WELCOME TO OUR NEXT SCREENING
Nicolas Roeg's
DON’T LOOK NOW
(UK | 1973 | 110 mins | M violence & sex scenes)
Wednesday 25 February at 7.30pm, University of Otago’s Colquhoun Lecture Theatre**
Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland portray Laura and John Baxter, a married couple who travel to Venice following the recent accidental death of their daughter.
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| “Based on Daphne du Maurier’s short story, Don’t Look Now opens with the death of a child, but the tragedy is that of her parents... [T]he couple try in their different ways to recover from the loss. There is tension between them, as she falls in with two peculiar sisters... and he catches glimpses of a figure who resembles his dead daughter. Director Nicolas Roeg composes an uncanny masterpiece of colour (notably red) and fractured editing, expressing the
characters’ psychology and experience to stunning effect” – Sight & Sound. |
| “Time collapses in Don’t Look Now. The past and future are folded into the present. Anyone who has seen Roeg’s work from this peak period of his career will recognize his intuitive, semi-experimental editing and how much it pushed the boundaries of commercial cinema. Yet there’s something special about the way certain patterns and visual motifs keep cycling through this film, a reminder that grief can strike at any time for John and Laura, no matter how far they run from it” – Scott Tobias, The Guardian. |
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FURTHER REVIEW
"Venice, that haunted city, has never been more melancholy than in Don’t Look Now. It is like a vast necropolis, its stones damp and crumbling, its canals alive with rats... There are a few shots, on busy streets or near the Grand Canal, when we see residents and tourists, but during the two sustained scenes where John and Laura are lost (first together, later separately) there is no one else about, and the streets, bridges, canals, dead ends and wrong turns fold in upon themselves. Walking in Venice, especially on a foggy winter light, is like walking in a dream. The city is old and ominous. |
John struggles to raise a statue to its perch on a church wall, and then uncovers it to reveal a hideous gargoyle, sticking its tongue out at him. A church scaffold collapses beneath him. The hotel where the Baxters are staying is eager to close at the end of season; the lobby furniture is already shrouded. The canals yield drowned bodies. And John’s concern mounts as his wife listens to the two strange sisters, and becomes convinced their daughter is sending them messages. “She’s dead, Laura,” John says. “Our daughter is dead. Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.” – Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com |
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Finally, watch Nicolas Roeg discusses Don't Look Now with critic Mark Kermode... ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
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ADMISSION
Free to members.
TO JOIN
To purchase a Full/Half Season membership:- complete a membership form from our website and pay by online bank transfer (06-0942-0696013-00);
- or join at the door before any screening (cash only).
- you can also join at the OUSA office reception at the University of Otago (cash only).
Alternatively, you can purchase a Three-Film sampler ($25), which can be also be shared to bring two friends to one screening. The sampler does not expire and can be used over multiple years.
Membership includes generous discounts at Rialto Cinemas (from Monday to Friday) and the 2026 Dunedin Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival; and FREE entry to the 2026 screenings of all other affiliated New Zealand Film Societies. Each member is entitled to ONE FREE GUEST ADMISSION to a single screening.
**To get to the Colquhoun Theatre: The Colquhoun is located on the first floor of the current Dunedin Public Hospital, above the chapel and squash courts. Stairs and lift access are from the main Hospital entrance on Great King Street.
WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK!... on this screening, or any other Dunedin Film Society showing, on dunedinfi...@gmail.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– |
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| | Dunedin Film Society
C/- 1 Crewe Street Maryhill Dunedin, Otago 9011New Zealand |
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