Don’t Look Now
Composite Score: 86.67
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa, Leopoldo Trieste, David Tree, Ann Rye, Sharon Williams, and Adelina Poerio
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Writers: Allan Scott and Chris Bryant
Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R
Box Office: $115,900 worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Don’t Look Now is the film adaptation of the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier about a married couple who travels to work in Venice after the tragic and unexpected death of their daughter. The film follows Laura and John Baxter (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland) as they each cope with the grief in their own ways, seeking to maintain their marriage even as their own grips on reality seem to be slipping. Narratively, the film jumps jarringly between the present and other times, often unexpectedly and inexplicably, mirroring the fracturing of John’s psyche as he struggles to juggle work, family, and grief, really inserting the audience into his story and injecting a sense of frantic mystery and unease that really cements this film within the genre of mystery horror. The potential for death lies around every corner, and Roeg, in his directorial tendencies toward the unorthodox, keeps us right on the edge of our seats.
The true impact of Don’t Look Now, though, lies in its influence on the films of the future. While its disjointed and often underexplained narrative about grief, the supernatural, and death won’t necessarily be the most crowd-pleasing of stories, its visual style, use of on-screen motifs and themes, and broader execution of such a complex plot have had a lasting impact on the realm of cinema that cannot be ignored. Virtually every film that’s had sequences in Venice since 1973 has contained at least a slight homage to this classic thriller. The time-bending works of Christopher Nolan, especially Memento, that rarely take the time to explain where they are in their own timelines until a rewatch occurs draw heavily on the structures and execution of this film, as do most other films that might fit within that description. The blend of slasher and psychological horror that Roeg seeks to channel in the film continues to impact the genre of horror to this day, resulting in creative mashups of the various branches of horror like Antichrist, Hereditary, and even American Horror Story.
While not every moviegoer is guaranteed to love the direction that Don’t Look Now travels within the genre of horror, anyone who loves film will be rewarded with a series of excellently directed sequences that continue to impact the medium to this day, which explains its presence among the Greatest Films of All Time. It’s a film that almost certainly requires multiple viewings to fully grasp and appreciate, and it’s probably best appreciated through the lens of the films that it has impacted. If you’d care to give it a go, though, you can currently rent it on most streaming services.
