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DVD Darling
Julie Christie's miracle year of 1965 (she was also in Doctor Zhivago) was capped by a best-actress Oscar® for this sardonic take on Swinging London. Looking about as gorgeous as women get, Christie ascends the ladder of social success, trampling everybody in her path--an ascent that allows writer Frederic Raphael and director John Schlesinger to slash away at the morally bankrupt world that would enable such a person to triumph. Cynics might suggest that Schlesinger's approach, rife with the experiments of New Wave filmmaking, is nearly as empty and showy as the world it describes... which may be why this movie seems more dated than, say, Richard Lester's films from the '60s. Still, with Christie getting generous and suave support from two of the top British stars of the day, Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey, Darling remains a watchable missive from a volatile era. --Robert Horton
Forty years later and Darling is still as hip, daring, and as acerbic as ever. The absolutely ravishing Julie Christie won her much deserved best actress Oscar in 1965 for her role as Diana Scott a brazen, fickle, and swinging Londoner who is discovered by a reporter when she does a street interview, then rises through the European modeling/acting world by sleeping with every man she meets.
Light on plot but incredibly strong on character, Darling takes us from Diana's humble beginnings as she manipulates and connives her way up the social ladder, eventually becoming a darling of the jet-set high society. Diana has no specific ambition; and she has no particular talent; all she knows is that she refuses to be limited. She just wants to be happy, unfortunately though, she looks for happiness in all the wrong places.
Following the break-up of a teenage marriage, Diana drifts into the world of modeling and acting, where she meets television news reporter, Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde), who leaves his family for her. They both find it terribly easy to cheat on their respective spouses with Diana admitting in a voice over that she did it because she can, and that she always places her momentary needs first.
Robert introduces her to a more powerful and wealthy set and soon she's fraternizing with somebody much more attractive: the cynical public relations mogul Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey). She becomes bored with Robert's bookish, raffish ways, preferring to hang out with Miles's vapid trendsetters, fashionistas, and pretentious artists. Robert eventually wises up to Diana's philandering ways and realizes she's using the same shabby trick against him, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Diana runs off to Paris with the utterly selfish Miles Brand, participating in an orgy, and when her feeble attempts to fool Robert don't work, she pretends she doesn't care. The moment he's too occupied with work to devote himself to her, she's off again getting into even more trouble. She even gets pregnant and is at first excited, but when she realizes that a baby would jeopardize her career, she ends up having an abortion because anything that interferes with her lifestyle has to be gotten rid of.
As she drifts backwards and forwards between Robert and Miles, she befriends a young photographer Malcolm (Ronald Curram) a gay guy, who promises to be her best friend in the whole world. After a round of shoplifting and an evening of drunken revelry, she takes him to Italy and he becomes the only man who she's capable of being honest with.
Diana is so busy taking; she never has to learn the lesson of what giving is. By the time she realizes that she has an attachment to Robert, it's just too late. He's gotten over her cruel rejection and has no further need of her. She's frantic for someone to lean on, so in desperation, she marries Cesare (Jose Luis De Villalonga), an Italian nobleman, and becomes a "Princess Diana." He keeps her at his villa with his children while presumably visiting girlfriends on the side. For Diana, this doesn't exactly spell true love or happiness.
Director, John Schlesinger perfectly captures the mood of the swinging sixties, brilliantly skewering the generation and decade itself -- innocent and guileless, but ultimately self-destructive. Christie is absolutely radiant as the modern jetsetter for whom beauty is the only ticket to fun and thrills. She's the embodiment of amorality and selfishness, but it is exactly this amorality that leaves her in an existential limbo of her own making.
Schlesinger and screenwriter Frederick Raphael don't exactly condemn Diana making her choices or for taking the route that she does, but they haven't anything positive to say about her either. Christie plays her as a spoilt, petulant little girl, too totally amoral to feel anything honest or meaningful for another person, or for that matter, to elicit a strong feeling from us.
Christie is eminently watchable and her stunning beauty carries the film. In fact, she's so pretty that her flaky character remains always interesting. Dirk Bogarde goes from happy to neurotic to vindictive, and Laurence Harvey maintains a smug winner's superiority that's very off-putting. If there is any downside to Darling, it's that there's ultimately nobody on screen worthy of our sympathy.
But Darling is ultimately a searing indictment of Sixties superficiality, all dressed up to look chic and sophisticated, in which the surface of things is readily available from a deluge of media outlets but nothing is explored in depth. It is indeed a classic film and can be viewed again and again.
By closely studying and scrutinizing Julie Christie's character, Raphael and Schlesinger were able to focus on poster girl, the pretty face we encounter every day on television that seduces us into buying products we neither want nor need. Perhaps the ultimate statement, and the theme of the movie, is that this type of character is as empty as the image itself.
At one moment, as she is caught by a camera from precisely the right angle, Diana Scott displays an almost classic beauty, startling in its intensity; a second later, all sorts of sordid, superficial emotions cross over her face, making her appear cheap and ultimately quite vacuous. Perhaps it's a testament to Ms. Christie's fine performance that she can make these emotions appear so real. Mike Leonard October 05.
A stunning film that features a radiant performance by the ravishing Miss Christie.
The great surprise of the 1965 Academy Award ceremonies came when a near unknown British "bird" named Julie Christie was named Best Actress of Year--an honor that had once been the hard earned prize of long-time stars. Christie seemingly came out of nowhere, having been seen briefly in two memorable supporting roles: the swinging English girl who offers Tom Courtenay's modern day Water Mitty a chance to live out his wildest fantasies in "Billy Liar" (1963) and the lovely Irish lass who inspires Sean O'Casey (Rod Taylor) to write great poetry in "Young Cassidy" (1965). The Oscar made it clear Miss Christie would follow James Bond and the Beatles into the pop consciousness of Sixties America, already overcrowded with strong images from Britain. Many people doubted, though, that Christie could even act, for there was the lingering notion that in "Darling," she had merely been employed by Oscar-winning screen writer Frederic Raphael and director John Schlesinger as an extension of her own self--a symbol the amoral, live-for-the-present, media-hyped youth of modern London.
By cinematically traveling along Diana's road in life, the filmmakers were able to document a cross-section of modern English types and, by so doing, turn their picture into a work of social commentary without that aspect ever overshadowing our dramatic interests in the central characters. As in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," we see the paparazzi of a major city--the celebrities, the hangers-on, but mostly the ambitious photographers and reporters who chronicle them for the media-hyped and media-hungry public. "Darling" is, more than anything, a movie about the superficiality of the Sixties, all dressed up to look chic and sophisticated, in which the surface of things is readily available from a deluge of media outlets but nothing is explored in depth. This is a movie about the world of the McLuhan prediction: the new order of the complicated media machine presenting only an empty message, the world of form over content, of style over substance. The element that stands out most clearly in "Darling" is the total lack of honest emotions on the part of anyone in the drama. Laurence Harvey's advertising man is too Machiavellian, Dirk Bogarde's TV interviewer too embittered and absorbed in self-defeat, and Christie's model too totally amoral to feel anything honest or meaningful for another person, or for that matter, to elicit a strong feeling from us.
By closely studying and scrutinizing Julie Christie's character, Raphael and Schlesinger were able to focus on the person behind the perfect face we encounter every day on television, seducing us into buying products we neither want nor need; the movie makers finally concluded that the character is as empty a vessel as the image itself. At one moment, as she is caught by a camera from precisely the right angle, Diana Scott displays an almost classic beauty; a second later, all sorts of sordid, superficial emotions cross over her face, making her appear cheap and sluttish.
In 1965 "Darling" appeared cold and strange, impossible to reconcile with the conventional films in which we feel strongly about almost everyone--even the heavies. But "Darling" would set a pace for the films of the latter half of the decade: cool, clinical, clever, and committed to the theme of lack of commitment. This, of course, had already been explored in the films of important, artistic filmmakers like Michelangelo Antonioni, whose pictures had impressed intellectual moviegoers with their ability to capture the empty, amoral ambiance of the Sixties. But these films appealed almost exclusively to intellectuals. With "Darling," the commercial cinema suddenly appeared to be catching up. "Darling" contained explicit four letter words, graphic bedroom scenes, and most significant of all, a refusal to offer any simple moral conclusion about this ennui-ridden existence.
