Darling [VHS] [1965]

Diana, who is married, is having an affair with a married television correspondent, Robert Gold, played to perfection by the sexy and world weary, Dirk Bogarde. Eventually, they leave their respective mates and set up house together in swinging London. All is not hunky dory for long, as Julie goes on to have an affair with her agent, Miles, divinely played by Laurence Harvey. When Robert discovers her lies and infidelity, he leaves her.

Diana goes on to party hearty, and she ultimately meets a wealthy and widowed, Italian prince while on location in Italy shooting a commercial. After a perfunctory meeting, she meets up with him again, and he proposes. She thinks about his proposal, and ultimately consents to becoming Princess Diana.

Only after marrying him, a virtual stranger to her, does she realize how lonely she is. She finds herself being left in their palazzo with his seven children, while the prince is away, ostensibly visiting his mother without her. She realizes that she is living in a gilded cage, no more than a trophy wife.

She impulsively contacts Robert and flies to England to meet with him. After they make love, she realizes how much she loved him and declares her feelings for him, only to be rebuffed. He then sends her packing, back to her empty life in Italy. Yet, he does so at great emotional cost to himself, as well.

This film is very representative of the swinging sixties and conveys a real sense of the joie de vivre of the period. It deals with subjects that were formerly taboo. There are subtle and sly references to homosexuality. Abortion and a woman's sexuality are issues in the film and dealt with in a way with which these issues were not ordinarily dealt. While it may seem tame by today's standards, this was very cutting edge in its time and reflective of some of the changes which society, as a whole, was undergoing. This movie is definitely an oldie but a goodie.

Director John Schlesinger brings out the best in even the bit players, and most of all, from Dirk Bogarde, who gives a heartbreaking, brilliant performance as one of Diana's stepping stones. Laurence Harvey plays a vain and vile character with the snakelike coldness he is so good at, and of course, Christie is in her prime, and her beauty and talent shine bright.

Though the atmoshpere of the film is caught in the '60s, the story and characters are timeless; this film deserves to be viewed, for its tremendous performances, and as a portrait of how times change, but much of humanity stays the same, and selfish desires, even when satisfied, are but clanging brass.

Schlesinger and screenwriter Frederick Raphael don't exactly condemn Diana making her choices or for taking the route that she does, but they haven't anything positive to say about her either. Christie plays her as a spoilt, petulant little girl, too totally amoral to feel anything honest or meaningful for another person, or for that matter, to elicit a strong feeling from us.

Christie is eminently watchable and her stunning beauty carries the film. In fact, she's so pretty that her flaky character remains always interesting. Dirk Bogarde goes from happy to neurotic to vindictive, and Laurence Harvey maintains a smug winner's superiority that's very off-putting. If there is any downside to Darling, it's that there's ultimately nobody on screen worthy of our sympathy.

But Darling is ultimately a searing indictment of Sixties superficiality, all dressed up to look chic and sophisticated, in which the surface of things is readily available from a deluge of media outlets but nothing is explored in depth. It is indeed a classic film and can be viewed again and again.

By closely studying and scrutinizing Julie Christie's character, Raphael and Schlesinger were able to focus on poster girl, the pretty face we encounter every day on television that seduces us into buying products we neither want nor need. Perhaps the ultimate statement, and the theme of the movie, is that this type of character is as empty as the image itself.

At one moment, as she is caught by a camera from precisely the right angle, Diana Scott displays an almost classic beauty, startling in its intensity; a second later, all sorts of sordid, superficial emotions cross over her face, making her appear cheap and ultimately quite vacuous. Perhaps it's a testament to Ms. Christie's fine performance that she can make these emotions appear so real. Mike Leonard October 05.