Darling
Darling, released in 1965, is often seen as what amounts to an advert for ‘swinging London ’. The reality is rather different: Julie Christie ’s character, Diana Scott, is clearly living an empty life, though paradoxically one full of experiences. Her use of sex to further her acting and modelling careers, and her financial and social ambitions, removes her from a world where love has any meaning, most obviously emphasized in the scene where she watches a sex show with members of her new set. The music in Darling also distances it from what was happening in the capital, John Dankworth’s jazzy score a world away from The Beatles et al. And why the movie was made in black and white when the world it was exploring was a sudden riot of colour is hard to understand - other than perhaps for budgetary reasons. Julie Christie won a Best Actress Oscar, though it may be kindest to describe her performance as understated, and Frederic Raphael scored another as writer. Dirk Bogarde gives one of his lazy ‘tired of all this’ turns; whereas Laurence Harvey at least does put some emotional energy into the piece, and scores 12/10 for louche. Darling falls between several stools: arty without being innovative; modern without being contemporary; satirical without really being humorous. Yet it always figures in lists of top British movies.
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Current top 10
1: Oliver!
2: Zulu
3: The Railway Children
4: The Italian Job
5: Life of Brian
6: Trainspotting
7: The Third Man
8: The 39 Steps
9: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
10: Local Hero
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