AC
As Chianese
•Beautiful film, adapted from the novel «Not After Midnight» by Daphne Du Maurier (the author of «The Birds») set in a mysterious and decadent Venice.
Nicolas Roeg directs, brilliantly, a cast of actors among whom stand out the excellent performances of Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland: in the roles of two English spouses who, after the premature and tragic disappearance of their daughter Cristina, seek to recover their marriage and their life through a journey, off-season, to Venice. Here, through the fogs and gothic atmospheres, they will meet a strange pair of sisters, their compatriots, who are interested in magic and the occult and will convince the couple to evoke the spirit of the deceased Cristina but from then on nothing will be the same…
Film lovable minute by minute, also excellent the erotic scenes between Christie and Sutherland. Technical team of exceptional craftsmanship: soundtrack by a debutant Pino Donaggio and precious photography by Anthony Richmond. Explicit, however, are the references to our gothic horror tradition: the ending è thus masterfully directed that Roeg seeks the approach with the directorial ambitions of Mario Bava and Federico Fellini trying to culminate the story with a murder linked (committed?) to the spectral appearance of the deceased Cristina in not quite angelic attire. An image «stolen» from films like «Operation Fear» and «Toby Dammit» that, in the course of the story, turns out to be the final blow in an earthquake of tension.
It would deserve more but the film takes off a moment before it ends and moreover addresses, fortunately only in the initial part, themes more dear to the drama: psychoanalysis and criticism of the family institution which then, in the second part, will be replaced by parapsychology, madness and blood.
Original title, «Don't Look Now», absolutely not relevant to the Italian translation.
