One of those films that is thought "cool" because of it brought together director Nicolas Roeg, Julie Christie, and Donald Sutherland, whose careers were all regarded as uber-cool up to that point. The critics love it and you literally have to beat them off with a stick! Also, it has that early 70s thing going for it, which I dig as much as anyone.
But, actually, it's just a story by crusty, old, normie-friendly writer Daphne Du Maurier, albeit a slightly odd one, about a child's death and the claims of a clairvoyant to "see" the child, and the impact this has on the parents. Spoiler alert: they're not overjoyed.
It is set in leafy 1970s middle class England and crumbling eternal Venice.
It is set in leafy 1970s middle class England and crumbling eternal Venice.
I haven't read the book, but it seemed to me that the screenwriters and director had completely muffed Du Maurier's original story idea, or just took it as a starting point to do a lot of ad hoc, off the cuff scenes 'bootstrapping' the scenery of Venice into their production. Kind of lazy of them to expect a city's natural charms to do their work for them!
After a tedious amount of running round, trying to seem deep, mystical, and mysterious -- while being "modern" enough to have a shagging scene -- the film ends with an ending involving a dwarf that is just laughable. I'm pretty sure David Lynch was taking notes at the time...
After a tedious amount of running round, trying to seem deep, mystical, and mysterious -- while being "modern" enough to have a shagging scene -- the film ends with an ending involving a dwarf that is just laughable. I'm pretty sure David Lynch was taking notes at the time...
Chuck it in the bin if you have it.
3/10
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