Don’t Look Now (1973)

Donald Sutherland's nudity would be laughed off screen today.

The ending made me rofl.

A 60 min radio version was on BBC4 the other day, you can listen to it online:

It was an emotional roller coaster with the peak being Donald Sutherland's weigh in on the bathroom scale.

I've never understood what the big deal was with this movie? Isn't it supposed to be some sort of horror classic. The ending is creepy, but that's about it. I remember the sex scene. I guess it was daring for the time. Hell, it'd still be daring these days I guess.

i thought that sex scene ruined the building tension of a horror film. it was a pretty steamy scene, and rumours swirled for years that the actors actually had sex (similar to 9 1/2 Weeks).

but i guess if you've got Sutherland and Christie in it....

still!

I HATE this movie. Don't understand it, I hope I never see it again. (I was only 14 in 1973).

After coming back from Venice in 2010, I found it very creepy. Didn’t expect that ending. I like slow-burn horror.

It's one of my favorite movies, and the score by Pino Donaggio is amazing. I once spent a rainy Saturday watching it, along with 'Death in Venice' and 'The Comfort of Strangers' for an immersion in the Venetian atmosphere. The plotline may seem a bit complex, at first, but the very first scene is John (Sutherland) having a psychic flash this his daughter is in danger (and she ends up drowned). In the meantime later, in Venice, his wife meets two English ex-pats, one of whom tells her that her daughter wants her mother to know she's okay. Laura (Christie) takes great comfort, while John is disbelieving (despite his own prior psychic flash). And when he's warned that he's in danger, he disregards the warning. So, the movie takes psychic abilities seriously, but also seems to warn how easy it is to read them incorrectly.

What didn't you understand, R7?

I've always loved this movie because it had such great style. With their matching hairdos, Christie and Sutherland were the ultimate unisex couple of the early '70s.

I just watched it. It’s not creepy anymore, but the first time I saw it when I was about 15, it scared the crap out of me.

R11. Same here--I was about fifteen too and went on a weeknight with my older sister. That and The Haunting were the two scariest films we'd ever seen.

R12, The Haunting (the version with Julie Harris), is still one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. My brother and I saw it as kids, and we slept with the lights on that night (mutually agreed). We curled up in our chairs when the movie was on TV, cowering under my Mom's hand-knitted afghans.

The cinematography was too opaque and the editing inconsistent. Score was great and performances good. It had the feeling of a lacey doily with a drop of blood on the edge.

The doll predicted Robin Williams

I never really got it or the raves about it. The sex scene was realistic but hardly erotic. What really happened to the kid?

I think it's hard to grasp now how different it was at the time - how different it looked and felt from all other movies.

The doll looks a little bit like Robin Williams

R12 and r13 I highly recommend the book version of the Haunting by Shirley Jackson. A creepy book with plenty of before its time psychosexual subtext.

Peter Bart made up a story about being on the set when the sex scene between Christie and Sutherland was filmed and that they had real sex. Sutherland came out and said that only 4 people were there that day, Sutherland, Christie, the director and cinematographer.

I thought "The Witches" was a scarier, and better, Nicolas Roeg movie.

It's been ages since I've watched it but I remember having a crazy theory about the film ending (which was supported by plenty of evidence from the film) - I think Donald Sutherland lost his mind after the death of his daughter and it was he who committed all those murders around Venice. That creepy midget lady was actually a guardian angel of some sort and did everyone a big favor by slicing his throat.

I just watched this tonight. Not as good as I was hoping it would be but I liked the atmosphere and the last 30 minutes are tension-filled. The acting, cinematography, editing and music were very good.