'Don't Look Now' (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
A couple whose daughter recently drowned takes up residence in wintry Venice,
where John (Donald Sutherland) busies himself
restoring moldering cathedral art and Laura (Julie Christie) continues to grieve
for her lost child. But Laura's ... morespirits rise after she runs into two vacationing
British sisters, one a blind psychic who assures her that her daughter is happy.
For a moment, as the couple finds emotional and sensual reunion in erotic
lovemaking, it seems they've beaten back death in favor of life. But Roeg's
Venice resembles a vast tomb, crowded by decaying palazzos and churches,
honeycombed by endless dark passageways and haunted by swift flashes of a small
figure in a red raincoat -- like the one Heather was wearing when she drowned.
At every turn, splotches and swathes of scarlet seep into the frame, warning
that something malevolent is afoot in this mesmerizing dreamscape of a movie.
Dread grows as John witnesses the naked body of a murdered woman pulled
feet-first from the black waters of a canal. Finally, at maze-end, our quester
looks under the Red Riding Hood that's drawn him from the very first frames of
the movie -- and confronts the raddled face of death.
(Everett Collection)
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