Don't Look Now

A couple who lost their daughter to drowning move to Venice, where he is restoring a church. A blind psychic they meet there tells them the dead girl is with them. It comes from Daphne du Maurier's 1971 story. Nicolas Roeg changed one thing and it changed everything: the child dies by drowning rather than meningitis, which lets water run through the entire visual scheme. Venice was difficult. Tides broke continuity and moving equipment was a problem. Roeg deliberately avoided the tourist landmarks so the film would not resemble a travelogue, and when they found San Nicolò dei Mendicoli it was already covered in scaffolding for its own restoration. The sex scene was argued about for decades. American censors objected while the British board found the uncut version tasteful and integral to the plot. The rumour that it was unsimulated circulated for years, until producer Peter Katz confirmed in 2011 what Sutherland had always said: it was entirely simulated. Roeg intercut it with the couple dressing afterwards, which was a new editing language at the time. Who it is for: viewers who want grief handled as horror and a film that speaks through its cutting. Who it is not for: anyone needing linear storytelling. It is deliberately fragmented, and the ending is not open, it is merciless.