography is haunting and the performances are stunning with both Christie and Sutherland at the top of their game. A horror classic.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg.
Screenplay by Allan Scott.
Story by Daphne Du Maurier.
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland.
“Nothing is what it seems.”
Never before have I seen Venice portrayed in such a way on film. All that great architecture being slowly eaten away by the acidity in the air: worn away to raw, peeling stone. The dark streets tangle and wind until the city becomes a maze of black water and dead ends. It seems almost abandoned, many of the scenes playing out with only the main characters to occupy them – no background extras…nothing.
This is the Venice that John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie) come to after their daughter’s drowning. And no, nobody misses the irony of spending time in a city renowned for being largely composed of waterways. John Baxter is working on restoring a cathedral there. Their surviving child – a son – is off at boarding school. A series of murders have also been plaguing the city recently and there is a definite sense of palpable menace hanging in the air throughout the film.
Laura befriends a couple of elderly (and more than a little sinister) sisters, one of whom is blind but claims to have psychic abilities. She tells Laura that she sees a little girl sitting between her and her husband - shaking her hair and laughing. She insists that their daughter is happy and with them always. Unfortunately, she also reveals that John’s life is in danger if he remains in Venice. He, of course, is less than convinced.
Laura is called away from Venice (her son has had an accident) and while she is supposedly out of the city John catches a glimpse of her and the sisters drifting past him on a boat. He becomes consumed with paranoia. He needs to know if she is alright and, if so, why she has made no effort to contact him. He becomes increasingly suspicious of the sisters…what do they really want?
To make matters stranger he keeps glimpsing a tiny figure clad in a red coat – just like the one his daughter was wearing when she drowned (earlier the blind psychic announces that John possesses a mild psychic gift himself, but that he is unaware of it and cannot control it). Is it the ghost of his little girl, trying to warn him of this unnamed and imminent danger?
The narrative of the film progresses not in any conventional sense but rather as a series of incidents and coincidences. Images recur over and over: shattering glass, shivering water, the colour red. We see the grief that draws Laura and John further and further apart even as it is clear that they are deeply in love. A particularly telling scene is one that integrates their explicit love-making with scenes of them dressing and engaging in domestic chores, all scored with very delicate and plaintive music.
Little by little the multiple threads of the story come together…and when they do it is in one of the most startling and disturbing (and more than a little surreal) climaxes ever committed to film. You probably know it already; it’s been referenced that many times. Oddly enough knowing the outcome of Don’t Look Now doesn’t reduce its impact (it was, like, the only thing I knew about the film before I hunted it out).
It is a strange, disjointed film, with a pace that manages to be simultaneously languid and jagged. In storyline it recalls the work of Hitchcock (it is written by Du Maurier after all) while in execution it evokes the early work of Dario Argento, Roman Polanski and even Kubrick (particularly The Shining). Mostly, however, it is its own thing – a film that seems to be aimed almost exclusively at other filmmakers. The cinematography is haunting and the performances are stunning with both Christie and Sutherland at the top of their game. A horror classic.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
One of my all time favourite horror films. So moody and atmospheric, picturesque and forboding, a profound piece of filmmaking that is all in its subtlety.