Darling **** (1965, Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey) – Classic Movie Review 2,270

John Schlesinger’s 1965 film Darling stars Julie Christie at her most luminous. She won the Best Actress Oscar as an ambitious, amoral English model who sleeps her way to the top of the Swinging London fashion scene.

Director John Schlesinger’s triumphant British triple-Oscar-winning 1965 road-to-ruin melodrama film Darling stars Julie Christie at her most luminous. She is so compelling and gorgeous that she won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Diana Scott, an ambitious, amoral young English model who sleeps her way to the top of the Swinging London fashion scene.

Eventually, she ditches a series of lovers to marry a chilly Italian noble, in Schlesinger’s Sixties moral tale. Frederic Raphael also won an Oscar for his tailor-made screenplay, and Schlesinger, who had just directed Christie in Billy Liar, directs in a showy, trend-setting style that made this a Sixties highlight and milestone.

There’s less flamboyant acting work from Dirk Bogarde as well-known TV journalist Robert Gold who introduces her into new social and professional circles, and abandons his family to live with her, and Laurence Harvey as Miles Brand. Bogarde and Harvey support notably in well-judged, intense, brooding performances. But it is Christie’s show and she’s incandescent.

Darling is the winner of three Oscars, including Best Actress (Julie Christie), Best Original Screenplay (Frederic Raphael), Best Black-and-White Costume Design (Julie Harris), plus nominations for Schlesinger as Best Director and Joseph Janni for Best Picture.

There also were four Bafta awards: for Christie as Best British Actress, Bogarde as Best British Actor, Raphael for Best British Screenplay and Ray Simm for Best British Art Direction (B/W). Schlesinger was nominated for Best British Film, and Kenneth Higgins was nominated for Best British Cinematography (B/W).

It won the 1966 Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film. Schlesinger was nominated for Best Director and Christie for Best Actress – Drama.

Kenneth Higgins’s moody black and white cinematography adds loads to the film’s atmosphere, but it went unrewarded. It is 1965 and it is still cool to be making major movies in black and white!

Frederic Raphael’s screenplay is based on an idea by Frederic Raphael, John Schlesinger and Joseph Janni.

It is the first film of prolific and talented British character actor James Cossins. Also in the cast are Roland Curram, Alex Scott, Basil Henson, Pauline Yates, José Luis de Villalonga, Helen Lindsay, Tyler Butterworth, Peter Bayliss, Lydia Sherwood, Brian Wilde, Carlo Palmucci, Dante Posani, Umberto Raho, Marika Rivera, Ernest Walder, Richard Bidlake, Trevor Bowen, Georgina Cookson, Jane Downes, Ann Firbank, Zakes Mokae, Hugo Dyson, and David Harrison.

It’s Christie’s only Oscar, though she has had three other nominations, for McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971), Afterglow (1997) and Away from Her (2006).

Darling is made by Joseph Janni Productions, Vic Films Productions and Appia Films, and released by Anglo-Amalgamated (UK) and Embassy Pictures (US). It premiered in New York City on 3 August 1965, and was released later in UK cinemas on 16 September 1965.

It cost £300,000, provided by Nat Cohen of Anglo-Amalgamated, and grossed $4.5 million (though these figures are estimates and vary). Cohen sold the US rights to Joseph E Levine at Embassy Pictures for $900,000 for a profit – and the movie went on to be a big hit in the US.

It runs 127 minutes.

Production ran from August to December 1964 on location in London, Paris, and Rome. The final scene is shot at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Shirley MacLaine originally was cast as Diana.

Costume designer Julie Harris died on 30 May 2015, aged 94. She won the 1966 Best Black-and-White Costume Design Oscar for Darling and won the 1967 Bafta for Best British Costume (Colour) for The Wrong Box. She designed for James Bond films Casino Royale and Live and Let Die, as well as the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night and Help, Goodbye Mr Chips and 1975’s Rollerball. She said: ‘I must be one of the few people who can claim they have seen John, Paul, George and Ringo naked.’

The cast are Julie Christie as Diana Scott, Laurence Harvey as Miles Brand, Dirk Bogarde as Robert Gold, José Luis de Vilallonga as Prince Cesare della Romita, Roland Curram as Malcolm, Basil Henson as Alec Prosser-Jones, Helen Lindsay as Felicity Prosser-Jones, Carlo Palmucci as Curzio della Romita, Dante Posani as Gino, Umberto Raho as Palucci, Marika Rivera as Woman, Alex Scott as Sean Martin, Ernest Walder as Kurt, Brian Wilde as Willett, Pauline Yates as Estelle Gold, Peter Bayliss as Lord Grant, Richard Bidlake as Rupert Crabtree, T B Bowen as Tony Bridges, Annette Carell as Billie Castiglione, Jean Claudio as Raoul Maxim, Georgina Cookson as Carlotta Hale, James Cossins as Basildon, Jane Downs as Julie, and Zakes Mokae as Man At French Party.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,270

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