Don't Look Now (1973) Reviews

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even if I really liked it, to be honest, I have to admit that it didn’t really blow me away though. The main issue, I guess, was that there were some big chunks of time during which nothing much really happened. Still, there is no doubt that Nicolas Roeg delivered here a fascinating movie above all thanks to some stellar cinematography and editing. Indeed, the whole thing started with the most nightmarish intro you could imagine. Afterwards, Venice had never look so spooky before and the damned thing was just seriously ominous and unsettling. Of course, the fact that most of the action took place abroad also increased the sense of alienation experienced by the two main characters. On top of that, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie also gave some of their best performances and got involved in one of the most notorious sex scenes ever made. It’s interesting that many viewers consider it as one of the best horror movies when in fact it is clearly really different than your average horror flick. Eventually, I think I should rewatch this movie at some point to make up my mind for good about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really strong psychological thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

When he was (finally) presented with his (overdue) Honorary Academy Award in 2017, Whoopi Goldberg specifically highlight Donald Sutherland’s enigmatic, gripping, haunted performance in Don’t Look Now as a primary example of his talents as an actor. She not displayed great taste in cherry picking this film as a standout of his exemplary career but underscoring just how humane and tangible his work in this film remains. Sutherland plays a man grappling with the death of a child, now genuflecting for an escape from the all-encompassing grief he and his wife are experiencing.

His wife (Julie Christie) indulges in the spiritual and supernatural world, frequenting a psychic and praying for visions of the future where the darkness is worked through. While he buries himself in here and now, indulges in memories of the past, and goes about restoring a dilapidating church. Don’t Look Now barely contains a present tense as the threads of the past, present, and future maneuver through and around each other throughout.

Grief is the major ghost haunting the characters and their actions. It lingers around the margins of the frame as a subliminal ache that never finds a fissure to seep through and explode the stasis they’ve built for themselves. It’s important that Sutherland’s grieving father is restoring a church as it is a blunt symbolic gesture. If you’re looking for faith and the balm of reason, many others have found it in a church. Not only are the performances marked by restraint, but so is the film as a whole only provides a few moments of release.

Are there really ghosts in Don’t Look Now? In a sense, yes, but they’re not the type typically found in your horror movies. These are ghosts of past traumas that will not be ignored or forgotten from the emotional spheres of these characters live any time soon. This is why Sutherland tries to hide from the blind clairvoyant and her sister only to laugh at the futility of his efforts and there wider comedic childishness. You cannot outrun or hide from your traumas, and they will manifest and haunt you until faced and worked through. All the game face carrying on will not heal these scars.

Look further at how the streets and canals of Venice become an Escher-like maze that taunts the couple at various points. A sense of place and location slowly evaporates until an uneasy displacement and confusing takes over. It’s like they’ve managed to physical their emotional state by getting lost in the city streets they’ve taken on as a temporary home. You’d think they’d know their way around, but something is amiss, and is that red-cloaked specter their dead daughter come back to haunt/taunt them?

Don’t Look Now generates a persistent feeling of claustrophobia and unease that turns its domestic drama into the stuff of horror and nightmares. This couple still cares deeply for each other, and there’s a maturity to the treatment of their relationship and their struggle for a return to normalcy that only aides the continuous wait for the bottom to drop out. It would probably be easier to digest Don’t Look Now if the daughter’s ghost that’s come between them caused the couple to lash out against each other, but no such luck. The truth of the daughter’s ghost is besides the point. Domestic bliss and comfortable normalcy will never return no matter how much they valiantly try for it.

Despite being decades old, Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now remains an uncompromisingly honest and staggeringly evocative motion picture which tackles the mysteries of life, death, fear, hope, love and grief. The movie stems from the pen of English writer Daphne du Maurier, whose works of literature are a rich source for filmmakers - her stories also formed the genesis for such Alfred Hitchcock movies as The Birds, Rebecca, and Jamaica Inn. While Don't Look Now is not quite of the calibre of Hitchcock's masterworks, Roeg succeeded in bringing to the screen the inherent eroticism that underpins Maurier's writing which starkly contrasts the fear and tension of her themes. In translating the film to the big screen, a few significant changes were made to Maurier's story, but the basic elements of the narrative remain in place.

