Don’t Look Now – Allan Scott interview

SCREENWRITER Allan Scott reflects on the making of Don’t Look Now as the Nic Roeg classic receives a world premiere of its newly restored version at the Curzon Soho in London on Tuesday (June 21, 2011), ahead of its Blu-ray release on July 4. He reflects on the timeless nature of the film, the challenge of adapting Daphne du Maurier’s novella and the boredom of having to contend with the sex scene controversy.

Q. You must be delighted to still be talking about Don’t Look Now?

Allan Scott: Absolutely, I mean how many people get to have a classic in their list of films?

Q. Did you ever imagine when adapting the screenplay it would have such timeless appeal?

Allan Scott: You know, it’s terrible, yes, you always think you’re writing a great movie [laughs]. Whenever people say to me: “What’s your favourite project of all the ones you’ve written?” I always say it’s the next one because the next one is going to be the biggest and the best!

Q. How do you look back on Don’t Look Now?

Allan Scott: Oh, with great affection because it began a life-long friendship with someone I’ve been close to now for 35 years. I also had a wonderful experience making it. And it’s so nice to have people say to you that they love your movie.

Q. What did you think when Time Out recently named it as the best British film of all time?

Allan Scott: That was wonderful. I was in America at the time and I kept telling people: “Did you know that Time Out has named Don’t Look Now the best British film of all time?” But they’d look at me and say: “What’s Time Out?” I’ve been working in the theatre for the past few years and my theatrical compatriots don’t know a lot about film!

Q. So, how easy or challenging was it to adapt Daphne du Maurier’s novella?

Allan Scott: It was difficult in the sense that it was a short story and there’s ever enough narrative or clarity about the characters, so you know you’re going to have to bring all that along. You always, as an adapter, want to be faithful to what you recognise as being interesting in the original material, and you want to do it in such a way that the author is not going to be angry with you. But this almost changed genres altogether. 

It’s interesting, when we were making The Witches years later, we realised during shooting that we couldn’t keep the ending in the novel because film is a whole different experience and we didn’t think children would respond to the ending in the book in the film. And that’s true all the way through Don’t Look Now when it came to making any changes. We had to do what felt right for the film experience. That’s why, for instance, we made the leading character an architectural restorer so that he had a reason to be in Venice.

Q. And you added the chilling prologue…

Allan Scott: The prologue was, in fact invented prior to Nic becoming involved. But Nic took that and added all the things that make it so chilling and so great. 

Q. How closely did you work with Nic throughout the process?

Allan Scott: Very closely. The script was written and existed but Nic simply wanted to work very closely in order to absorb the material. So, we [Chris Bryant and Allan Scott] spent days working with him and going over it page by page. There was a lot of interaction between us, until it eventually came to the point when Nic said: “So, what is the theme of this movie?” I remember we sort of sat there looking stunned, and almost saying to ourselves: “What do we care about themes?” But then, and I can’t remember who came up with it, one of us said: “The theme is ‘nothing is what it seems’.” And as soon as you’ve done that, you then look at every single scene in the movie in the light of that realisation and you look at how to turn and twist that into the film. The idea that the blind woman who has the nephew who died has a bronze bust of him instead of a photo, for instance, is because she can’t see him [in the photo] but she can still feel him.

Q. And the ending?

Allan Scott: The ending very much came out of the process of cutting the movie. That was never scripted or written. Nic and [film editor] Graeme Clifford came upon that and we thought it was stunning.

Q. And yet it has continued to inspire filmmakers and provoke fierce debate today…

Allan Scott: I think it was a really, really fine piece of filmmaking in terms of just the pure art of filmmaking, the art of montage and the art of making choices so intelligently. I remember one day on location, the director of photography, Anthony Richmond, saying: “I think we’re losing light, we should bring this to an end.” But Nic, who is an experienced camera-man himself, of course, said it was exactly the light he wanted. It was perfect for capturing that ghostly effect he sought and it served to create that memorable look. Now, only people with that kind of experience can bring that to something.

Q. What do you think, in hindsight, about the controversy surrounding the sex scene, which almost overtook the film at the time…

Allan Scott: To be honest, it got kind of boring. I mean, it came out of nothing. There was nothing that controversial about it. In a way, I suppose, it was lucky for the movie that the Daily Mail got hot under the collar, because it gained a lot of notoriety and lots of people went to see it. But a lot of it was Warren Beatty being all macho about it, and he wasn’t even seeing Julie Christie at the time! 

Q. How was working with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie?

Allan Scott: I’d worked with Donald quite a few times beforehand… but they were both lovely and really nice people. Nic has a story about Donald I enjoy to this day, which is that when Donald first read the script, he said to Nic: “I’m really interested in doing it but I’d like to talk about this and I’m a bit concerned about that.” But Nic just said to him: “Do you want to make the movie or not?” Donald was like: “Yes, of course!” So, Nic said: “Well, shut up then and let’s do it!” 

Q. And Julie, who brings such a luminous quality to the film?

Allan Scott: Julie, as you say, is luminous and she’s such a wonderful and subtle actress.

Q. Why do you think you and Nic bonded so well on Don’t Look Now and have continued to work together ever since and remain friends?

Allan Scott: I don’t know. I have several director friends, so it’s not as if I think of them as aliens [laughs]! But we enjoy working with each other, we spark off each other and we make each other laugh… and that’s enough to make any relationship last a lifetime.

Q. So, what’s your favourite ever response you’ve had to Don’t Look Now over the years?

Allan Scott: My favourite response? I think it was sitting in the cinema in Elgin, in Scotland, in those three and six penny seats, and as the love scene unfolded a man behind me said: “I didn’t pay good money to see filth!” [Laughs aloud] So, he never got to see The Wicker Man!

The Nic Roeg approved restored version of Don’t Look Now will be released on Blu-ray on July 4, 2011.