Don't Look Now
Short description
After the death of their young daughter, John and Laura Baxter travel to Venice, where John has taken on a church restoration project. Their attempt to leave grief behind does not hold. The couple encounter two older sisters, and one of them, a blind woman who claims to be in contact with the dead, tells them she has received a message from their child. Her warnings of danger unsettle Laura in particular, and the city itself seems increasingly strange around them.
The film is directed by Nicolas Roeg and adapted by Chris Bryant and Allan Scott from a story by Daphne du Maurier. It was made in the United Kingdom and Italy on a budget of about two million dollars. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play the Baxters, with Hilary Mason, Massimo Serato, Clelia Matania and Renato Scarpa in supporting roles. It is the third of the thirteen films Roeg directed, following Walkabout and preceding The Man Who Fell to Earth. A critics' rating of 9 out of 10 from 84 reviews stands well above the audience scores of 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb and 6.9 out of 10 on TMDB.
What's left behind the scenes
- Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie improvised most of their scenes together.
- In the original story by du Maurier, the Baxters meet twin sisters, but it proved impossible to find twin actresses of that age.
- To add believability to the actors' performances in certain scenes, Roeg simply provoked them. Sutherland tried to perform a scene in a church without stunt doubles, and was naively convinced that he was being offered a pole for support. But instead of helping, director Roeg pushed the pole further away from the scaffolding where assistants were securing the actor.
- The director decided to add the 'bedroom' scene between John and Laura at the very last moment. According to Rogue, otherwise it might have seemed as though the couple only did nothing but argue.
- The author, Daphne du Maurier, who rarely approved of film adaptations of her works, approved of the film, though she expressed regret that Julie Christie had not been able to star in all films based on her books.
- Italian actor Renato Scarpa, who played the menacing Inspector Longhi, did not speak English. He simply recited the lines that were written for him, without having any idea what they meant.
- Italian producer Hugo Mariatti, a long-time friend of Rogue, helped find a composer for the film. The composer, Pino Donaggio, a 32-year-old promising but currently inactive musician from Venice, readily agreed to help create the thriller. The music, according to the director's vision, was to be one of the key artistic devices of the film. Donaggio is known for his hit “You Don't Have To Say You Love Me” and his work in films with Tinto Brass. After the release of Rogue's film, another master of thrillers – Brian De Palma – noticed the Venetian, inviting him to collaborate on “Carrie”.
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