Don’t Look Now Special Edition DVD (15)

Director: Nicholas Roeg, 1973, UK/US, 105 mins
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason

At last, this classic supernatural thriller gets the special edition it deserves. Based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Don’t Look Now adopts the narrative structure of John Baxter’s (Sutherland) psychic visions, telling its story through the gradual process of sensory accumulation, conjuring a world where what we seen isn’t as important as how we interpret what is seen. Opening with one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in cinema history: the drowning of little Christine Baxter, the film flashes forward to Venice, where John works to restore a sacred fresco. While a murderer prowls Venice’s dark corners and John has reoccurring visions of a passing funeral, his wife Laura (Christie) encounters a blind medium (Mason) who assures her Christine is happy and well in the afterlife. Love heals the wounds in John and Laura’s relationship, but fate holds a nasty surprise. Who is the little figure in the red coat?

This British masterpiece’s accomplishments are legion: an incredibly evocative, doom-laden depiction of a haunted Venice; career best performances from Sutherland and Christie; cinema’s most profound, multi-layered sex scene (between a married couple. How rare in the movies is that?); and a truly, horrific twist that spooked a generation. Both a great horror movie and our very own Last Year at Marienbad (1961), a rare piece of experimental filmmaking to feature a compelling narrative with strong, well-developed characters alongside its thought provoking visuals. A gifted cinematographer (having shot Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)), aside from his earlier masterpiece Walkabout (1970), Roeg’s elliptical approach to storytelling arguably never scaled the same heights again as it does here. Sutherland and Christie’s performances bring humanity to the film’s preoccupation with the metaphysical, meaning it can be enjoyed as a straight drama in addition to a genre bending exploration of “the fragile geometry of space”.

Given its legendary climactic shock, it is surprising how life affirming the film is. Though some see his films as downbeat, Roeg has always characterised himself as an optimist. By inter-cutting the murder with the sex scene, he hints that, as one life ends, the Baxters might have brought a new one into this world. Laura’s enigmatic smile at the fadeout brings to mind Stanley Kubrick’s famous quote on how The Shining (1980) was essentially an optimistic tale, because any story that presumes there is life after death is inherently upbeat.

Extras:
Nic Roeg commentary; Looking Back (The Making of) Documentary; intro by Alan Jones; a new and exclusive interview with composer Pino Donaggio

Andrew Pragasam