Don't Look Now starts in England where architect John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) is moments too late to save his young daughter Christine (Sharon Williams) from drowning in a pond on his country estate, both he & his wife Laura (Julkie Christie) are devastated & decide to move to Venice in Italy to get away from England & the memories where John has been hired to restore a Church. While eating out in a restaurant Laura meets two elderly sisters named Wendy (Clelia Matania) & Heather (Hilary Mason) who claims to be psychic & is able to talk with & see Laura's dead daughter Christine, Laura begins to believe the sisters & feels better knowing that Christine is able to communicate with her but when John finds out he is sceptical & wants nothing to do with the sisters...
This English Italian co-production was directed by Nicolas Roeg & the script was based on the short ghost story Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier & the script takes that basic idea & stretches it out over 110 minutes with variable results. Don't Look Now is often held up as some artistic masterpiece packed with depth, meaning & symbolism as well as a twist ending that in my opinion is alright but hardly the genuine surprise shocker than many might have you believe while other's describe Don't Look Now as a boring mess that people read far too much into & interpret even the littlest thing as having some great meaning. To me the truth lies somewhere between the opinions as I appreciate Don't Look Now as a decent & often absorbing ghost story it didn't knock my socks off & it did bore me a bit which is the ultimate sin a film can commit as far as I am concerned. The majority of the film fells like a calm drama where everything is normal & two grieving people are just trying to get on with their lives, there's the sub-plot about the psychic sister but largely it's pretty unremarkable stuff until the hour mark where the supernatural elements kick in more & all the set-ups that Roeg has staged & planted start to come to fruition but it's still sedately paced by anyone's standards & then there's that twist ending which is sort of gruesome in a dark way which then does try to tie everything together in a series of flashbacks that sort of work but isn't entirely satisfying. Don't Look Now goes from tedium to mystery to gripping drama to horror & almost everything between without ever really grabbing me, sure I liked it & it tells a decent ghost story with a decent twist ending but I wanted to describe it as brilliant & not just decent.
Roeg really lets fly with the imagery here as it's absolutely everywhere, from the broken glass of the mirror at the start to the broken glass of the glasses on the table Laura knocks over to the broken glass at the end to the symbolism of the water Christine drowned in as they move to Venice which is obviously a city built around water, the water in glasses Laura breaks, the rain whenever we go back to England & the like & then there's the shiny red plastic mac which also becomes a major part of the films imagery. Don't Look now is the sort of film some could sit down & analyze for like hours, every scene or every moment could have an alternate meaning or some sort of hidden depth, personally I think life is too short for that & while there is obvious symbolism here it gets dull fairly quickly. There's no real gore in it although the twist ending does feature a little blood & there's a pretty steamy sex scene here too. Don't Look now is undeniably well shot with nice cinematography & the tight, narrow streets & canals of Venice almost become a character in their own right.
With a supposed budget of about $1,500,000 this has good production values & is well made, shot on location in both England & Italy. The acting is alright, Sutherland is OK but not brilliant while Julie Christie at least looks great.
Don't Look Now is a film that is a personal experience, how much you get out of it will depend entirely on how you take to Roeg's symbolism & the often sedately paced nature of the story which just has either Suntherland or Christie run around Venice for extended periods not doing that much. I liked it, I could see where it was coming from & it's fairly absorbing but I wouldn't call it the masterpiece many seem to. The IMDb lists a Don't Look Now (2011) remake as in production & I'll be amazed if it's anything like the original if it ever gets made.
This English Italian co-production was directed by Nicolas Roeg & the script was based on the short ghost story Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier & the script takes that basic idea & stretches it out over 110 minutes with variable results. Don't Look Now is often held up as some artistic masterpiece packed with depth, meaning & symbolism as well as a twist ending that in my opinion is alright but hardly the genuine surprise shocker than many might have you believe while other's describe Don't Look Now as a boring mess that people read far too much into & interpret even the littlest thing as having some great meaning. To me the truth lies somewhere between the opinions as I appreciate Don't Look Now as a decent & often absorbing ghost story it didn't knock my socks off & it did bore me a bit which is the ultimate sin a film can commit as far as I am concerned. The majority of the film fells like a calm drama where everything is normal & two grieving people are just trying to get on with their lives, there's the sub-plot about the psychic sister but largely it's pretty unremarkable stuff until the hour mark where the supernatural elements kick in more & all the set-ups that Roeg has staged & planted start to come to fruition but it's still sedately paced by anyone's standards & then there's that twist ending which is sort of gruesome in a dark way which then does try to tie everything together in a series of flashbacks that sort of work but isn't entirely satisfying. Don't Look Now goes from tedium to mystery to gripping drama to horror & almost everything between without ever really grabbing me, sure I liked it & it tells a decent ghost story with a decent twist ending but I wanted to describe it as brilliant & not just decent.
Roeg really lets fly with the imagery here as it's absolutely everywhere, from the broken glass of the mirror at the start to the broken glass of the glasses on the table Laura knocks over to the broken glass at the end to the symbolism of the water Christine drowned in as they move to Venice which is obviously a city built around water, the water in glasses Laura breaks, the rain whenever we go back to England & the like & then there's the shiny red plastic mac which also becomes a major part of the films imagery. Don't Look now is the sort of film some could sit down & analyze for like hours, every scene or every moment could have an alternate meaning or some sort of hidden depth, personally I think life is too short for that & while there is obvious symbolism here it gets dull fairly quickly. There's no real gore in it although the twist ending does feature a little blood & there's a pretty steamy sex scene here too. Don't Look now is undeniably well shot with nice cinematography & the tight, narrow streets & canals of Venice almost become a character in their own right.
With a supposed budget of about $1,500,000 this has good production values & is well made, shot on location in both England & Italy. The acting is alright, Sutherland is OK but not brilliant while Julie Christie at least looks great.
Don't Look Now is a film that is a personal experience, how much you get out of it will depend entirely on how you take to Roeg's symbolism & the often sedately paced nature of the story which just has either Suntherland or Christie run around Venice for extended periods not doing that much. I liked it, I could see where it was coming from & it's fairly absorbing but I wouldn't call it the masterpiece many seem to. The IMDb lists a Don't Look Now (2011) remake as in production & I'll be amazed if it's anything like the original if it ever gets made.