The horror genre has many incarnations. The two that seem to be most popular as of this point are the slasher flick (i.e. Saw) or the based-on-true-events-style ghost story – à la Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring and so on. From time to time we may see a more traditional, even Victorian-style ghost story such as Crimson Peak or The Woman in Black, but the film I am reviewing today is much harder to pigeonhole, as it is part searing psychological drama, which is then mixed with Gothic horror and a touch of thriller. It is Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 slow-burner of a picture, Don’t Look Now.
Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier and written for the screen by Allan Scott and Chris Bryant, we watch in awaiting dread as parents John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) are working in their estate home in England while their son and daughter, who is wearing a bright red raincoat, play outside near a pool of water. Expertly filmed on both fronts, we flip back and forth between the two settings. John seems to sense that something is wrong, spilling his beverage on the slide of a Venetian church he is analysing – the photo eerily has a red hooded figure in it and the liquid causes the scarlet to bleed from the still. By the time the father gets to the pond, he is too late. He pulls the body of his daughter out of the water, releasing a primordial scream.
Just prior to this horrific event, John is quoted as saying “Nothing is what is seems” – a good piece of advice for anyone watching this motion picture. I can now simply tell you that you have been warned.
John was looking at those slides as he is a restoration expert. This leads the loving, melancholic couple to Venice, leaving their son in a private boarding school back in England. The crumbling city, with its numerous waterways, is a constant reminder of their daughter’s death.
As the couple are eating lunch, Laura spots an elderly pair, one of which is struggling to get something out of her eye. She kindly follows them to the washroom, where she meets sisters Heather (Hilary Mason) and Wendy (Clelia Matania) – the former being a supposed blind psychic. While she is helping Wendy with her eye, she is told by Heather that her daughter is sitting with them, smiling and happy.
After she is able to absorb the information, she awakens fresh and alive as if she has been reborn. The couple, who have been reeling for the undetermined amount of time since their child has passed, come together and make love for the first time since the horrific event. Roeg films the scene in the most realistic of ways, making it feel truly authentic. It is not like the aphrodisiacal and perfect sex scenes found in most movies, but a tender and imperfect depiction of the world found behind closed doors. It feels so real that many have questioned whether there was any real intercourse taking place – though both stars have gone on record to state that this is not the case. Roeg once again flits back and forth between two events, the amorous scene as well as the couple dressing the next morning – echoing both their closeness and separation.
John does not buy into the mumbo jumbo that the old ladies are selling, with the sisters also telling Laura that John must also have the ‘seeing powers’, despite his reluctance. Perhaps it is at this point that I should highlight the fact that Roeg does not unspool the film in typical linear fashion. Much like the love scene discussed above, his movie provides us with abstract puzzle pieces that make it feel as though we are in the mind of the supposed seer ourselves – we sometimes have a difficult time differentiating between what is past, present and soon-to-be future. The three times are ever-present, forcing us to struggle along with John as to what is real or possible prophecy.
It is not long before the sisters warn John that he is in danger and that he should leave the historic city. Yet it is Laura who leaves, late one night after the couple receive a call that their son has been hurt at school. John stays, continuing his restoration work on a gothic church. At one point, when restoring the building, some of the ropes holding the scaffolding give way, leaving him dangling precariously on the teetering wood and ropes (Sutherland actually filmed all of this himself). Is it part of foreshadowing from earlier on or is it simple happenstance?
The colour red must also be highlighted. The pastiche used in Don’t Look Now is very earthy, from the locale to the outfits. Yet, red is used sparsely as a vital indicator. From the red- coated daughter and the hooded person found in the original slide, to a similarly jacketed small figure flitting around the city (could it be John spotting his daughter?), the small doses of red drive the movie forward.
To further complicate our job as viewers, there is also a murderer around town. We see a body being dragged up from the bottom of the waterways and when John thinks he sees Laura with the two sisters on a boat (even though she should be on her way to the UK), he goes to the cops in a panic. He attempts to retrace his steps back to the ladies’ abode, but the labyrinthian maze of a city seems to be playing tricks on his already fractured psyche. The police begin to suspect John, forcing us to once again reevaluate what we are possibly seeing. All of these serpentine threads eventually lead to a shocking and memorable ending that has stood the test of time.
Don’t Look Now is unbelievably well done. The editing is pure perfection, splicing varied time-lines together and creating a truly nuanced film. As mentioned above, the cinematography is also stellar. What further differentiates the movie from other horror pictures is the realistic portrayal of a married couple – outclassing onscreen duos found in even the most grounded dramas. Sutherland and Christie truly deserve all the praise they have received over the years for this picture, as they are able to capture the grief, pain, love and reality needed to make them intensely believable. All of these factors have helped elevate it, making it a truly lauded movie and an influential one at that. Roeg’s style has caught the eye of Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight), Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List) and Christopher Nolan (Memento), to name but a few. Each movie listed after the director’s name has been influenced in some way by Roeg’s work. It has even helped guide and frame elements of the action movie Casino Royale. There is also a clear correlation between this film, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist. Simply put, its effects are far reaching.
Don’t Look Now is a rather unique film that is able to ensnare our senses by way of excellent atmosphere, mood and apprehension. It also focuses on mortality and the uncanny. Its rather unusual concoction is hard to ignore, yet it may not appeal to some who expect a fast paced and gory horror flick, while many will most likely discuss, debate or argue about the ending – ‘is what we are seeing reality?’, ‘is it fated?’, ‘how can we make sense of this?’ – making it all the more intriguing. So, ignore the movie’s title and be sure to see this one right away.