At the beginning of "Darling," a television documentary maker is seen interviewing people on the streets, his question being: "What's wrong with England today?" Without ever slipping into easy, obvious moralizing, "Darling" set out to answer that question by showing us precisely what the filmmakers considered worst about the evolving lifestyle. [filmfactsman]
A brilliant analysis of emptiness
Most of the other reviews printed here I am in agreement with. There is little I need to add except that I saw the film for the first time in the eighties when it came out on tape. I just rewatched it and still find my gut reaction to be the same and then some. Schlesinger's work, the three leads and the marvelous script make for an engrossing, sobering and disturbing treatise on how so many people lack values and seek "happiness" in all of the wrong places -- especially in the wrong people. After the twenty-odd years of first viewing this film, I realized tonight how strong Julie Christie's performance is in this film. There is not one hole in this bravura performance. It's odd to make this statement, especially since she's playing such a shallow role. It's not an easy nor a desirable part to play, but she carries it off as if she herself were the character. Selfishness is at the core of the character as well as immaturity, and she stoops and conquers.
Laurence Harvey has never played the rogue better and Dirk Bogarde is perfect as the jilted lover who indeed possesses a heart, but nevertheless gives in (but not completely) to Ms. Christie's empty needs. He, indeed, sees through her throughout most of the film but cannot help being swayed by her charms.
Emptiness served up brilliantly. And we must respect the talents involved for providing us with a lesson -- as well as thank them (on two levels at least: talent coupled with making us examine what should really be of value to us).
Simone Signoret won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of an unhappily married woman who, clutching at a last chance at happiness, falls head over heals in love with a fiery, social climbing schemer from the North Country. It really is an astounding performance - sensitive, sensual, and eloquent and also heartbreaking in its emotional ferocity.
Indeed, Room At The Top is a ferocious film, full of angry, dissolute people who are still shell-shocked, benumbed, and staggering from world War 11. Post war British society was in tatters, poverty was rife, and the upper classes were desperately trying to hang into life of pre-war privilege. Out of this bitter realization, emerged a generation of broken, angry young men who stepped out into a world that no longer had unlimited... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Simone Signoret - Laurence Harvey Director(s): Jack Clayton DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sunday Bloody Sunday is a masterpiece from the days when movies, in general, were much more mature. As written by renowned film critic Penelope Gilliatt and directed by John Schlesinger, this complicated love triangle among three upscale Londoners was a milestone for its time, not simply for its nonchalant treatment of a homosexual relationship, but for illustrating the way sensible adults will negotiate for love, even if it's inconvenient or destined to fail. A doctor in his forties, Daniel (Peter Finch, proving his greatness seven years before Network) loves the much younger artist Bob (Murray Head), who also loves employment counselor Alex (Glenda Jackson at her finest). There's no deception between them--just the troubling dilemma of three lovers with differing degrees... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Peter Finch - Glenda Jackson Director(s): John Schlesinger DVD Release Date: Released the 16 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - David Hemmings Director(s): Michelangelo Antonioni DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In this extremely grim comedy, Michael Caine plays a ne'er-do-well who never does good. The rakish Alfie moves from woman to woman with the emotional maturity of Bill Clinton, and even less morality. Alternately talking up to the camera and talking down to his sexual conquests, Alfie maneuvers through the minefield of emotions by remaining aloof, until of course, he is left alone. A fine performance by Shelley Winters as the wealthy woman Alfie seeks to court rounds out this well-aimed attack on the lady's man lifestyle. Nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. --James DiGiovannaMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Caine - Shelley Winters Director(s): Lewis Gilbert (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 27 February 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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For those who consider Bulworth to be a savage and unprecedented political send-up, it's worth revisiting Warren Beatty's first, and best, attempt at outrageous social criticism. Mercilessly exposing the essential vacuity of both the sexual revolution and conservative alarmism over cultural permissiveness, Shampoo remains the best movie ever made about Nixon's America, and one of the very best about the tragic and disappointing conclusion to the 1960s. Set on the eve of the 1968 presidential election that elevated Nixon to the Oval Office, Beatty's uproarious satire follows a hairdressing Lothario (played by Mr. You're So Vain himself) in and out of the beds of several women, including the wife of a wealthy businessman, his mistress, and his young daughter (Carrie Fisher, in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Warren Beatty - Julie Christie - Goldie Hawn Director(s): Hal Ashby DVD Release Date: Released the 21 January 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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