‘Barbie’ Director Greta Gerwig Praises Chilling Classic Thriller: “You feel like you’re watching something that you shouldn’t”
Chad Collins
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Greta Gerwig of former mumblecore fame might be playing in the big leagues now (deservedly so, Lady Bird is a masterpiece), though genre fans know one of her greatest appearances is in Ti West’s The House of the Devil where (spoiler) she is unceremoniously killed in shocking fashion at the midway point.
It’s an iconic death for an iconic creative, and while her genre credentials have slowed in recent years, she does spotlight this classic chiller as one of her favorites. That, of course, is Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now.
Per IMDB: A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.
In an interview with W Magazine, Gerwig particularly spotlighted the protracted sex scene between Donald Sutherland’s John and Julie Christie Laura. Gerwig said, “Because the scene is so extended and so glorious, you feel like you’re watching something that you shouldn’t — so that’s very exciting.”
The sex scene, while controversial at the time, remains one of the horror genre’s defining moments, especially today where it is regularly reevaluated to combat nascent desires to see sex removed from cinema entirely. It was a deeply profound, meaningful moment between two grief-stricken leads at the top of their game, and were it not for the moment of raw intimacy, Don’t Look Now might not have resonated quite as strongly as it does.
Of course, while Gerwig highlights the moment of intimacy, Don’t Look Now endures beyond that moment. The twist ending remains one of the most shocking of all time, and Roeg directs the hell out of it, accomplishing frames, and more fundamentally, an oppressive feeling of sorrow few horror films can match. Greta Gerwig with a Don’t Look Now remake when?
What do you think? How does Don’t Look Now land for you? Do you agree with Greta Gerwig’s assessment of that particular scene? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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