Don't look now (5 Stars)

When I watched "The Man who fell to Earth" in December I intended to watch this film within a few days. The problem is that my to-watch list is growing bigger all the time. At the moment the list has 164 films. Yes, one hundred and sixty-four films! That's ridiculous. There are a few films in the list that I haven't yet seen, but the vast majority are films that I've watched before and want to watch again soon, for one reason or another. Like "Don't look now", which I wanted to watch again because of Nicolas Roeg's death. And with a list that's 164 films long I can assure you that "soon" might mean many months from now. I'd like to trim my list down to zero by the end of the year, but the trouble is that I add new films as fast as I watch the old ones.

Maybe Donald Sutherland doesn't look like Charlie Chaplin, but he acts like him when he runs aimlessly through the narrow streets of Venice. From the beginning of the film he's a man cursed. He has the gift of second sight, but he's a sceptic who doesn't believe in the supernatural. That's a deadly combination. He sees things, but he doesn't believe what he sees. He sees warnings, but he ignores them. It's ironic that his wife is a believer, even though she has no gift.

Maybe it's wrong to say that Donald runs aimlessly. He's pursuing his own death.

Poor Donald has the face of a deer caught in the headlights. A few steps to the left or right could save his life, but he's transfixed. Like in a Greek (or Roman) tragedy, the fates are against him.

The Bishop tries to help him, but he isn't a man of great faith. He's one of the church bureaucrats who has risen through the ranks of the church hierarchy because he's good at what he does, not because he's a soldier of God. The Bishop believes in prophecies, but he doesn't heed them. The Bishop's father died in a fall, and after seeing Donald almost fall to his death he should have begged him to leave Venice.

Disaster also struck off screen. The musician Robert Wyatt fell out of a window while his girlfriend Alfreda Benge was working as an art designer on the film. He's been paralysed from the waist down ever since. The positive side is that he survived and he's made his greatest music since the accident. He survived because he's a believer.

Venice is a city of great beauty, but that's not what Donald saw. Wherever he looked he saw ugliness.

When you visit a church you can sit and admire the stained glass windows or you can kiss the gargoyles. Donald made his choice.

Love, happiness or death. What would you choose?

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