Midnight Screenings 2006 / Don't Look Now / United Kingdom, Italy 1973
Perhaps director Roeg’s biggest success, this masterpiece of psychological horror achieves a constant sense of foreboding. After the accidental death of their daughter, the grieving Baxters (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland) travel to Venice where they find that seeing may be believing, but nothing is what it seems.
Daphne du Maurier’s deeply disturbing tale of premonition and foresight finds its ideal visualization here. Director Roeg maximizes the expressive potential of the story’s Venetian setting and his unique editing style fractures the time-space continuum to create a strong undercurrent of dread. As this masterpiece of psychological horror begins, happily married Laura and John (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland) suffer every parent’s nightmare, the accidental death of their daughter. John, who felt an intuition of disaster, is haunted by the fact he couldn’t save her. When the couple travels to Venice, they meet two eccentric, elderly English sisters. One, a blind psychic, claims that she can see their daughter… The film is also notable for an extremely sensual and tender sex scene between Laura and John. Rumour has it that those with access to studio screening rooms frequently requested outtakes from this scene.
110 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Nicolas Roeg
/ Screenplay Allan Scott, Chris Bryant
/ Dir. of Photography Anthony B. Richmond
/ Music Pino Donaggio
/ Editor Graeme Clifford
/ Producer Peter Katz
/ Production Casey Productions Ltd., Eldorado Films, s.r.l.
/ Cast Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa
/ Contact Connaissance du cinéma, BFI
Nicolas Roeg (b. 1928, London, England) is an internationally known cinematographer and director. As a director of photography he contributed to the distinctive look of films such as Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966). In 1970, he served as co-director with the late Donald Cammell on Performance, starring Mick Jagger, which he also shot. His filmography as a director also includes Walkabout (1971), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Eureka (1984), Insignificance (1985), Castaway (1986), Track 29 (1988), The Witches (1990) and Cold Heaven (1991). His films boast a uniquely foreboding atmosphere and use editing to dispense with traditional narrative conventions of time and space, dealing instead with perception and perspective.
Connaissance du cinéma
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