How well do you remember the movie Don't Look Now?

By: Torrance Grey
Image: tmdb

About This Quiz

Who's the figure in the red raincoat? Did the film's stars actually get busy for the cameras? This 1970s thriller offers many mysteries to explore. Examine them all with our quiz!

What year was Don't Look Now released?

The early 1970s were known in America for the beginning of a years-long oil crisis and a loss of faith in President Richard Nixon. None of this affected Don't Look Now, which was set in Europe.

In which two countries is Don't Look Now set?

The movie opens with a tragic event in England, where John and Laura Baxter are living in a country house. The action then moves to Italy.

Who are the film's two leads?

Not even some unfortunate 1970s hairstyling could cover up the sex appeal of these two. Christie wears ash-blonde layered curls, like many a Harlequin-novel cover model; Sutherland has an even more unfortunate curly toupee.

Who directed Don't Look Now?

Actor Sutherland enjoyed his collaborations with this director. So much so, in fact, that he named one of his sons Roeg. (Thanks, Dad!)

What tragic event opens the movie?

Their daughter and son are both playing outside while the Baxters are working in the house. The daughter is throwing and chasing a ball, which she apparently tries to retrieve from too far out in the pond -- we don't actually see that part.

What is the name of the Baxters' daughter?

The Baxters' daughter was named Christine and their son is named Johnny. He's much less important to the plot, so much so that you could be forgiven for thinking he was just a neighbor boy out in the field the day of the drowning, except that he yells "Dad!" when John appears.

What is Christine wearing in the opening scene?

The opening minutes of the film are remarkable for the dread they amass just by repeatedly cutting to Christine running near the pond in her raincoat. Later, John Baxter will catch glimpses of a very similar coat in a faraway city.

What happens to the Baxter's son just before the drowning?

Johnny is riding his bike in a field when he gets a flat tire. It's possible that this distracts him from seeing what his sister is doing until she's fallen into the pond.

What does John see in a photo slide of a church interior?

First, Baxter sees the cloaked figure with its back turned to the camera. After he spills a glass of water on the slide viewer, a trickle of blood runs from the figure toward the altar. You might think he cut his hand on the glass he tipped over, but this isn't the case -- the glass does not break.

After the drowning scene, the film cuts to a scene in which Italian city?

The film cuts abruptly from Laura Baxter screaming to the sound (and sight) of a drill at an archaeological site. Titles don't tell us how much time has passed since the death, but it's implied to have been a period of months, maybe a year.

What is the relationship between the two older women in the restaurant?

Blind Heather and her sighted sister Wendy are traveling in Italy. John first notices them in the restaurant, but it's Laura who has a significant encounter with them.

Why does Laura follow Heather and Wendy into the bathroom?

Laura realizes that Heather, being blind, won't be able to help her sister. Laura is being charitable in this scene.

What is significant about Heather, other than her blindness?

Blindness and "second sight" often go together in fiction. This goes back to the blind prophet Tiresias in Greek legend, who appears in The Odyssey.

What does Heather tell Laura that she saw?

Heather says that Christine is happy and laughing. Laura should be relieved by this, but instead she seems troubled and has to sit down on a chair in the powder room.

What happens to Laura after she returns to her table?

This scene is memorable -- Laura really crashes onto the side of the table. Then plates, glasses, and cutlery also crash to the floor, then oil pours from a bottle onto the carpet. It's hard to watch this scene without wincing, even though nothing really bad happens.

Who do John and Laura meet after she is released from hospital?

Laura surprises John by kissing the bishop's ring, when she isn't even religious. When the bishop asks if she is Christian, Laura sheepishly tells him that, well, she's kind to animals and children.

The rather graphic sex scene is intercut with images of what?

While it's become common in horror films or thrillers to intercut a sex scene with glimpses of a fight or a death, director Roeg chose very everyday imagery to break up his sex scene. The intercutting also served a practical purpose: it allowed the editing-out of shots that censors deemed too graphic for an R rating.

What activity does Laura meet the sisters for?

Nowadays, classic seances are considered somewhat corny. However, the underlying phenomenon hasn't gone away; it's just morphed into celebrity "cold readers" like John Edwards appearing on TV talk shows. Things change, but they don't change!

