DON’T LOOK NOW

"Nothing is what it seems".

The film begins on one hazily sunny morning in a stately English countryside home overlooking acres of land and an innocuous-looking stream. Architect John (Donald Sutherland) flicks through a series of slides detailing a church he’s due to oversee the renovating of in Venice. His pretty wife Laura (Julie Christie) sits reading a book beside him.

When John spills red wine on one slide – a photograph of the church interior, distinguished by the back of a hooded red figure sat in a pew – he suddenly panics and flees the house with a sense of dread about him.

Sure enough, his intuition leads him to the stream nearby, where he discovers their daughter Christine (Sharon Williams) dead beneath the water.

The film then fast-forwards to Venice, where Laura has joined John on his trip in a bid for the pair to overcome their tragedy. The strain shows, despite it being obvious from the offset that this is a couple who are deeply in love.

Much of that pressure is lifted, for Laura at least, when they attract the attention of an elderly couple of ladies while dining in their hotel restaurant one morning. One of the ladies claims to be a psychic, and tells them she is in communication with Christine.

John is dismissive of these claims but Laura latches on to them and forms a bond with the ladies. It instils a sense of hope in her that she’d previously feared had been lost forever. More importantly, it also brings the grieving couple closer together (in one of cinema’s most celebrated sex scenes).

But any relief is short-lived: the psychic informs Laura that Christine comes to her with a warning for her parents; John begins to see images of his own, plagued by what he believes to be the figure of his dead daughter running through the foggy streets of Venice.

In the background, a serial killer is on the loose, dumping their victims into the nearby river ...

Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, Nicolas Roeg’s film adaptation of DON’T LOOK NOW was voted the best British film of all time in a Time Out poll earlier this year. The people casting votes were scholars and fellow filmmakers.

It is, in short, a masterpiece. It is certainly a horror film – it’s as creepy as Hell, and moves from an unforgettably horrific opening to one truly scary climax – but is also so much more. It’s a devilishly clever meditation on the persistence of time, and predetermination. It’s a sardonic scrutinising of extra sensory persuasions. It’s a total mindfuck that successfully manages to blend montages of the past, present and future into a jarringly successful whole.

Christie and Sutherland give career-best performances, offering a natural bond that helps viewers warm to them almost instantly – and renders anything that happens from there on all the more disturbing as a result. Roeg, meanwhile, has never been better. And that’s high praise, considering his directorial career has also taken in the likes of WALKABOUT, BAD TIMING, PERFORMANCE and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.

Borrowing from the giallo genre but leaning more towards the paranormal, the horror elements of DON’T LOOK NOW are subtle enough to keep academics busy for weeks. Mirrors and water feature heavy as metaphor, and John’s unwitting psychic tendencies remain ambiguous even after the perplexing final frames have played out.

As a haunting tale of loss and reconciliation, DON’T LOOK NOW works wonderfully. As an intimate reveal of human nature at its most fragile, it’s also flawless. What’s not to love? From Pino Donaggio’s evocative score, to THAT sex scene, THAT ending, Roeg’s remarkable attention to minute detail ... wow.

The 1080p/MPEG4 picture quality on this region-free blu-ray disc (BD25) is extremely faithful to the original film. Colours and blacks are solid, grain is fine and natural throughout, depth is remarkable and the slight softness that HD bores may pick up on is intentional. It’s a great transfer, the best the film has ever looked by far.

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

English lossless Master audio is also excellent, thankfully sorting out the troublesome muffling of previous domestic releases. Optional English subtitles are also provided.

A beautiful animated main menu page leads to a pop-up scene-selection menu allowing access to DON’T LOOK NOW via 16 chapters.

Extras begin with an optional 7-minute video introduction from Alan Jones. This is an informative intro, hindered slightly by a workmanlike approach. He does offer an interesting alternative view of the climactic shot though.

Roeg’s commentary is a must, offering a rare opportunity to spend some time with such an intelligent host, talking you through the technical intricacies and conceptual quagmires of his greatest work.

"Looking Back", the original Blue Underground-produced 20-minute featurette from a few years back, makes an appearance. It’s still an excellent proposition, with the likes of Roeg and screenwriter Allan Scott discussing the film with true affection.

Blue Underground’s 17-minute interview with Donaggio is also recycled from the previous Optimum DVD release, and remains an excellent watch. It’s presented in Italian with English subtitles.

A series of new interviews largely enthral.

Sutherland is interviewed in LA for what makes an entirely engrossing 23-minute featurette. He talks of how he tried to change the film’s infamous ending to no avail, and totally shatters anyone’s illusions that the sex scene may have been genuinely erotic on set.

A 15-minute chat with Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, 127 HOURS etc) is mainly just waffle. He appears to mean well, but can’t actually remember why he loves this film so much, or where he first saw it!

Scott gets his own new 14-minute interview, covering both this film and his wider career as a screenwriter.

Cinematographer Tony Richmond is honoured by a 24-minute career-spanning interview, also new to this release.

A 4-minute compression of the film by Danny Boyle for the benefit of a recent BAFTA tribute is cool, but could’ve done without the rock song accompaniment.

"Nothing Is As It Seems" is a rather embarrassing 15-minute chat from 1983 with psychiatrist Colin Murray, author of the book ‘Bereavement’. I found it all a little too self-important and pompous.

Far better was the film’s original theatrical trailer, even though it must’ve really misled punters of the time. It plays for an excellent 2-and-a-half minutes.

All extras are presented in standard definition.

The disc opens with trailers for the Studio Canal blu-ray collection (THE DEER HUNTER, MULHOLLAND DRIVE etc) and PEEPING TOM.

One of the best films ever made gets a marvellous release from Optimum. Massively recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis