Can anybody think up of some more films that closely resemble Don't Look Now? I don't particularly mean horrors so much as I don't think Don't Look Now is a horror. Film's like Solaris (1972) Does that film resemble Don't Look Now? What other films are there??? I'm thinking of films which match in story, photography, cuts, colour, acting, music etc. If its a foreign film the better.
There was once a topic about this and I saved it because it was culled. These are suggestions from lots of different people so I don't agree with every single choice on here, but it's a fascinating list:
12 Monkeys Alice Sweet Alice Bad Timing Blade Runner Blind Terror Blood on Satan's Claw Blue Velvet The Brood Burnt Offerings Carnival of Souls The Comfort of Strangers Cría cuervos The Dark Daughters of Darkness Day of the Beast Deep Red The Deer Hunter The Devils El espinazo del diablo Eraserhead Femme Fatale Flatliners Full Circle The Go-Between Gothic The Innocents Jacob’s Ladder Klute La Communidad La Habitacion del Nino The Last Wave Looking For Mr Goodbar Magic McCabe and Mrs Miller Mulholland Drive Night of the Hunter The Omen The Orphanage The Other The Others Performance Petulia Picnic at Hanging Rock The Psychic (AKA "Sette note in nero" and "Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes") The Reflecting Skin Rosemary's Baby The Shining The Sixth Sense Suspiria A tale of two daughters (possibly A Tales of Two Sisters) The Tenant Tenebrae Tesis Tristana Walkabout Who Saw Her Die? The Wicker Man
Maybe people didn't think of Solaris because of the sci-fi element? Nothing makes the list unless someone suggested it - and I've never precluded other people's suggestions - but I'll add it into the list if you want?
I guess a film can be reminiscent of other films in lots of different ways. They can have a similar narrative style, similar plots, some common features, share a director and actors, a similar mood, or a look or even a location. Bascially anything that causes you to recall the other film.
Yes Ok add it to the list. I know that Andrei Tarkovsky tried to avoid the Science fiction gimmicks as much as possible as he has said in various interviews in the past. I won't go on about Solaris as this is a Don't Look Now board, but I will say that Don't Look Now has got something with Solaris and repeat viewing's of both film's will show this. Solaris is not as slick with the details, and to the point as Don't Look Now but I'm sure there is something their with the two films.
Also the Car's that Ate Paris, Nosferatu the Vampyre and In The Company of Wolves is not on the list. Those films are as dark as Don't Look Now and should be added.
That is a fascinating list of wonderful and weird titles! Not all of them have much resemblance to "Don't Look Now," but most have a weird vibe that lovers of the offbeat would appreciate.
A few I would add: The Baby The Sender The Machinist Full Circle/The Haunting of Julia I'm Not Scared (Italian film) The films of Curtis Harrington, particularly "The Killing Kind" The films of Darren Aronofsky, particulary "Requiem for a Dream" The films of David Finch, particularly "The Game" The films of Atom Egoyan, particularly "Exotica"
Well the list started off on a topic about films that Don't Look Now fans might like, so the criteria was less restrictive. Full Circle is on the list, but it's nice to see someone acknowledge The Baby. It's one of my favourite films, so even though it doesn't have much in common with DLN it seems they share an appeal.
Whoops, I didn't notice "Full Circle" on the list. But I'm glad to hear you like "The Baby." It's a much different film from "Don't Look Now," but both films would appeal to lovers of the offbeat and the bizarre.
Don't forget Andrei Tarkovsky's "Nostalgia"? That's a good film in the vein of "Don't Look Now" I wonder if Tarkovsky was inspired by "Don't Look Now" when he made that film? As John Baxter became part of the place he was killed in. The same went for the Andrei Gorchakov character in Nostalgia, he became part of the place he died in as well. Similar camera shots of water and reflection's. Both set in Italy. They are very similar films.
"Nostalghia" sounds fascinating. I will seek it out. I trust the opinions of fans of "Don't Look Now," because they have great taste! ;-) Thanks for the recommendation.
Perhaps *the* most similar film is Paul Schrader's underrated In The Comfort Of Strangers. Set in Venice. Atmospheric cinematography. Haunting sex scenes. Sense of Foreboding.
I too love THE BABY! Every scene is intelligently designed, and Ruth Roman is so convincing as the mother who "seems" nasty yet elicits sympathy by the time Anjanette Comer, the social worker, shows her true colors.
That is a good list, but I would definitely add the little known "Seance on a Wet Afternoon", 1964, directed by Bryan Forbes- in terms of good film making, suspense and weirdness!
Visconti's Death In Venice will give you a taste of the Venice you saw in Roeg's movie: a beautiful place that can quickly become frightening and mysterious.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
Don't Look Now has made me remember two titles I watched some time ago. The first one is Le Locataire (aka The tenant, Roman Polanski, 1976). The story of Polanski's film is in Paris and is very different, but there is something very similar in the creepy feeling that both films transmit to the viewer (at least to me). The another one is Nosferatu a Venezia (aka Nosferatu in Venice, 1988). Here the similitude is the portrait, so beautiful as dark and decadent, of the famous Italian city.