Who, other than Heather, has psychic abilities?

Heather tells Laura that John has the gift, after Laura tells her that John leapt up and went outside the afternoon Christine drowned. It comes to its tragic fruition later in the movie.

What warning do the sisters have for Laura?

As is common in movies, the wife is a believer while her husband is skeptical. John does get "scared" for Laura during the seance and goes looking for the sisters' hotel room. Why he's scared for her, he never says.

What item do we see in Laura's suitcase?

The ball might be a sign of Laura's inability to let go of her daughter. This is frequently cited in reviews as an important aspect of her character.

An early-morning phone call informs the Baxters of what?

One of the rarely-commented-on aspects of Don't Look Now is how little concern the Baxters show for their surviving son until this point. Johnny witnessed his sister's death and was unable to save her, which must have been very traumatic, but the Baxters leave him in a boarding school and don't talk about him while in Italy.

Who departs for England to visit Johnny?

Laura is upset at the news, saying that the accident is what Heather was warning the Baxters about. Actually, it's not -- Heather's warning was specifically about John Baxter, saying they must leave Venice because he is in danger.

What accident befalls John Baxter?

John is left hanging on when a scaffold partially collapses as he's repairing a mosaic. Horror-movie fans will recognize the lightning-rod accident as being from The Omen (and it wasn't a near-miss).

What does John see while on a gondola that frightens him?

John sees Laura standing with the two sisters, on a boat draped with funeral sprays of flowers. He is rattled because she was supposed to leave for England, and apparently didn't even notify him that she didn't get on the plane.

When John reports that his wife is missing, what does he tell the inspector about why he's frightened for her?

We get the sense that Laura's mental state and her attachment to the strange women are more pressing to John. But the police inspector is a brisk, rational man, so citing the killer at large is how John justifies his concern.

What does the police inspector do after John leaves his office?

This leads to a lengthy cat-and-mouse sequence around Venice, as John tries to locate the sisters while a policeman follows him. This foreshadows a more dangerous cat-and-mouse scene that'll come a short time later.

What happens when John calls England?

John immediately returns to the police to report a false alarm. Finding out that Heather has been held at the station for some time, he is very remorseful and walks her home.

Heather goes into a fit or seizure on returning home. Coming out of it, what does she tell Wendy?

This begins an extended scene in which seemingly everyone runs around Venice. The red-raincoat figure ducks in and out of alleys, John pursues the figure, and Laura tries to find John.

When John corners the raincoat-wearing figure in a building, what does he say?

And that, of course, is when the figure turns around and proves not to be an innocent or frightened child, but a female dwarf. She then cuts John's neck with a knife. It's an unconvincing attack -- she barely taps his neck -- but John falls down, bleeding and fatally wounded.

Why is a female dwarf going around Venice killing people?

Don't Look Now is a film that's definitely about the journey, not the destination. It's a highly-thought-of movie despite having a frankly head-scratching conclusion.

Which aspect of Don't Look Now generated considerable controversy on its release?

Famously, a rumor circulated that Sutherland and Christie really had sex on camera (which Sutherland and a film producer have denied). The scene caused the movie to get an X rating in Great Britain, and was cut from the film in Ireland.

Julie Christie's involvement in the sex scene was, according to rumor, upsetting to her then-boyfriend. Who was he?

A lesser-known story about the lovemaking scene was that Warren Beatty tried to have it edited out of the film. Beatty, who had a reputation as a Hollywood playboy, apparently wasn't as open-minded about his girlfriends' activities, even on screen.

What was director Roeg's reason for including the lovemaking scene?

The Baxters are by no means at each other's throats. John Baxter is skeptical and impatient with Laura's friendship with the psychic and her sister, but he clearly demonstrates concern for his wife's well-being, and she for his.

Film critic Vincent Canby notably said that director Roeg got "a great performance from ______."

Canby was one of several critics who found the watery, picturesque city to be key to the film's success. However, perhaps not everyone liked the setting, as Pauline Kael found a "distinct clamminess" about the movie.

Who wrote the short story on which Don't Look Now was based?

The source material might explain some aspects of the movie that don't seem typically 1970s. For example, it used to be more common for well-off parents to leave their children in boarding schools and travel, and seances were more popular in Du Maurier's day than in 1973.

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