Roland Bathes Theory

Don’t Look Now (1973)

After watching a few horror films, it seems that there are two ways of creating an effective horror film, both of which a successful but in different ways. The first approach is by actually showing the physical violence and gore, or a film full of shocking effects and constant action for example Aliens. This can evoke emotional and visceral pleasures within the audience.

On the other hand, there are the horror films that use intellectual puzzles to create pleasure and therefore focus on the more mental elements of the story. Here, I found that Roland Bathes’s theory of the Enigma Code often applies to these types of horror films in which mysteries are set up to be developed and resolved. The Enigma Code usually raises many questions due to unexplained elements in the narrative, which are answered in the final revelation. However throughout the story, clues are offered to the reader in terms of ‘snares’ (evasions of the truth), as well as ‘equivocations’ (mixtures of truth and snare).

This theory is extremely evident in Don’t Look Now and I have picked a particular scene, which I think exists as enigma for the viewer for much of the movie. To summarise, it is the scene in which John Baxter leaves to return to his wife and son in London, however as he sets sail, he sees his wife with the two sisters Heather and Wendy dressed in black on a funeral boat in Venice. This is in fact and equivocation, as although this does happen, it is not happening at that particular time, and therefore it is a mixture of truth and snare. It is foreshadowing John Baxter’s death in the near future, however the audience is not aware of this due to the vagueness of the clue and therefore are left puzzled. The audience is left with questions like ‘Why is Laura in Venice?’, ‘Why hasn’t she told John?’, and ‘Who’s funeral is she attending?’

As Roland Bathes says ‘Partial answers’ are given along the way, for example shortly after John speaks to Laura on the phone, he finds that she is not in Venice but in London where she was meant to be and with their son. This goes on to raising more questions like ‘Was it all just part of John Baxter’s imagination?’ All these ‘loose ends’ and questions are answered in the final revelation where we come to see that John’s visions are premonitions of the future as he sees his own death and his daughter’s. We are also given clues about his death when the blind woman, Heather, warns Laura that her husband is in danger in Venice and that they should leave immediately.

Another example of the Enigma code in this film is the mysterious figure in the red coat that resembles Christine, the Baxters’s daughter. John sees many glimpses of this mystery figure although it keeps vanishing. We are however, given clues about its identity when for example the police lift a body out of the water. The figure seems to be the ghost of Christine, but as we see in the final revelation, it is in fact a serial killer.