Compare and contrast the uses and meanings of symbolism within the book and film - Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier, published in a collection of stories titled After Midnight

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British Literature and Film

Compare and contrast the uses and meanings of symbolism within the book and film.

Don't Look Now was originally a short story written by Daphne Du Maurier and published in a collection of stories titled After Midnight [1]. The story focuses on a couple, John and Laura, who have recently suffered the bereavement of their daughter, Christine, and are on holiday in Venice, trying to return their lives to normal. While there, they encounter two twins, one of whom claims to be psychic, and from there on strange events start to happen. Nicolas Roeg's film follows the main outline of the story very closely, however, many of the specific details have been altered with the result that the film story becomes Roeg's rather than Du Maurier's.

The first scene in Nicolas Roeg's film is probably the scene that differs most from the book, and the scene that contains the most symbolism. Instead of watching the film passively as we would normally, Roeg forces us to concentrate and question and argue what we are seeing on the screen. He teaches us that, in film especially, our eyes can literally deceive us. This is