Don’t Look Now (1973)

What a coincidence, I watched 2 movies and finish 1 book on the same weekend that were all made in 1973. Don’t Look Now was a beautifully filmed British horror/thriller directed by Nicholas Roeg, based on a story by Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca, The Birds) and starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland (he has same magnetic deep voice as his son Kiefer). It was a well-made creepy film loaded with symbolism for someone who loves the feeling of getting lost. ^^;; It’s good for multiple viewings and film classes analysis.

Sypnosis: A couple’s daughter died from a drowning accident while playing outside in her little red mackintosh coat. They escaped to Venice to deal with their pain and grief. There they were approached by two elderly sisters: one was blind and claimed to have psychic power. She told the wife she saw the spirit of their dead daughter sitting with them happily. The wife believed them and started to content with the tragic incident. The architect hushand refused to believe such mumbo jumbo and tried to numb his grief with the works on church restoration project. All these while a serial killer on the loose terrorize Venice. The wife met the sisters again and this time the psychic gave a ominous message to warn them to leave Venice at once because there will be some great danger upon the husband. The husband dismissed them as bluffs. The psychic suggested that the husband might have the gift himself (such as he felt something was wrong and ran outside when the daughter was drown) but he was in denial.

At that night, the couple got a called from England saying their son had hurt himself in school. Brushing it off as minor injury, only the wife flew back to check on their son. The next day the husband narrowly escaped an falling accident at his work site. Could that be the great danger from the warnings? Shortly after, the husband caught a glimpse of the pair of weird sisters together with a woman who looked very alike his wife on another boat. Shouldn’t she be on flight aboard England? The husband worried the sisters might have brainwashed his wife into some cult, or worst, they happened to be the serial killers!? He contacted the police and arrested the sisters. Then turns out his wife did arrived safely at England and it was all a mistake. As he walked home, he saw a little girl in red mackintosh coat running ahead. Could it be the spirit of his daughter? [spoiler warning ahead] He immediately ran after her into the church. When he finally reached her, this little red coat figure turned around and revealed to be a old, grotesque and horrible looking dwarf, she stabbed him and he died. THE END! o_0!!!

So when he saw the sisters and his wife on the boat (a funeral boat!), it was actually a vision he had of the his own doom future. And it’s safe to assume the dwarf was the serial killer). btw see the picture of the dwarf at the link below, UK Guardian voted it on Top 20 Best Film moment in history, and she still freak me out in picture! http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/apicturestory/0%2C6412%2C132241%2C00.html. [end of spoiler]

My mom told me about this movie. She said there’s this wicked, HORRIBLE film disturbed and haunted her till this day. She didn’t remember what movie was it. She only remember the ending, “you know, I was so glad he finally found his daughter, but then (the spoiler), it was horrible! What’s the point!? What’s that suppose to mean?” So I was totally spoiled with the ending, but it sounded awesome so I have to check it out. And after a bit of research (you can find anything on internet!), I found out the name of this movie. When the moment came, it was totally worth it. ^^;;

It is definitely an artsy type of horror that is more about building atmospheric labyrinths and feeling of lost and confusion, as a metaphor of the characters’ state of mind. The techniques and visual elements the film engaged reminded me of a bit of David Lynch and Hitchcock (and M. Night). The shots are beautiful, especially the Venice scenery. There was one long intimate love-making scene between the couple inter cut with the afterward dressing up, seems like it’s quite famous (got rip-off by 90s movie Out of Sight). There are many odd 70s zoom-in on objects with no apparent reason, lots of ’setup’ with no paid off, and lots of strange editing that enhance the obscure and surreal feeling of the film. There are usage of hand-held camera to create the growing paranoia and tensions.

The repeating imagery of eyes, windows and mirror are core symbols of the heart of the story: a deluded perception. Pay attention to the wrong things and and its fatal consequences. The husband was too caught up in his own grief that he was unable to look at what is important and what is not, and clouded his judgment on reading some obvious signs. His wife was much happier and moving on when she believed the psychic sisters. He failed to see the critical awakening from his son’s injury: the right thing to do was simply just to fly back to his son and be grateful his son is still alive. And he ignore the rational and obvious signs on his wife’s whereabouts and made the wrong speculations that’d eventually led to his doom. He indulged in the wrong things, and chased after the phantom of that little red coat. I think many of the unexplained weird scenes in the movie (such as abrupt cut showing the two sisters laughing in their room, zoom in a statue they called “Argus”) are put in to confuse the audience, whether we’d pay attention and try to make sense of the wrong things and miss the right clues, feeling very much like the husband.

The old and decaying city of Venice, full of rivers and confusing, complicated small dark alleys, is clearly used as a labyrinth metaphor of the husband getting lost and trapped by his grief. Like Fellini’s Toby Dammit using Rome’s dark alleys and roads as labyrinth metaphor of Toby’s mind trapping in madness. So now I’m totally convinced of the nightmare-ish quality of Italy’s cities. ^^;; We as the audience also get lost psychologically in the weird editing, odd juxtapositiong of visual sequences and skewed camera angles as we tried to make sense like the characters did in the city.

The bright red color is strikingly used throughout the film against the muddy dull color palette of the rest of the visuals. (hey M. Night Shyamalan, who’s also obsessed with color red and mirror)

Colors, eyes and windows are favorite elements of Hitchcock as well.

The architect husband’s “restoration of medival church” was clearly a metaphor of ‘restoration of his faith.” But the accident fall in church almost killed him.

The psychic elements illustrated Fatalism, how one’s demise to avoid/escape the prophecy actually led to it.

The movie was a bit slow at times, and could be made creepier and more sinister. it’d be the kind of film that stays with you (like it did to my mom ^^;;).