![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Donald-Sutherland-and-Sharon-Williams-in-Dont-Look-Now.jpg\" "\\"Donald")
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Nicolas Roeg’s classic 1973 film gets re-released on Blu-ray with a wonderful transfer and some interesting new extras.<\/p>\n
Based on the short story<\/a> by Daphne du Maurier<\/a>, it is about an architect, John (Donald Sutherland) and his wife Laura (Julie Christie), who relocate to Venice after a family tragedy.<\/p>\n There they meet two elderly sisters, one of whom (Hilary Mason) appears to be psychic and claims that their recently deceased daughter has been trying to warn them about something from beyond the grave.<\/p>\n A work of startling power and originality, it formed part of Roeg’s brilliant run of films in the 1970s which began with Performance<\/a> (1970), co-directed with Donald Cammell<\/a>, Walkabout<\/a> (1971), The Man Who Fell To Earth<\/a> (1976) and Bad Timing<\/a> (1980).<\/p>\n Like those pictures, its reputation has increased considerably over time and it rewards repeated viewings, which reveal remarkable depths to Roeg’s technique and storytelling style.<\/p>\n The opening sequence is perhaps one of the greatest in post-war cinema, almost a film-within-a-film, and forms a stunning prologue to the action which later unfolds in Italy.<\/p>\n This distinctive feel is boosted by the astonishing cinematography by Anthony Richmond<\/a> and masterful editing by Graeme Clifford<\/a>, which combine brilliantly to give the film its unique flavour.<\/p>\n Clifford has remarked that Roeg wanted this to be his “exercise in film grammar” and it is a visual feast for those prepared to look beyond the surface (as Sutherland’s character says early on “nothing is what it seems”).<\/p>\n Keep an eye out for the colour red, water, breaking glass and how they are sprinkled throughout with some highly inventive editing.<\/p>\n Perhaps most impressive is how Roeg uses these technical elements to accentuate the emotional core of the story, which centres on love, death, fate and grief.<\/p>\n Indeed, it is rare to find any film that mixes thought, feeling and style in the way Don\u2019t Look Now does.<\/p>\n This is aided by wonderful performances from Sutherland and Christie, who do some of the best work of their careers and make a very convincing married couple, which is a surprisingly rare thing on film.<\/p>\n The memorable score is by Pino Donaggio<\/a>, who was a Venetian singer and songwriter previously best known for his song “Lo Che Non Vivo” (later covered by Dusty Springfield in 1966 as “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”).<\/p>\n It was his first experience working on a film and his rawness worked wonders, with his piano pieces, flute and strings providing a rich aural backdrop for what we see on screen.<\/p>\n An independent British and Italian co-production, the film was generally well received by critics on its initial release, although the US opening was hampered by an undeserved X-rating, due to the famous love scene.<\/p>\n Although comparatively tame by today’s standards, the censorious attitudes of the US censors to sex (still a problem even today) almost certainly dented the film’s commercial prospects in America, where cinemas and advertisers refuse to touch X-rated films.<\/p>\n For those interested in more back story to the US release, Peter Biskind’s recent biography of Warren Beatty<\/a> claimed US distributor Paramount may have pressured the ratings board into giving the film an X-rating.<\/p>\n Why would they do this? Reportedly it was done as a favour to a certain movie star and may even be what Sutherland refers to on the extras to this disc when he talks of ‘famous’ and ‘nefarious’ influences on the film\u2019s American release.<\/p>\n Despite this, its reputation has blossomed in the years since, so much so that it is now rightly considered a classic, coming eighth in a 1999 BFI poll<\/a> and even topping Time Out’s list of the best British films of the 20th century<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n The original materials must have been in good shape as this restoration (overseen by Roeg and Tony Richmond) looks stunning: although there are traces of natural film grain, the clarity of the images on screen is stunning and probably a testament to the care in how it was originally shot and put together.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Dont-Look-Now-UK-Blu-ray-Cover.jpg\" "\\"Don't")
<\/a>Wintry Venice is captured with remarkable authenticity – it was nearly all shot on location – and wisely the filmmakers opted to explore the less famous back alleys of the watery city.<\/p>\n