Don't Look Now was filmed in 1973 and based around a Daphne Du Maurier novel. Directed by Nicolas Roeg, it has lost none of its chill: like Kubrick's The Shining, its dazzling use of juxtaposition, colour, sound and editing make it a seductive experience in cinematic terror, whose aftershock lingers in daydreams and nightmares, filling you with uncertainty and dread even after its horrific climax. Donald Sutherland plays John Baxter, an architect, Julie Christie his wife: a well-to-do couple whose young daughter drowns while out playing. Cut to Venice, out of season, where the couple encounter a pair of sisters, one of whom claims psychic powers and to have communicated with their dead daughter. The subsequent plot is as labyrinthine as the back streets of the city itself, down which Baxter spots a diminutive and elusive red-coated figure akin to his daughter, before being drawn into an almost unbearable finale. Don't Look Now is a Gothic masterpiece, with its melange of gore, mystery, ecstasy, the supernatural and above all grief, while the city of Venice itself--which thanks to Roeg and his team seems to breathe like a dark, sinister living organism throughout the movie--deserves a credit in its own right. Not just a magnificent drama but an advanced feat of cinema. --David Stubbs
Zavvi Exclusive Limited Edition Steelbook. Limited to 2000 Copies. Don't look now tells the story of an English couple, John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) who are still grieving over the tragic death of their daughter who drowned not far from their home in England. In a bid to put the past behind them and finally move on they relocate to Venice where they believe there will be no reminders of their beloved daughter's horrific death. Not long after arriving John and Laura meet two elderly sisters, one of whom believes herself to be physic and insists that she has seen the spirit of John and Laura's daughter. She also insists that John has the physic ability also and must leave the city as he is in great danger. Laura becomes concerned but John doesn't believe any of it and is unfazed. Soon after this John begins to worry for his sanity as he starts to see disturbing images of his daughter walking the streets in a red coat. As John becomes more and more intrigued Laura becomes more concerned about his well-being as a series of murders take place in the city. Don't look now was the third film from visionary director Nicolas Roeg (Performance) and was one of the most powerful and enterprising movies of the 1970's well known for its notorious sex scene between Sutherland and Christie. (Matt Fairfield)
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