Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now. 1973 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Sharon Williams, Massimo Serato, Hilary Mason, Renato Scarpa, Clelia Matania
Director: Nicolas Roeg
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An occult thriller where director Roeg employs several recurring themes: notably water, the color red, glass being used as an omen of bad things to come, and plenty of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Don't Look Now is also well remembered for its graphic sex scene with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, which included a rare depiction of cunnilingus. The scene obviously caused controversy with censors on both sides of the Atlantic, and it led to rumors that Christie and Sutherland engaged in unsimulated sex, with outtakes allegedly being passed between screening rooms. The film, after some minor editing, ended up getting an R rating in the United States; the uncut version was declared to be "tasteful and integral to the plot" by the British Board of Film Classification. Also, producer Michael Deeley claimed on the BBC that Warren Beatty, who was seeing Christie at the time, flew to England to demand the sex scene cut from the film. Unlike the unsimulated sex rumor, this one was confirmed many years later.

After the accidental drowning of their young daughter Christine (Williams) at their country home in England, John Baxter (Sutherland) and his wife Laurie (Christie) are staying in Venice where John is help restoring an old church at the request of a bishop (Serato). At lunch one afternoon, Laura meets two eldery sisters, one of whom (Mason) is blind, claims to be psychic, and she--Heather--informs Laura that she is in contact with Christine, describing the attire she wore on the day of her death, and asserting she is happy. Laura is shaken enough that she faints at her table, and she tells John what the sisters told her at the restaurant. John is skeptical, but seems to be happy at his wife's new positive demeanor. Later that evening, they go out to dinner, become separated, and John sees what looks like a small child wearing a similar red coat that Christine was wearing when she drowned. The following day, Laura meets with the sisters, and Heather supposedly makes contact with Christine, who says that John is in great danger and must leave Venice.

Laura ends up leaving after a telephone call comes from England saying that their son has been injured in an accident. John, though, is shocked when he sees Laura later that day on a barge along with the two sisters that's part of a funeral procession. John reports his wife's disappearance to the police, worried about her obsession with Christine, and influenced by reports of a serial killer stalking Venice, but finds himself followed by a police inspector (Scarpa) who is suspicious of him. The misunderstanding with Laura is soon cleared up, but John has another vision of the child in the red coat again. Heather and her sister are taken in for questioning, so John brings them back to the hotel...where Heather enters a trance, and John again sees the figure in red, and this time decides to pursue him/her...

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Interesting movie where Nicolas Roeg pays homage to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while perfecting his unique editing style seen before in Performance and Walkabout. Recommended film.