DON'T LOOK NOW. 1973. BASED ON THE SHORT STORY BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER. DISTRIBUTED BY BRITISH LION FILMS. DIRECTED BY NICOLAS ROEG. PRODUCED BY PETER KATZ. SCREENPLAY BY ALLAN SCOTT AND CHRIS BRYANT.
STARRING DONALD SUTHERLAND, JULIE CHRISTIE, HILARY MASON AND CLELIA MATANIA.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This film is based on an exceedingly creepy short story by Daphne Du Maurier, the marvellous author who also wrote REBECCA and the short story THE BIRDS, both of which were turned into superb films by Alfred Hitchcock.
DON'T LOOK NOW is rightfully regarded as one of the great British horror films of the modern era. I'd personally class it with BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, WITCHFINDER GENERAL and Anthony Schaffer's THE WICKER MAN for sheer thrilling eerieness and a terrific tension build-up.
For the people who watch it, three key scenes always tend to stand out and commit themselves to memory. Donald Sutherland emerging from the pond with his drowned daughter in his arms. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie making love in their hotel bedroom in Venice. The macabre 'reveal' at the end. Shudder. Water and the colour red are effective recurring motifs in the film.
The story begins in England. Christine, the red-coated young daughter of John and Laura Baxter- Sutherland and Christie- drowns in the pond at the bottom of the garden, leaving her parents devastated. When next we see them, they are in Venice, where John Baxter is working on the restoration of a magnificent old church and both himself and his wife are trying to come to terms with their grief.
They meet two middle-aged English sisters, Heather and Wendy. Heather is blind and possessed of a genuine psychic ability. She tells Laura that she has communicated with Christine, who is well and happy but who wants to warn her father that he is in some sort of imminent danger.
Heather rather surprisingly adds that John Baxter has the gift of second sight himself, whether or not he is aware of it. John is inclined to dismiss Heather's words as the ramblings of a dotty old lady, but Laura is not so sure. Things start to happen fast after this.
Laura is called back to England to the bedside of their young son Johnnie, who has had an accident in boarding-school. In her absence, John narrowly avoids falling to his death in the church he is working to restore. The clumsy dickens...!
Then he thinks he has seen his wife, who is supposed to be en route back to England, on a canal-boat with the two Wyrd Sisters, whom I disliked when I first saw the film. The more times I viewed it, however, the more I grew to like them. They're actually quite lovely, as Mrs. Baxter herself might have said in her oh-so-very-English way.
Anyway, John freaks out about this supposed sighting of his wife with the two ladies because he doesn't trust the sisters farther than he can throw them and besides, there's a killer on the loose in damp, dank wintry Venice. A killer who dumps his victims in the canal when he's through with them. Well, it is Venice, after all. Where else would you put them...?
John reports his suspicions to the local police. Poor blind Heather is arrested and questioned. Laura turns up safe and sound back in Venice. Heather is released without charge. She is brought home to her sister by a mortified John Baxter. Once he has left the sisters' rooms, however, Heather's sense that he is in danger is so overwhelming that she goes into a state of hysteria.
She sends her sister to find him and bring him back but John, who is busy chasing a small, red-coated figure whom he thinks is Christine through the dark dreary back-alleys of Venice, is nowhere to be found... What the devil does he think he's up to? And whom exactly is he chasing? Who indeed...? You'll scarcely believe your eyes.
The film is beautifully-acted, with the damp, decaying splendour and rundown mouldy grandeur
of Venice in the 'Seventies deserving a credit all to itself. The two leads, Christie and Sutherland, complement each other with an exquisite empathy, as is evidenced by their extended love-making scene.
Donald Sutherland's moustache has surely never been thicker or more luxuriant. You couldn't not trust a man with a moustache that fine. It makes me want to lay my head on his hairy chest and confide my many problems in him, which naturally he would just love, haha. He and Julie Christie work wonderfully well together. They're just like a real married couple. Except they get on well...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
Outstanding review and absolute corker of a psychological shocker. 10/10.
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