MovieChat Forums > Don't Look Now Discussion > too many loose threads

too many loose threads

posted 10 years ago by k-gage
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i loved the beautiful photography and atmosphere of this movie, and thought the acting was good all around in contributing to that. i realize and appreciate it's dream-like quality. but there were too many loose ends for me to really enjoy it.
1) why is is the wife smiling at the funeral procession? did she actually want him to die?
2) how exactly did the daughter drown? her brother was riding a bike and hit some glass on his bike and was very nonchalant when fixing the tire, and also when his dad was pulling her from the water. did he cause her death?
3) what exactly was the purpose of the "bishop?" weren't they talking about going to "stay" with him at some point? for what? and why didn't they?
4) when the wife first followed the sisters into the bathroom to help with the one who had something in her eye, there was a sinister-looking man (?)in the bathroom...he kept looking at them. never saw him again. what was the point of that?
5) when the husband was talking to the italian consulate (?), the consulate looked out the window and saw the two sisters walking outside. but although he looked like there was some kind of recognition there, didn't say anything about it when the husband had just described them? he apparently recognized them but how?
6) the one policeman said (i think) that he was on the "murder squad". did they suspect the husband of a murder? whose?

there's more but if anyone has insights on these i'd love to hear your thoughts. maybe i just missed a lot.

[–] L0GAN5 10 years ago

It is the kind of film that really requires a couple of viewings to take it all in. I will answer your questions the best I can:

1) Julie Christie had the same problem with this scene. She didn't agree that Laura should be smiling, but Nicolas Roeg pointed out she is 100% sold on the psychic connection Heather has with Christine. Basically she is convert at the end and knows that John and Christine are together in the afterlife so it doesn't make sense for her to be overcome by grief. It represents a victory for the character.

2) I don't think the son had any role in Christine's death. She just fell into the water. "Falling" is one of the film's major themes: Laura is inured at the restaurant after she collapses and falls to the floor. John almost dies in a fall and the bishop comments his father died in a fall. Falling is synonymous with death in this film.

3) The bishop is a new addition to the film, and in the DVD commentary Nicolas Roeg stated he wanted a contrast with the New Age spiritualism present in the film. He seems to have problems with his faith, and I think it is deliberate that the women in the film are presented as "believers" and the men are not.

4) I think it was a woman, and she was just a bathroom attendant. I think this just stands out these days because they are far less common now than they were back then.

5) I think this is an extension of the film's "nothing is what it seems" theme: at a later point the police inspector comments that Laura looks nothing like her photo. In this case the inspector fails to make the connection between the description and the two women he is actually looking at.

6) I think they suspect John and have him followed. They are looking for a murderer, they have no leads, and here is a Johnny foreigner claiming his wife has disappeared. At this point it is also possible for the audience that John is the murderer: when John and Laura pass a murder scene on a gondola earlier in the film Laura comments "Isn't this where you were...?".