← Back to Reviews
in
Don't Look Now (1973)
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Cast overview: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
Running time: 110 minutes
Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg's 1973 occult thriller, centres around an English couple who go to Venice to grieve after the death of their young daughter. The premise itself is based upon Daphne du Maurier's short story, and it's an interesting one. It was that, coupled with the high scores, that inspired me to give this a watch, added to the fact that it's a seventies film and I expected to be able to place it on my list.
Unfortunately, I don't think I will be. Don't get me wrong, this was enjoyable in places, but it seems to have a couple of things that don't quite work. Firstly, the infamous sex scene - I'm not a prude by any means, but this scene just felt completely superfluous and out-of-place, and I didn't see what purpose it was trying to serve (apart from arousing the viewer, perhaps...). This isn't a long film, but there were parts that either felt unnecessary or just there to serve as padding, and the story was, at times, hard to follow and keep up with.
I did like the Venice setting, though this isn't the sunny, warm Venice with tourist-filled streets; instead, Roeg presents the viewer with a Venice that is wintry, dark and gloomy. It serves the film well, and adds atmosphere to a film full of foreboding. The two elderly psychic sisters were effective, also - not your stereotypical horror film characters, and they again added to this foreboding and uncertain world in which the film is set.
It was a lovely idea, but it seems to have been executed here in a rather clumsy and half-baked fashion, leaving the end result as a film that is interesting, mysterious and atmospheric, yet lacking in continuity and consistency. Some of the plot events were downright bizarre to me, and left me wondering if I'd been paying enough attention earlier in the film as I couldn't work out who the characters were or where they had come from.
However, this is a decent enough film that's worth a watch or two - and it seems to have garnered good reviews from many - but I don't think it's quite as good as people say it is. It's one of those films where I consider the whole to be lesser than the sum of its parts. Some effective set-pieces, but the end product seems somewhat lacking. I did, though, feel that the Italian music was effective. Oh, and I'm not a big fan of Donald Sutherland as an actor.
Quotes
Bishop Barbarrigo: [while passing by a dilapidated church] The churches belong to God, but he doesn't seem to care about them.
Laura Baxter: One of your children has posed a curious question: if the world is round, why is a frozen lake flat?
John Baxter: That's a good question.
Laura Baxter: [flipping through book] Ah, here it says that Lake Ontario curves more than 3 degrees from its Eastern end to its Western end. So frozen water really isn't flat.
John Baxter: Nothing is what it seems.
Inspector Longhi: The skill of police artists is to make the living appear dead.
Trivia
The famous sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie was a last minute on-set idea from director Nicolas Roeg who felt that otherwise the film would have too many scenes of the couple arguing. Most of the scenes around it are improvised.
Donald Sutherland wore a curly toupee throughout the entire shoot.
Daphne Du Maurier wrote a letter to Nicolas Roeg after seeing the film, congratulating him on making such a strong film from her story.
Trailer
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Cast overview: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
Running time: 110 minutes
Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg's 1973 occult thriller, centres around an English couple who go to Venice to grieve after the death of their young daughter. The premise itself is based upon Daphne du Maurier's short story, and it's an interesting one. It was that, coupled with the high scores, that inspired me to give this a watch, added to the fact that it's a seventies film and I expected to be able to place it on my list.
Unfortunately, I don't think I will be. Don't get me wrong, this was enjoyable in places, but it seems to have a couple of things that don't quite work. Firstly, the infamous sex scene - I'm not a prude by any means, but this scene just felt completely superfluous and out-of-place, and I didn't see what purpose it was trying to serve (apart from arousing the viewer, perhaps...). This isn't a long film, but there were parts that either felt unnecessary or just there to serve as padding, and the story was, at times, hard to follow and keep up with.
I did like the Venice setting, though this isn't the sunny, warm Venice with tourist-filled streets; instead, Roeg presents the viewer with a Venice that is wintry, dark and gloomy. It serves the film well, and adds atmosphere to a film full of foreboding. The two elderly psychic sisters were effective, also - not your stereotypical horror film characters, and they again added to this foreboding and uncertain world in which the film is set.
It was a lovely idea, but it seems to have been executed here in a rather clumsy and half-baked fashion, leaving the end result as a film that is interesting, mysterious and atmospheric, yet lacking in continuity and consistency. Some of the plot events were downright bizarre to me, and left me wondering if I'd been paying enough attention earlier in the film as I couldn't work out who the characters were or where they had come from.
However, this is a decent enough film that's worth a watch or two - and it seems to have garnered good reviews from many - but I don't think it's quite as good as people say it is. It's one of those films where I consider the whole to be lesser than the sum of its parts. Some effective set-pieces, but the end product seems somewhat lacking. I did, though, feel that the Italian music was effective. Oh, and I'm not a big fan of Donald Sutherland as an actor.
Quotes
Bishop Barbarrigo: [while passing by a dilapidated church] The churches belong to God, but he doesn't seem to care about them.
Laura Baxter: One of your children has posed a curious question: if the world is round, why is a frozen lake flat?
John Baxter: That's a good question.
Laura Baxter: [flipping through book] Ah, here it says that Lake Ontario curves more than 3 degrees from its Eastern end to its Western end. So frozen water really isn't flat.
John Baxter: Nothing is what it seems.
Inspector Longhi: The skill of police artists is to make the living appear dead.
Trivia
The famous sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie was a last minute on-set idea from director Nicolas Roeg who felt that otherwise the film would have too many scenes of the couple arguing. Most of the scenes around it are improvised.
Donald Sutherland wore a curly toupee throughout the entire shoot.
Daphne Du Maurier wrote a letter to Nicolas Roeg after seeing the film, congratulating him on making such a strong film from her story.
Trailer