Customer Reviews

Darling

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember seeing Darling in a Dallas, Texas "art house theater" in 1965. This theater specialized in uncut European movies that were deemed too risque for main stream movie theaters. I remember a scene in the office boardroom with Lawrence Harvey in which Julie Christie stripped on the long table to try to tempt him to tell her corporate secrets. I am sure I remember seeing it and if memory serves me, it ended with a low shot of Lawrence seen between her legs from the rear. Could someone please tell me if I am right and if so, why was it edited and especially now with more liberal standards? Could I have seen an European version of the film and the one currently on DVD is the American version?

MGM's new release of DARLING looks beautiful and more pristine than the Criterion Collection's laserdisc edition from 1995. There are no features aside from the (very dated) trailer; commentary from Christie would have been a welcome feature and made this a great one for your collection. The greatest disappointment is in the brief editing within the Parisian brothel sequence: the standard VHS tape that had been floating around for years omitted Christie's nude scene, a couple of shots hinting at oral sex between she and Laurence Harvey, and the brothel sequence. The DVD keeps almost everything in tact except a shot of a man rushing into a room to 'perform' with his cigarette smoking female partner. What you're left watching is a close-up of Julie Christie's shocked face as she stares at a woman smoking. The impact of the scene is gone. Now, the only version of DARLING that is fully intact is the laserdisc from Criterion and late-night showings on TCM. What gives MGM? Are they afraid viewers might not be able to handle such 'shocking' material?

Darling is like nothing you would see today, this is largely due to its maturity. It is a 'grown-up' film made by adults, about adults for an adult audience.

It is the tale of a very good looking young woman who rides with the wave that her good looks take her on.

Diana Scott (Christie) starts out a care-free young thing, swinging along the streets of mid-sixties London when she is stopped by a reporter and asked if she'd like to make a comment about 'today's youth' for a magazine TV programme. She is so flattered that she falls for the reporter who swiftly leaves his wife for her.

But after a while Julie gets bored and wants to expeience more of what this brave new sixties world has to offer & we the audience travel along with her for the journey...from model to film star to finally capturing the eye of an Italian prince who marries her.She becomes Princess Diana trapped in a palace with only her misery for company.

Julie Christie's character is supposed to be an immoral girl but you can't help but like her. Watching this film is like going on a journey through someone else's life to such a degree that you will forget your own after a while as you follow her around from Paris to Italy,through her various flings,friendships & encounters.No special effects here,Darling is about people. People living in the 'contemporary' world.

The film has dated 'terribly'...that's part of its fascination. It's a mid-sixties time capsule. If you are a fan of or are at all interested in 'sixties London buy this with confidence. It is a privilege to be be able to recommend it to you.

Darling is a witty film. Intelligently made. Superbly shot & edited. I would recommend it to anyone who is studying film, so fluently & deftly is this masterpiece put together.

Filmed in Black & White...not only does Julie Christie look stunning but she rises to every note. She well deserved her Oscar for best actress in 1966.

This is a movie that would interest & entertain even the people who usually would not be drawn to this kind of a theme.

Highly recommended!

Diana Scott (Julie Christie) has just made the cover of "Ideal Woman" magazine. In a flashback, she recalls her rise to fame and fortune, beginning as a 20-year old would-be model in swinging-sixties London. She was beautiful, hip, and full of life, gliding easily through affairs and enjoying the good life.

Christie was so young and beautiful in this movie! Even with the black and white photography, she's luminous, dynamic, and, yes, darling. In her Oscar-winning role, she climbs the social ladder using Dirk Bogarde and Lawrence Harvey as two of her stepping stones; they're both excellent.

The movie is such a product of it's time (1965) and puts so much emphasis on her trendy wardrobe that it seemed a bit dated to me. Also, there were a few scenes when I thought she hammed it up too much, but still I enjoyed her and the movie and recommend it.

This MGM Home Video version of Darling (#1005693) is not a full version of the film. It was enjoyable but rings of media puritanism. A number of defining scenes, albe-them mildly risque, are missing. This is cultural and historical bleaching. We must discourage companies from ruining films. Do not buy it. I am now out the money and looking for the full version on DVD.