Ive just remembered a brilliant film in the vein of Don't Look Now. Has anybody seen the 1945 British supernatural horror: Dead of Night starring Mervyn Johns, and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti? I thought a lot of the photography of the film reminded me of Don't Look Now, perhaps Nicolas Roeg was inspired by the film. If I remember rightly there is a scene in Dead of Night which looks like the part where John Baxter corners the dwarf, and the dwarf turns and faces him. I think in Dead of night it was a giant doll.
In a curious coincidence I have an old videotape with both Don't Look Now and Dead of Night on it. I don't remember the doll scene although it's years since I saw it. There's the ventriloquist dummy segment with Michael Redgrave which was later remade as Magic.
Yes that's right it was a ventriloquist dummy. Its years too since Ive seen it. If I remember rightly also does the film end with Church bells like in Don't Look Now?
If I recall correctly the film finishes where it starts, and the whole thing has sort of been a premonition of what it is going to happen, but I can't really discuss it with any real authority because my memory is too vague. Since I have it I should re-watch it sometime.
There is another film like Don't Look Now called Black Rainbow. It was on years ago on television, and if I remember correctly it stared Rosanna Arquette and Jason Robards. Not in the same league as Don't Look Now, but worth watching. It is about a stage psychic who can predict a serial killers murders which are about to happen.
I'm really not sure if it was the father doing the murders as it was a long long time ago since I saw it. I think it turned out that she predicted her own death at the end. I haven't seen Rosanna Arquette in any other films, but I imagine she a good actress for being in such a film. Its on my list of films to get along with Dead of Night.
There is a 1960s book worth looking out for if your interested in Don't Look Now type short stories called Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. All the stories in that book have cleaver occult twists like Don't Look Now. The book may seem old fashioned but its definitely worth looking out for.
One of the factors that makes THE TENANT so effectively alienating is how most of the characters sound dubbed. And just about all of them have generically American accents.
Alice Sweet Alice and Who Saw Her Die? are INCREDIBLY similar to Don't Look Now. In 'Alice', there's also a little girl who dies, there's also a serial killer on the loose who wears a raincoat, there's a love scene between the parents of the child who died, both films have strong Catholic imagery, and of course, the scene where the dead child's father chases the figure in the raincoat believing it is a child, all the way to an empty, abandoned building, where it turns out to be an old lady, who's also the killer on the loose, and kills him. Who Saw Her Die? also centers around a couple trying to recover from their daughter's death in Venice. There's a serial killer on the loose. And of course, both films have long and explicit death scenes between the two leads, with notable editing.
The theater is like a faithful wife. The film is the great adventure, the costly, exacting mistress
I believe the director acknowledges DON'T LOOK NOW's influence. David Cronenberg does the same with THE BROOD: the hooded killer dwarfs are a Roeg inspiration!
It made me think about Polanski's "Frantic" a couple times, like when she's in the bathroom and she doesn't understand what he's telling her or when he's looking for his wife and things get swampy and wet and creepy around him, with an inspector who doesn't really understand the problem or trivializes it, and the main character is in another country than his own, too. Or when he falls and all.
It may not be too similar, but I highly recommend "The Spirit of the Beehive" (El espiritu de la colmena). Similar pace and a dark kinda eerie atmosphere. Great movies
The first one that crossed my mind when I read the opening post was the last one your list, "The Wicker Man" - of course the original one, and then "The Others". Though I can understand why are some of the others listed (Blade Runner, Jacob's Ladder, surely Blue Velvet and especially Hanging Rock), I can see no connections to "The Deer Hunter" or "McCabe and Mrs Miller", while "Walkabout" must have some similarities in working process as it was made by the same man, yet I don't find it fitting too much.
I'd add "Changeling" (do I need to say 1980?), "Rain" from NZ, Chabrol's "Alice ou la dernière fugue" (for similar reasons as Jacob), Redford's "Ordinary People" (not because of Sutherland)...
The list was originally from a topic called "Other films that you might enjoy if you liked Don't Look Now" so the criteria was much more open. The topic has since been deleted but I saved the list and re-posted it here because I considered it relevant to the thread.
It was compiled by many people which is what makes it such a cool list. I regularly update it with all the new suggestions. It is an eclectic list though and a hundred times better than all those 'best ever' and 'top 10 of' lists. It's thrown up new discoveries for me.
Yes, I understand that it was not your personal choice or opinion, so I wasn't asking you, not seeing similarities between Don't Look Now and McCabe was just a rhetorical question.
Isolating environment is so common thing in movies that a lot of them could fit. But in McCabe it is a physical isolation of people living or roaming along almost uninhabitated area. It's hard to compare it to Venice, because no matter how empty some local street may be (with or without a dwarf), so much life boils just behind a corner. But Baxters' isolation is voluntary, and we can guess that it is a consequence of guilt - though we can't say it for sure, because we are never told or shown what were they like before their family tragedy (some people simply prefer isolation).