Review for Darling

It’s good to see ‘Darling’ finally get a much-deserved Blu-Ray release, the excuse, should you need one, being that it’s 50 years old so this is something of an ‘Anniversary Edition’.

Whilst the film is not an easy watch and often feels somewhat contrived, there is no doubting the powerhouse performance from Julie Christie for which she won an Oscar. (The film also picked up Oscars for best original story, screenplay and costume which, having watched it again, can only mean it was a lean year!).



Christie, looking absolutely marvellous in each and every frame, plays Diana Scott (presumably the ‘Darling’ of the title) an ambitious model who is determined to make it the top of her profession. She seems, on one level, to be completely moral-free, using her sexuality and charm to seduce a series of men to get what she wants. But there’s the rub. It becomes increasingly clear that she is unsure of what she really wants – sometimes the peace and cosiness of a good young wife, at other times the promiscuous play-thing of the idle rich.

Dirk Bogarde stars as her ‘boy-friend’ who she seduces away from his family and children, only to treat him appallingly from there on in. He’s a charismatic intellect who hosts an art show on the BBC and’ despite himself, and fully aware of Diana’s continual infidelities, he keeps having her back. Well, almost always.

Director John Schlesinger is on record as saying he finds the film unbearable to watch and that he ‘winces’ every time he sees it. When you watch the film in the cold-light of the millennial divide there are plenty of swinging-sixties toe-curling moments; not least some of the gushingly hip dialogue. The ‘sex parties’ (very un-explicit – don’t panic) are a bit embarrassing too; shocking perhaps in the day and yet mildly laughable in today’s context. All the dark hints at (gasp!) homosexuality for example may have seemed very risqué in the day but just seem plain stupid today. But it is a film of its time so we shouldn’t be too critical about that. Indeed, it’ s arguably part of its charm as the film acts as a time capsule.

The film is festooned with very unsubtle digs at the world it portrays (like seeing people gorging themselves at a charitable event for the poor and starving or a large poster of Christie being plastered over a hoarding of depicting a starving child) which today seem clumsy, not at all witty and satirical as presumably they did back in the day when it won its Oscar for the screenplay.


What truly makes the film worth watching though (to reiterate) is Christie’s performance which is spell-binding. Despite her portraying all the worst traits of her world, we can’t help liking her. In other words, she even manages to seduce her audience – a real example of the power of the person she is portraying. You need to watch the film to get the point I think.

Another point worth making is that here we see a female bed-hopping and manipulating men – not at all the pattern for a world more commonly filled with ‘Alfies’. So in that regard it was probably something of a breakthrough.

The transfer looks top-notch, in common with just about everything StudioCanal put out, and audio is crisp and clean throughout.

Sadly, the disc is lacking in extra features with just a trailer on offer. A good, studied contextual audio commentary would have been nice but you can’t have everything.