Book-ended with unforgettable sequences, Don't Look Now knows how to titillate the viewer. It demonstrates its strong editing qualities from the very beginning, cutting from working-parents inside to playing-children outside, the action of one reflected in those of the other until a tragedy occurs, setting up the rest of the film. Still grieving the death of their little girl, John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) are in Venice for John's work as a church renovator when they encounter a couple of elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and convinces Laura that she is a psychic able to communicate with her dead daughter. Very minimal in its fantastic approach, Don't Look Now creates big and lasting chills with what seems like the least amount of material, violence being practically non-existent and supernatural presence being relegated to the apparition of a little person in a blood-red raincoat. Suspense is achieved through crafty editing and uncomfortable mise-en-scene, which uses the alley-like streets and canals of Venice to enhance the dizzying atmosphere that supports the unexpected scenario. The film's sometimes-slow pace only adds to heighten the intrigue and helps to immerse the viewer even further into this strange world that is constantly testing its own validity.
This one's another classic with Sutherland. The ending is the stuff of nightmares.
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