"Darling" is a searing look into the shallow life of a London girl during the mid-60's. It stars Julie Christie in the title role of Diana Scott and takes us through a few years of her life from mod-model to wife of an Italian prince. Dianna's messy life and total disregard for others is brilliantly shown through the convention of her telling "My Story" to a magazine while contrasting her tale with the actual facts of her life.
Co-stars Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey each serves the story in their unique and gifted ways. Bogarde as Robert Gold is Diana's one brush with real emotion and possible salvation is at the top of his form giving yet another fine performance in support of Miss Christie. Laurence Harvey is cold and calculating as the bored playboy Miles Brand. He has never been better or has his angular face been shown to be more sardonic and deceitful than here in this film.
The direction by John Schlesinger is razor sharp and never misses the truth behind each scene. Cinematographer Kenneth Higgins captures the feel of mid-60's London, Pairs and Italy in crisp and clean shots. His close-ups are nearly surgical in what they render visible to the eye.
John Dankworth executed the composition of one of the most haunting themes from the sixties, which plays over the brilliant opening credits. His score is perfect and underscores Diana's story so well.
Finally there is Julie Christie in her Oscar winning performance. What a revelation this film and Miss Christie were at the time. Movies were changing so rapidly from what they had been all along to a more adult and honest look at life. The cracks began to appear after WW II. They widened in the 1950's but by the time "Darling' came along the movie industry had changed, imploded then exploded into a new and freer form of expression. Riding this wave to triumph in 1965 was the nearly unknown Miss Christie. Her Diana is unapologetic, raw and wonderful. She never holds back in showing us the ugly side of this beautiful vacuous woman and by the last scene she commands the screen with the authority of a truly perfect performance.

This is a wonderful film of its time - Julie Christie in an oscar winning performance as the social butterfly Diana Scott. Like the other British arthouse classic The Servant this is the story of moral decay, and its empty consequences. Made at a time when old rules(homosexuality, abortion,adultery)where under question during the permissive 60's, Schlesinger has created a time capsule of British culture - the Dankworth score is also perfectly of the time and a marvellous melody over the opening titles.

Julie Christie is dazzling as Diana in Darling. Of all the films I've ever seen, I rank this one in my top ten list. The camera angles are stunning, the narrative fresh and witty, the tequniques startling, and the acting superb. This is a must-have for any movie lover!!!

Julie Christie turns in a stunning portrayal of a British model seeking true happiness in life via having several affairs with different men. Her lifestyle results in an abortion, lost hopes, and finally, disillusionment, as she finally reaches her long desired zenith in society. Once she does she clearly sees how empty her life really is. Christie won the Oscar for Best Actress for this film (1965) and it also won Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Costume Design, for the dresses and mini-skirts she wears in the film set off a fashion trend for the late 60's. It was also a Best Picture nominee. Not rated at the time, but would come under a PG-13 rating by today's standards. It is in black and white and runs just over two hours.

Her name isn't Darling, but that's what they call her. She doesn't mind, just as long as they call her--men, that is--for dates, for jobs, whatever. John Schlesinger's second film with Julie Christie (after her notable cameo as Tom Courtenay's dream girl in Billy Liar) put them both on the map--and won Christie the Oscar as social-climbing model/actress, Diana Scott. It's a stylish, yet poignant tale (also deservedly snagging an Oscar for best costume design); of its time, yet timeless--and the parallels between Diana and real life royals, Princesses Grace and that other Diana only add to the poignancy. Christie's brilliance aside, the contributions of Dirk Bogarde (The Servant) and Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate)--two other leading lights of swinging sixties British cinema--should not be overlooked. Harvey has rarely been more cool and callous, Bogarde rarely more vulnerable and human. Diana uses one man and is used by the other, only to give up her playgirl lifestyle for something brighter, shinier--and altogether emptier. Darling represents the peak of the Schlesinger-Christie pairings and is one of the finest films of the 1960s.