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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 20299
Released: December 2, 2003 |
| Our Price: $7.98 |
| Used Price: $7.39 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Julie Christie turns in an astonishing, OscarÂ(r)-winning* performance in this "sensitive and stunning tale" (Cue) about wanting it alland getting exactly what you wish for. Directed by John Schlesinger from an OscarÂ(r)-winning* screenplay by Frederic Raphael, Darling is "a slashing social satire loaded with startling expositions and lacerating wit" (The New York Times). Ambitious model Diana Scott (Christie) uses her relationships to turn a low-rent career into a high-gear smorgasbord of jet-setting, love-making and the pursuit of hedonistic happiness. But as she moves from one fiery tryst with a TV writer (Dirk Bogarde) to another with a suave playboy (Laurence Harvey) and yet another with a crown prince, she finds that happiness is the one thing that may elude her forever. *1965: Actress (Christie), Original Screenplay, Costume Design
Description of 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
Darling Reviews:
Much More Than Carnaby Street Eye Candy 
2009-09-05 - When I was a teenager in New York, I happened to flip the channel and came upon this movie, which I observed for no more than ten minutes. It left an indelible impression on me, but not because of the witty dialogue or well-crafted cinematography. It was Julie Christie who drew me in, and many years later on my first viewing of the complete film, it is Christie who continues to beckon me, but not just with her beauty.
Handing an up-and-coming star so much screen time (or shall we call it "face time") as director Schlesinger did in "Darling" can be a risky proposition, but it pays off handsomely here. Christie truly deserved her Oscar for this emotionally wide-ranging, nicely nuanced performance of a narcissistic social climber in the "Swinging Sixties." She's adroitly paired with Dirk Bogarde to create an "owl and pussycat" story line, and Laurence Harvey is brought in as a manipulative, sexually ambiguous poseur who shows "Diana" the darker side of success. (Harvey's selection was somewhat ironic given his own "climb the ladder" character in "Room at the Top.")
"Darling" offers a true-to-life window into the growing glitterati subculture that was starting to flower after the Fifties. Most of the main characters make their living through the creation of images (a model, television personality, photographer, advertising man and revered writer), and Diana learns how to use her assets in this milieu most effectively. For all her conquests, all her connections, and all her globetrotting, the broadest, most genuine smiles come across her face when she is "in the moment" with her gay photographer friend or children - individuals who do not threaten to shatter her glass-like personality. Unfortunately, that apparent happiness is not to be sustained by the time the film ends.
Visually, "Darling" is a delight. The opening sequence, in which a poster on world hunger is papered over with a close-up of model Diana, effectively sets the stage for a steady string of sardonic observations by screenwriter Rafael, especially in the charity dinner and art gallery sequences. The episode in the Parisian salon comes off as a psychologically troubling mixture of Fellini freaks and the beach scene in "Suddenly Last Summer", and the cottage and verandah scene on the Italian Riviera is simply stunning. Director Schlesinger could easily have opted for color, but wisely chose black-and-white as befit the plot line and moral ambiguity of many of his characters.
About the only criticism one might make of this film is the too-obvious post-colonial moralizing about "haves" and "have nots." Other than that, "Darling" is much more than eye candy - a well acted, witty, and sometimes troubling look at a coterie of "haves" who grasp the railing on the merry-go-round hard, many times at personal cost.
Not What I Assumed it Would Be
2009-02-24 - I've learned that same old lesson again: Never assume. I've always avoided this movie because I thought it was going to be a lot of 60's bands and old music and a lot of girls in mini skirts and straw-like bangs, looking like a documentary on the first wives of the Beatles.
Instead, it was interesting, thoughtful, contemplative - and gorgeously scored.
I particularly liked the way the filmmakers didn't spell out everything. The movie rockets from a very brief scene from the Christie character's childhood, straight to her adulthood. I liked how the filmmakers respected the audience's intelligence and time by alowing it to figure out how a woman like that gets to be a woman like that. It makes for a more interactive theatrical experience.
Bogarde and Harvey bring that same inscrutible sexuality that they brought to other roles. We know they want Christie only by the way she reacts to them, not by the way they behave. Their pursuit of her isn't a chase - it's a stroll.
Christie's portrayal of a scrambling young woman doing the most with what little she has, embodies, I think, many young women - and this is what ultimately makes the movie heartbreaking. I would compare her plight to that of a child who is very tall for his age. People expect him to have the intelligence, vocabulary and maturity of an older child, and feel mystified and betrayed when the child fails to meet their expectations.
A real Princess 
2008-12-10 - I missed this movie when it came out:
the resulting character is sort of a cross between Grace Kelly and Princess Diana. For men this blond bomb shell is a disaster.
She pretty much has her way with life,
and finds that what she thought she wanted wasn't exactly what she really needed?
The two male actors are great and I think better than the star Julie Christie. The screen play is right on and seems to nail
down this sort of popular woman.
"It should be so easy to be happy,shouldn't it?"
2008-09-19 - "Darling" was Julie Christie's breakthrough in 1965,along with the epic "Doctor Zhivago." In "Darling", Christie is Diana Scott, a sophisticated London model. She's flighty and dreamy, always hoping for happiness and love. First, she shacks up with a married man, the suave Dirk Bogarde; later, she falls for the slimy playboy Laurence Harvey. In the meantime, she befriends a gay photographer Malcolm and becomes an Italian princess. She tries to become Catholic to please her princely husband. Alone in the palace, she goes mad. The ending is open to interpretation as an old lady sings "Santa Lucia."
"Darling" is a breakthrough film for its time. It addresses hot-button issues like abortion and homosexuality in an intelligent way (for example,a stuttering man claims that London is "rife with homosexuality",and Diana has a "miscarriage") The narrative structure is open to question. There's Diana's voice-over,providing sardonic commentary. The ending, with the singing old lady as well as magazines with Princess Diana's face on them- makes one wonder if she lived, or has become iconic with her premature death.
"Darling" is prescient, foretelling the unhappy,photogenic Princess Diana of our own time. It stands as a swingin',sardonic '60s classic.
everybody's darling, at any age
2008-05-24 - it is always a pleasure to watch and to re-watch julie christie in any movie she chooses to do. watching this early film in juxtaposition with AWAY FROM HER reminds us that Cleopatra was not the only woman whose beauty can not be withered by age. when the beauty evolves from intelligence, it is always with her and with us. we all are that much richer for having been in her presence.