As the story begins, it's a dreary afternoon for the Baxter family until young Christine Baxter falls into a nearby pond and drowns. An undisclosed amount of time later, John (Sutherland) and Laura (Christie) Baxter are in the Italian city of Venice while John assists in the renovation of a local 16th Century church which is in a state of disrepair. While having lunch together, Laura meets two elderly sisters - Heather (Mason) and Wendy (Matania) - at a restaurant, the former of which is a blind psychic who claims she saw Christine safe and happy in the afterlife. The information visibly renews Laura's psyche, and her demeanour improves dramatically. While initially sceptical and rather humoured by the event, John becomes increasingly disturbed as Laura obsesses about using the elderly sisters to communicate with Christine. When further messages reveal that their lives may be in grave danger, strange events begin to occur and John starts seeing a mysterious hooded girl, leading John to question whether the warnings may be for real.

The city of Venice was transformed into a character in itself here; mist-shrouded, labyrinthine and gloomy. The maze of streets seem to have been specifically designed to make unwary tourists lose their way, which in turn clouds John's consciousness; rendering him unable to figure out exactly what's happening. Don't Look Now is usually categorised as a horror film of the supernatural variety, but it's nothing conventional. There are no detectable poltergeists or spirits...or are there? Director Roeg possesses the canny ability to make the mundane appear sinister, and Don't Look Now is consequently a fiendish exercise in keeping the audience wondering what things are significant, what things are merely happenstance, and what things are genuine signs that something horrible is right around the corner. This is the type of film which demands repeat viewings, as it needs to be studied frame-by-frame to fully grasp how intricately it was assembled.

For Don't Look Now, Roeg and screenwriters Alan Scott and Chris Bryant set up a maze of subtle clues and suggestions which match the ominous labyrinth of alleyways, bridges, canals and streets which populate the Venice setting. Throughout the film, events from the past and the present intersect, often leaving you unsure as to whether you're seeing a flashback, a flash-forward, or an event taking place in the present. While this works on one level to build tension, it works thematically as well due to the fact that the film is primarily concerned with the uncertainty of time. This theme is underscored by the numerous scenes in which characters arrive too late. Augmenting all of this is Roeg's direction - he managed to build a powerful sense of impending doom throughout. Don't Look Now is not the type of movie which relies on cheap thrills or exploitation elements to see it through.

Anthony Richmond's cinematography and lighting is superbly atmospheric; painting the autumnal months in Venice with a spookily drab yet realistic colour palette. The colour red continually pops up throughout the film to symbolise two diverse things: memories of Christine, and possible threats toiling in the mundane. Due to the colours being so deliberately muted, red stands out each time it appears. However, there's a great deal of symbolism throughout which grows increasingly heavy-handed and is too thickly ladled on. As a result, the film feels meandering. This is the type of movie that film students spend hours dissecting and writing thesis papers on, but this does not necessarily mean it is always entertaining. On the contrary, in fact - Don't Look Now would've been superior and more effective if only it had been more direct. Fortunately, the wait is almost worth it for the finale, which is absolutely unforgettable.

As John and Laura Baxter, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are utterly remarkable; essaying a married couple who never feel anything less than authentic. A sex scene between the two is breathtakingly intimate, and their love-making is interspersed with subdued snapshots of them preparing to go out for dinner. For years, rumours have circulated that Sutherland and Christie got carried away and actually did the sexual deed on-camera. Roeg has insisted this is not true, but it's easy to understand how the rumour got started - the scene is incredibly erotic, honest and raw in a way that's rarely seen in films anymore.

Despite the film's meandering nature, Don't Look Now for the most part sustains a high level of tension through brilliant characterisation, white-knuckle set-pieces, and a constant fear of the unseen that's seriously unnerving. Hollywood simply does not produce thrillers of this calibre anymore.

7.3/10