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In the following analysis I am going to look at the film Don’t Look Now in terms of how it reveals and withholds crucial information to the story, especially via its use of recurring images and motifs. The beginning of the film is high in symbolism and establishes several recurring themes. The opening shot is of rain falling on a pond. This makes the viewer think that this scene is to have some bearing on what follows and that perhaps scenes featuring water will have significance. We then see a shot that is hard to distinguish, but is later revealed to be lights as seen through a window. This shot does not actually occur in the story until about half way through. Therefore, the plot and story are distinguished from the beginning and the image is left ambiguous until later on. This serves to emphasise the main themes of the film such as déjà vu, interpretation and premonition. This makes us feel a connection with John and his sense of confusion in scenes such as when he sees Laura on the boat. We see two accidents involving glass in the opening scene. These emphasise that not only water, but also glass will be important to the story and foreshadow the accidents that occur later. The cracking of the glass when Johnny rides over it is a precursor to the plank crashing through the glass panel in the church. The shot of John knocking over his drink foretells the scene where Laura collapses in the restaurant causing several glasses to fall on the floor. It also allows the spreading of the red ink in the photograph of the figure in the church. Without this, John would not have sensed that Christine was in danger and so we would not get the first inkling of John’s latent psychic ability. We also would not see the juxtaposition of the shape of the red ink with the shape of Christine. Also, when John spills water on the photograph of the church, the red eventually envelops the whole image like blood and at the end of the film, John’s neck is slashed leaving him bleeding. Christine’s red coat is an informant that causes both John and the viewer to make a link between the child, the photograph and the figure running through the streets of Venice. This creates a stream of thought in John’s subconscious that equates red with a child in danger. In addition, red is visually striking so John and the viewer are instantly drawn to images of this colour when juxtaposed with the drab streets of Venice.
Approximate Word count = 1647
Approximate Pages = 6.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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