Alrighty! Time to do this bad boy yet again! 31+ films in 31 days, all of which I've never had the chance to watch in their entirety (or watch whatsoever). Today, we'll start with a movie widely regarded as one of the best in British cinema, regardless of the genre.
A married couple, John and Laura, lose their daughter in a horrible accident. Several years later, they reside in Venice, with the husband working on a contracting job for a local church. The wife, however, has a chance encounter with two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic. While she brings news to Laura that their daughter is "happy" in the afterlife, she also gives out a warning of something horrible to come.
I suppose it might be unfair to call this a pure "horror" film, given that it has more in common with a thriller, but its influence in the world of horror is undeniable. I've always felt that both fields were more tightly knit than people may want to admit. Don't Look Now is famous for two things: the twist ending and the potentially unsimulated sex scene between the film's two main stars. And of course, I'll discuss both, though not in great detail. I don't want to give too much away about this rather well done piece of work.
Despite being released in 1973, there is some absolutely fantastic camera work and editing that still holds up today. Plenty of great "dissolving" shots pepper the film, and I don't think it would have worked as well had it not been shot and set in Italy. This works especially well in the second half of the picture, and it starts to make the viewer feel paranoid and uneasy, along with the two leads. Speaking of our leads, they are just fantastic here. Donald Sutherland has always managed to do well working with horror films (minus a few missteps here and there), but honestly, Julie Christie completely outperforms him throughout most of the two hour runtime. Her grief and sorrow feels genuine, and you can't really take your eyes off of her (it certainly doesn't help that she was absolutely beautiful here. Actually, scratch that, she's STILL beautiful). The film feels very somber, and indeed, grief and sadness are the real keys to what drives this film, as is the urge to let go of those feelings.
Alas, I suppose I have to get to the two main things I discussed in my first paragraph that WASN'T the synopsis. While I admit that I'm the furthest thing from being knowledgable about "erotic" cinema or "erotic" sequences in cinema, I'm willing to bet that the lovemaking between the two leads was probably faked. Then again, I'm a skeptic about most things. BUT, all of that being said, you could convince damn near anyone that it wasn't. And as far as the ending goes, I was spoiled in advance (THANKS Bravo), but it didn't make it any less impacting. It may fall into the category of one of those conclusions you'll have to think about for a moment, but it makes perfect sense for a film of this nature.
Well so far, we're off to a good start. Don't Look Now certainly isn't going to be for everyone (especially those who don't like quieter films and prefer their horror films to be that much more "brutal"), but I rather enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this one might be a bit hard to come across due to Netflix recently removing it from their Instant Queue. Save up a few dollars and find a cheap copy on DVD, then let me know what you think.
Tomorrow, we'll take a gander at what helped birth heavy metal (no really!) with BLACK SABBATH.
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