148 - Don't Look Now (1973)

DVD Box

After a young girl dies, strange things begin to happen to her parents.

While sorting through slides, John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) suddenly gets a premonition that something has happened to his young daughter. He rushes outside, only to find her drowned.

Later, he and his wife Laura (Julie Christie) relocate to Venice. Laura meets a psychic who informs her that her daughter is watching over them from the dead. John is left perplexed and frustrated as he begins to see strange happenings including watching a girl in a red coat running around the streets of Venice.

Theatrical Poster
Source: Wikipedia

For an hour and a half, Don't Look Now is so frustrating. Plodding along with seemingly unrelated scenes it appears to show a couple that struggle with the death of their daughter and end up in Venice (perhaps not such a good idea on reflection with all that water) to seek refuge from the memories. Two weird women are everywhere but nowhere when they are being sought after and the locals all have a look in their eye that suggests they know more than they are letting on.

For the audience, this is incredibly infuriating as it appears that the film is hiding vital information amongst complicated layers and really, there must be something that's hidden to make it such a renowned film amongst critics. The audience is left guessing to no avail.

The last ten minutes sees the tormented Donald Sutherland finally going mad (again, with no conceivable reason) before the big reveal. Sometimes, despite everything being put in front of the audience, it's not obvious until it's obvious.

I've only seen the film once, but subsequent viewings will reveal a lot more. Trust me, I'm psychic.

• Empire Review
• Internet Movie Database
• Wikipedia