Don't Look Now [VHS] [1973]

And that's about it. Not much of a premise. And not a lot of plot. But plenty of mood. This may be based on a Daphne Du Maurier story, it may feature two of the finest leads in seventies cinema, but essentially the film is carried by Roeg's otherworldly direction - all distorted lenses, bizarre cross-cutting and non-linear timescales. Roeg's genius, as previously declared in Performance and Walkabout, is his ability to position his films not merely from the point of view of his protagonists, but to place the camera firmly inside their minds. Time, continuity of events, even mere sounds and images become abstractions, all mixed-up through Roeg's wholly unique use of montage. A drop of 'blood' smears across a slide transparency moments before the daughter drowns; a block of masonry gradually falls in slow motion as we cross cut to Sutherland working below in real time; a moment of doubt is cross-cut with a sinister 'reaction' shot of the old women laughing at an unheard joke. Like a poet, Roeg offers no explanation for these images, but then he doesn't need to - their beauty is that we understand them on a purely instinctive, intuitive level. A case in point is the celebrated sex scene, which shocks not because it is supposedly explicit (in fact, clever editing and suggestive angles means that we see much less than we think we see) but because Roeg intercuts it with shots of the couple dressing for dinner. Suddenly what could have been the obligatory gratuitous nude scene (Christie was then a major sex symbol, and Sutherland had his fans too) becomes a disturbingly intimate insight into their relationship and the effect their daughter's death has had. It's too painful, too raw, to be titillating.

This kind of montaging occurs throughout the film, indeed by juxtaposing unrelated shots and scenes, Roeg is almost telling a story that isn't there (surely the 'blood' was just a coincidence; how could the women really have been laughing at Sutherland?). Oh, there's a mystery too - is the small red-coated figure Sutherland glimpses really his daughter returned from the dead? - but even that is tenuous, possibly imagined (like the ambiguous mystery in Antonioni's Blow Up, Coppola's The Conversation or Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut), a maguffin to facilitate Roeg's examination of loss, guilt and denial. Like Blue Velvet or 2001, Don't Look Now is a rare, brilliant example of cinema being used to tell a story that would be unfeasible in any other medium (the film is markedly different to Du Maurier's original story). But then this impressionistic approach has always been the true legacy of British cinema (see Michael Powell, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Donald Cammell, Danny Boyle, early Richard Lester, even early Ridley Scott, not to mention honorary Brits like Losey and Kubrick), not gangster movies, period dramas or genteel rom-coms. And no-one, but no-one, pushed the envelope further than Roeg. Hopefully with this DVD reissue, people will look now (ouch!) and give this genius the credit he deserves.

Visually, the film is superb. Shot in a wintery Venice, Roeg captures some impressive images, and makes excellent use of colour. Particularly noticeable is the placement of flashes of red in different scenes, echoing the clothes worn by the Baxter's daughter when she drowns at the start of the film.

It is these recurring images that prey on Sutherland throughout the film, ultimately convincing him that his daughter is still with him, and leading to the film's disturbing denouement.

Sutherland and Christie are both excellent throughout. The erotic scene in particular is beautifully acted, showing how the couple use love to overcome their grief.

The film's ending remains genuinely chilling no matter how many times I see it. The closing scenes are proof, if any were needed, that graphic displays of blood and violence are not necessary in order to scare people.

If there has been a better film made than this I have not seen it.