Here's a classic psychological thriller, from talented English director Nicolas Roeg.

Historical Background: Nicolas Roeg is one of the most undervalued directors in cinema. Born December 15th, 1928, in London, Roeg developed an interest in cinema while working as a projectionist in the military. When he was discharged, Roeg's career in the film industry began inauspiciously enough as an office boy and editing assistant. By 1959, however, he had worked his way up to cinematography, serving as the lighting expert for Jazz Boat (1960) and on the second photographic unit for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Roeg's ideas in relation to cinematography were so strongly ingrained that he opted to serve as his own cameraman for his first two directorial experiences. The first of those films, Performance (1970), starring Mick Jagger, Roeg co-directed with Donald Cammell. Roeg's first solo effort was the magnificent Walkabout (1971), made in Australia. Through these films, Roeg established his preference for a fragmented form of exposition in which the crucial elements of a story are revealed piecemeal. Roeg's third effort as director was the present film, Don't Look Now (1973), a magnificent adaptation of a novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Roeg continued combining dazzling technical proficiency with an indirect narrative approach in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Bad Timing (1980), but later in his career turned to more conventional narrative forms, in such films as Insignificance (1985), The Witches (1989), Cold Heaven (1992), and Two Deaths (1996). Roeg's work may be a bit uneven, but the best of it deserves greater attention from film viewers. Don't Look Now may have been unfairly overshadowed by The Exorcist, released in the same year.

The Story: This being a thriller, I'm not going to divulge the twists or the finale. The set-up, however, relates to an upscale married couple, John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie). He's an architect who specializes in restoration of old cathedrals. Laura is mother of two young children, Johnny (Nicholas Salter) and Christine (Sharon Williams). By the end of the opening scene, however, John and Laura are parents of just one child, after Christine dies suddenly in a drowning accident, chasing an errant ball in the direction of a pond. John, who had been reviewing some slides of old churches and cathedrals, had suddenly experienced a premonition of trouble. He had raced outside to check on the children, playing in the yard. He had seen Johnny hurriedly riding his bicycle toward the house and had raced toward the pond, diving in to extract the limp corporeal remnant of his daughter, but his desperate efforts to reinstill the body with life had come to late.

The film now suddenly shifts locales to Venice, where John has a job restoring an old church mural during the off-season. Laura has accompanied John, but little Johnny has been left behind in boarding school in England. Laura and John are both still struggling to come to grips with the death of Christine. Their process is made more complicated when Laura encounters two elderly English women, Heather (Hilary Mason) and Wendy (Clelia Matania), one a blind visionary, who claims to have seen Christine sitting with John and Laura, laughing merrily. The woman's intent is to assure Laura that her child is content in death, though Christine is also apparently trying to make contact with her parents. John, who is a methodically rational kind of man, dismisses the woman's claims as so much nonsense. Later, the same woman of mystical powers tells Laura that John's life is in danger if he remains in Venice. The threat is palpable because a string of grisly murders has been plaguing the city. John's crisis is all the more complicated because he, too, has a gift for precognition, though he chooses to ignore it.

Themes: The theme of this film is the notion that it is important to pay attention to irrational fears and impulses and not depend entirely on rationality. The subconscious mind, this film implies, can tap into precognitions and premonitions, which one ignores at one's own peril. I don't personally subscribe to this film's message and, in fact, view it as counter-educational. It is certainly entertaining to delve into one's subconscious fears, but acting on them is what puts one at peril.

Production Values: The screenplay was adapted from a short story by Daphne du Maurier. The narrative design follows Roeg's characteristic elliptical style, gracefully interweaving the present with memory fragments and, even, precognitions. The film provides a chilling sense of foreboding. The ominous portend is accentuated by heavy use of occult symbolism and atmospheric settings. Some of the symbolic elements include use of windows and mirrors in a manner seeming to suggest portals to another realm, images of water suggesting instability and impending danger, shattering of glass suggestive of a breakdown of barriers between different realities, eyes with and without sight and/or "second sight" (clairvoyance), and labyrinthine passageways suggesting enigma. Even John Baxter's profession as an architect specializing in restoration of old cathedrals suggests the paradox of a man able to repair broken spiritual places but not his own psyche, broken by the death of his daughter. At one level, the film is a basic thriller or horror film, but at another level it addresses the potent psychological issue of how we deal with grief.

The film's pace is somewhat plodding after the opening scene until it approaches its climax. The slow pace provides for a gradual escalation of tension, but some viewers will find the film too lethargic in its middle segment. Some of the elements of the story don't fully come together until the film's final scene, when the competing threads suddenly collapse into a coordinated whole. The film gradually builds tension, generating paranoia for viewers. The horrific ending is a real jolt, very skillfully scripted and shot.

Most of the film is shot in Venice, but it's not the Venice to which most film viewers will be accustomed. Rather than the romantic, lovely Venice of sunlit canals, Roeg shows us a place of Gothic mystery, populated by gargoyles, old churches, and shadowy figures lurking in subterranean passageways. Decrepit building loom everywhere, creating a strong aura of claustrophobia. Roeg also employs a lot of offbeat camera angles to keep viewers off balance. Pino Donaggio's score for the film is lovely, lyrical, and helps to build tension.

Don't Look Now includes a famous sex scene that I would classify as soft-core and tasteful, but overrated. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland were off-screen lovers at the time, which ensures a degree of veracity to their lovemaking. The scene is all the more poetic because it is intercut with snippets of the pair's post-coital dressing, as they prepare to go out for dinner. The effect of the juxtaposition of activities is to give the sexual interaction the flavor of a somewhat ordinary, routine activity for the married couple. Although the segment is highly regarded by critics in general, I didn't find it either especially tantalizing or romantic. Supposedly the sense was edited for the American release. Grame Clifford, the film's editor, deserves kudos for some brilliant editing, both in the sex scene and in the film's climactic penultimate scene. It is his skillful interweaving of images from past and present that brings the entire narrative into focus during the final few minutes.

Donald Sutherland is a very distinctive actor and a joy to observe. He's superlative at conveying various levels of anxiety, from a general sense of unease or galloping paranoia. His work has included appearances in M*A*S*H (1970), Klute (1971), The Day of the Locust (1975), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Ordinary People (1980), Backdraft (1991), The Italian Job (2003), and Cold Mountain (2004). Most critics also praise Julie Christie, here, for a highly natural style of performance, but I found her approach too flat for my taste. She has appeared elsewhere in such films as Billy Liar (1963), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Petulia (1968), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), The Go-Between (1971), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Hamlet (1996), Afterglow (1997), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Bottom-Line: Technically, this is a very well crafted film, under the guidance of director Nicolas Roeg. I'm not personally fond of films that promote the idea that we all need to be more governed by irrationality. Moreover, the film's pace is sometimes too slow. I wasn't much impressed with Julie Christie's performance style. Despite those reservations, I have to acknowledge that this film is exceptionally well constructed. Fans of occult thrillers should have a blast with this film. I personally found it more impressive than enjoyable. I'm giving it four stars while acknowledging that horror film aficionados are likely to experience it as a five-star outing. This film is rated #8 by the members of the British Film Institute on their list of all-time best films made in the U.K.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age