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| Fig. 1 Poster Art |
Nicolas Roeg’s psycho thriller Don’t Look Now is a film that puts the viewer on edge for most of the film throughout all the slow paced scene, and slow build ups. Many of the slow paced build ups rarely end up with anything massively dramatic happening, apart from maybe the first and last scenes.
“It's one of the most haunting, enigmatic and, in the final moments, bloodily shocking movies ever made - and it showcases, in Roeg, one of Britain's most distinctive voices . . ." (Smith 2001) As Smith described the final stages of the film in all its brutality. However apart from this one scene one does not expect the sudden increase in the violence of the movie, making the viewer think that there past may have been especially violent or there is more violence to come.
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| Fig.2 The Bold Colours |
"He's Roeg a former cinematographer, and a genius at filling his frame with threatening forms and compositions. He uses Venice as well as she's ever been used in a movie; he shot there in late fall and an early, dark, wet winter." (Ebert 1973) The set in most viewers’ opinions is probably the one thing that makes the film such a success. Venice being an already beautiful and mysterious city creates an even higher level of tension within the film. Combined with the use of Roeg’s extreme pans of the rivers and water ways, makes the boat scenes almost dizzying to watch. “Each fleeting glimpse represents only a tiny part of the larger picture, like a mosaic tile, the fragment of a broken mirror, the light reflecting off the canals of Venice, or an individual frame of motion picture film.” (Goldsmith: 2004) The film makes the viewer feel as if they are missing a lot of information that is needed to understand the movie as a whole.
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| Fig.3 The Red Coat |
The use of colour in the film is very striking with the dull sepia tones that seem to flow throughout the film, then the bright saturated tones of the red dresses that appear, on the little girl from the start and the dwarf. Compared to the dull yet intricate buildings of Venice, makes the film pleasurable on the eyes.
When watching Don’t Look Now one is not prepared for the striking uniqueness of the film, making it a film that has had a lasting shelf life.
List of Illustrations
http://www.phinnweb.org/pic/roeg4.gif
Bibliography:
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