Don’t Look Now
(1973) 114 min.
Rated: R
Country: UK, Italy
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Stars: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
A married couple have trouble moving past the death of their daughter as they live in Venice.
Synopsis:
A couple, John and Laura Baxter, who live with their two children have a horrible day when out of nowhere their daughter drowns in the pond on their property. John senses trouble and runs out to save her, but she is already dead in the water.
Later in Italy, the couple comes across two strange old sisters in a restaurant, one of whom is blind. Laura tries to help one of the sisters get dirt from her eye, while the blind sister who is psychic tells Laura that she’s seen her daughter and that she’s happy. The sisters are Wendy and the blind psychic is Heather (Mason).
After speaking with the sisters Laura feels faint. She walks out to her husband at the table and falls over, knocking everything over. She is taken to a nearby hospital by boat. Once John arrives Laura tries to convince him that she’s fine and that she’s happy to have heard from their daughter through the two sisters. John seems very skeptical.
They leave the hospital, but there is an accident along the canals. The police dusting for fingerprints at a home that was the scene of a murder.
Laura decides she wants to go to a church to say a prayer for her daughter. John sees the psychic sisters at the church with a tour group.
John is working on restoring a church in Venice. Bishop Barbarrigo oversees the work that John does. The couple returns to the hotel they’re staying at. The couple bathes and then has sex.
They go out for the evening and get lost along the alleyways of Venice. John and Laura separate looking for a way back to the main street. John hears a screaming-like noise and sees a small figure in a red raincoat run off. Laura and John both find their way back to the main street after being startled.
While John is working at the church, Laura sees the two sisters and starts to walk to them. She reveals more about her daughters death to them. The sister says that her husband has “the gift”. They talk about having tea together so after work Laura tells John she’s going to spend some time with the sisters.
John disapproves but allows it.
Heather talks about the portraits of children as Laura looks at them. Heather then performs a seance type ceremony with Laura.
Heather says that John’s life is in danger while he’s in Venice. Later on they get a call that their son has been in an accident and so Laura takes the next plane there.
John goes to work. Bishop Barbarigo is back and has brought some mosaic pieces for the restoration. John wishes to compare the mosaic pieces by climbing wobbling scaffolding and ropes. Part of the ceiling falls and John dangles from the ceiling for a while as people clamor to help him. He safely makes it down.
As John and the Bishop walk they come across an accident scene where the police are removing a corpse from the water. It seems to be a murder victim.
While riding a waterbus he sees a funeral boat with his wife and the two sisters on it pass by. He now believes that his wife is still in Venice.
John goes to the police because he believes Laura has been taken by the two sisters. He talks to Inspector Longhi and the police are now on the look out for the sisters as well as Laura. He fears that there’s a serial killer on the loose and his wife is mentally unwell. The inspector is a bit suspicious of John and has him followed.
While walking out John sees the red figure again.
John goes to the old hotel the sisters were staying at but they’ve moved out.
John calls the place in England where his son is at school and the lady gives the phone to his wife, so John now knows that she’s okay.
At the police station, John finds Heather is detained there. He takes her back to her hotel room with Wendy. As she’s in the hotel room, Heather goes into a trance and Wendy asks him to leave. John leaves the hotel. As he leaves Heather asks for John to return and Wendy goes out, but John is already long gone.
Meanwhile, Laura has just returned to Venice from England. She first stops at the police station and they inform her that her husband took Heather to her hotel. Laura happens to see Wendy who is out looking for John. Wendy and Heather warn her that John is in danger and he must be brought back.
Laura runs in the direction John was last seen. John, on the other hand, catches a glimpse of a small hooded figure in red. He calls out to her and tells her to come him. The figure heads onward into an abandoned building. John follows her past some gates and closes them behind him, locking him inside with the figure. Laura runs up to the bars but cannot enter.
John manages to corner the small figure. It turns around to reveal the face of an old lady. This is Venice’s serial killer. She pulls out a knife and slashes John’s throat. He falls back and bleeds out on the floor dying.
The film ends as the John’s funeral in Venice begins. His wife and the two sisters are dressed in black as the funeral boat takes them to a church for the service to begin, just as it appeared to John himself earlier in the film.
Review:
Eerie and beautifully shot, Don’t Look Now has a lot of atmosphere going for it. It’s an interesting peek into the life of a couple who can’t move past the death of their daughter, especially once the psychic sister is involved.
When Heather is introduced we see how John, who doesn’t believe in an afterlife, has a more difficult time trusting the sisters. In this film he is punished for not heeding the warnings given to him by his daughter in the afterlife. Even when he almost falls off the scaffolding he stays in Venice.
The film might be a bit more slower paced for some people, and the long sex scene may just jar people out of the rest of the film’s tone, but overall the film is quite a tame thriller. It’s only at the very end where we glimpse a spray of bright red blood.
Red as a color is definitely an interesting theme in this film and quite striking against the gray winter Venice backdrop.