Monday Movie Madness (on Friday) - Don't Look Now, it's a 10 minute sex scene

As per usual, spolier's below.

So I finally got around to watching Nicolas Roeg's psychological thriller, "Don't Look Now" - only to realize that I've already seen it! However, considering that I didn't remember that I'd seen it until I caught a glimpse of that wretched mini- killer running around in her little red mac (raincoat, for those of us who don't know 70s-speak or aren't British), it was just like watching anew.

1) I've never been to Venice, but it looks wet. And despite the fact that I have what I consider to be a Mediterranean look (read swarthy), I'm not too keen on water. On top of that, my acupuncturist told me I have a wet constitution, I happen to be a Leo, and I'm also a weak swimmer. In other words, the topographical location of this movie alone makes me uncomfortable. Myself aside, Roeg did a great job with the setting of this film. Venice has an all around creepy look about it, which makes the perfect backdrop for a psychological thriller.

2) Not that I'm any authority on child rearing, but I'm not sure I agree with the Baxter's leaving their last living child in an English boarding school while their off in Venice. I understand that Mr. Baxter needs to excavate a building in Venice, but what is Mrs. Baxter doing? Emotionally recuperating from her loss, I guess. But still, what about their son? He should be with his parents trying to assimilate to the bonanza that is life as the only child of bereaved parents, and not at some glorified orphanage (no offense if you went to boarding school).

3) Wow! Talk about an extended sex scene! I imagine Roeg in the cutting room pulling at his hair and yelling to his editor "More! MORE!...(then calmly) Now flashback" This movie should win the prize for most drawn out sex scene, and/or scene with most conventional looking sex, and/or sex scene with the most human-like horse...c'mon, doesn't Donald Sutherland doesn't look like a horse? Anyone?

4) That said, Sutherland and Christie play their characters to a tee. They both did a great job of showing the audience the various faces of mourning and how differently persons in a relationship might cope with the death of a child. I liked Sutherland's quiet reservation as opposed to Christie's more palpable sadness. And while I don't generally ascribe to gender roles, in the case of husband and wife their acting made sense. Plus I think they had great chemistry, it seemed as if it was easy for them to play a married couple.

5) The scene where Mrs. Baxter somehow convinces the Mister to sit in on a psychic session with the two sisters was brilliant. In this scene, towards the end of the old woman's psychic revelry, she goes into a kind of rapture and cries out some sort of premonition between pants and orgasmic-like affirmations. It was both fabulous and horrifying, and much like Bernini's the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, it inspires the kind of uncomfortable feeling that will make you want to go to church. As if being an elderly blind psychic isn't creepy enough!

5) The ending was well done and fairly believable considering the outlandish plot. I like the way Mr. Baxter dies (I imagine a hit to the jugular makes a bloody mess) and the mini-killer was kind of endearing.

This movie was solid and, well, good. Its the kind of film you take at face value, which I can appreciate. You just have to roll with the plot, and much like Sutherland's character, you have believe what you see without (over)intellectuallizing anything i.e. what a coincidence that their daughter died in her red coat and the killer happens to be a tiny Venetian wearing a red coat! However, besides the terrifying scene where Roeg shows us his take on septuagenarian ecstasis, the movie wasn't all that scary. In sum, this movie deserves a 7.3.