Dir: John Schlesinger | Wri: Frederic Raphael | Cast: Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey, Dirk Bogarde | UK Drama
Darling is the story of a good-time girl of the era. Ravishing but ruthless model Diana Scott (Julie Christie) has three lovers in her life on the premise that being faithful to one man is far too boring for the Swinging Sixties. .
Opportunistic she may be but her ambition is a timeless indication that nothing has changed since those hedonistic days when pretty girls would stop at nothing to make it to the top, although her moral compass still swings back to the 1950s in this Oscar-winning romantic drama from John Schlesinger.
Schlesinger had already cast Julie Christie now still swinging in her eighties, in a supporting role in Billy Liar There are three men in her life, each of whom willingly or involuntarily helps her aim for the stars: Dirk Bogarde plays Robert Gold a TV interviewer, an honest man striving to tell illusion from reality; Laurence Harvey, an advertising executive, totally cynical about manipulating society’s values; and Roland Curram, a gay magazine photographer battening parasitically on glossy society. There is also a ‘fourth man’ – the one whom Darling marries, only to find herself a prisoner of the jet-set world she has conquered. As a character she yearns for the freedom and fun of the new era yet desperately hunkers back to the cosy traditional values of the previous decade: the need to be loved, cherished and protected as a female, and crucially, a respectable social position. And she has a conscience despite her ambition.
Darling boosted the careers of Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde and sent them to global stardom. Schlesinger’s films always have a emotional weight and allure and this remains visually as sleek and stylish as it was upon its original release, with its lush jazz score by John Dankworth and glamorous outfits by Oscar-winning costume designer Julie Harris, capturing perfectly the essence of the era. The tale of the desperate, and at times tragic, pursuit of fame is as relevant in today’s image conscious society, as it was back then.
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