Review of Don't Look Now (1936) by Jordan W — 21 Aug 2011

London publishing company "Time Out" recently released a list of the 100 best British films according to panel of 150 actors, directors, producers and "other industry big cheeses." "Don't Look Now" sits high atop the list at number one. Although I had heard wonderful things about "Don't Look Now" prior to viewing this list, I had never had the opportunity to see it. The next film on the list is Carol Reed's "The Third Man," which I admire greatly.

Now this should go to say that I base every movie I watch on what list it happens to be on. In fact, I rarely ever take significant stock in what lists like this contain or don't contain. If someone asked me to list 50 of my favorite movies today, tomorrow I would probably have 50 different choices, depending on my mood. But nevertheless, seeing such a highly regarded film as "The Third Man" take second place to a horror movie genuinely spiked my curiosity and my need to finally sit down and take a look at "Don't Look Now." I am tremendously happy that I did, because I can now say that it is one of my all-time favorite films.

"Don't Look Now" begins with a tragedy in the English countryside. A little girl in a red rain slicker is playing with a ball too close to a lake near her home. Her father is inside examining photographic slides of Italian churches while his wife reads nearby. He senses something has happened, runs outside and finds where his son is yelling for him, and his daughter has drowned in the lake. He leaps into the water, holds his dead daughter and lets out an anguished howl.

The film then picks up some time after John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) lost their daughter. They are now living in Venice while their son attends a private school back in England. John is contracted by Bishop Barbarrigo (Massimo Serato) to repair an old church, which explains the slides he was looking at earlier. He and his wife encounter two elderly sisters at a restaurant one day. One of the sisters is blind (Hilary Mason), and claims to be a psychic. She informs Laura in the restroom that through her second sight, she has seen Christina and that she is laughing and happy.

Laura returns to the dining room where she faints. She later tells John what the woman said, reassuring him that Christina's spirit lives on happily, but John doesn't buy it, and is cynical about anything remotely mystical or religious. He approaches the entire situation with an analytical, pragmatic mind, so that even when the blind woman warns the couple to leave Venice after she senses something terrible in their future, John refuses to budge. There is also a killer on the loose in the city, which does not bode well for the Baxters.

"Don't Look Now" then becomes an elaborate, suspenseful journey through Venice, where the film was shot on location. Director Roeg turns it into a decaying, grimy labyrinth containing dubious characters and forbidden secrets. John's cynicism is tested again and again, as the city of Venice seems to close in on him and challenge his ability to see things as they are here and now. The blind woman even informs Laura that John has the gift of second sight too, but that he just can't accept it as she can. As John becomes more and more submerged in the darkest shadows of the city, running through tunnels and across bridges, he becomes lost and paranoid, and must face the consequences of his own denial of otherworldly powers.

On paper, this film probably looked interesting-Daphne Du Maurier, whose book "Rebecca" was adapted into another great film by Alfred Hitchcock, wrote the novella from which the film is based. But "Don't Look Down" is a good thriller elevated to something truly hypnotic by the brilliant manner in which it is shot and edited. It is a rich, entrancing and challenging work of art that demands multiple viewings. The photography alone is a force of nature, stunning to the point where it could be just as easily enjoyed with the volume muted.

The performances by Sutherland and Christie are superb. There is an infamous scene in which the couple makes passionate love. It is a long, carefully edited scene, as shots of them making love are intercut with shots of them getting dressed. Such a fascinating sequence can be viewed as a synecdoche of the entire film for its rich and meaningful structure. It also showcases two very courageous and sincere actors.

"Don't Look Now" manages to extract horror from entirely human sources: The terrifying realization that your child is dead, the guilt you experience over it and the fear and paranoia of being lost in a foreign place. It is easy to scare someone by popping out and saying, "BOO." "Don't Look Now" is a chilling film because it realizes that creating genuine terror and fright is a process drawn from life itself, and not from something that goes bump in the night.