Darling

 Robert: “Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in bed at the same time. You’re a whore, baby, that’s all. Just a whore. And I don’t take whores in taxis.”

Diana: “A pound’s not enough.”

Robert: “You’re not worth more than a bloody quid anyway.”

Diana: “I’m an honest working girl.”

Robert: “A fiver in the Walworth Road, that’s about your bloody mark.”

This brief encounter late into the runtime of John Schlesinger’s Darling just about sums up my feelings for this 1960s film about a woman who is devoid of morals and sleeps with just about every man she sees. That she ends the film unhappy seems to be just the right note in a film that otherwise didn’t quite hit the mark for me and left me disappointed when it seems to have scored accolades everywhere else. For me, it all came down to the character of Diana Scott (Julie Christie), an up-and-coming actress and model. In order to make this character interesting to me, there needs to be some redeeming value, and, quite honestly, there isn’t. Much like George Segal in A Touch of Class, Diana is an unlikable person because she is disloyal to everyone and lives a life of adultery and self-indulgence. She flirts a couple of times with Catholicism but never too seriously and follows that up with another romp with a handsome man that can improve her station in life but will never leave her fulfilled. 

The film opens with Diana, a bored young model, meeting Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde), a literary interviewer and director for television arts programs. Their meeting is by chance when she is spotted on the street by his film crew, and he interviews her about the young people’s views on convention. Afterwards, he invites her to watch the final edit in the studio, and there their relationship begins. They meet up in hotel rooms for romantic dalliances and eventually leave their spouses and, in his case, his children, too. The two move into an apartment together.

Initially, she is jealous whenever he sees his children, and more specifically his wife, but this dissipated as she mixes with the other men in the media, arts, and the advertising scene, particularly ad executive Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey). Miles secured her a part in a trashy thriller feature film after she sleeps with him, and her newfound fame goes against Robert’s preferred quiet lifestyle. As her star rises, he grows more detached and depressed. When Diana discovers that she is pregnant, she put her career first and has an abortion.

On location near Rome on a photo shoot with Miles, Diana falls in love with the beauty of the palazzo and the landscape of the city. She catches the eye of Prince Cesare della Romita (José Luis de Vilallongo), and he later proposes to her, which she initially turns down. Later, she will change her mind but finds that the life of a princess is not as glamorous as she had dreamed, and she longs for the olden days with Robert. But he is bitter and uses her need for intimacy to get his revenge on her, leaving her to the life she has built for herself.

Julie Christie is an interesting choice to lead this film. This was the same year that she starred in the epic Doctor Zhivago, also playing a woman participating in an adulterous relationship. Aside from that, there is little to no comparison between these two roles. Larissa is a woman with strong convictions who falls in love with a man who happens to be married already. Diana appears to have no convictions. She lacks a moral anchor, and so when opportunities present themselves to her, she doesn’t hesitate to hop into bed with someone no matter what it will do to the one(s) she is in a relationship with. This makes her a character that it is hard to get behind. Lacking that makes for a long film that can be hard to watch at times. Julie softens this just a little bit with her vibrant, but vapid, personality. Men in the audience would have been enchanted, and maybe a little in love with her, at the time. It doesn’t hurt that she is beautiful to look at and even has a moment late in the film in front of a mirror that is just begging for the male gaze. She had the looks and used it to great effect. 

The many men in Diana’s life each have their own characters, but aside from the much older Prince, the only one that really stands out is Miles, played by the Lithuanian-born Jewish actor Laurence Harvey. Laurence came into the public eye with his Academy Award-nominated performance in Room at the Top. He also starred in the original The Manchurian Candidate alongside Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. He’s memorable in a supporting role opposite Julie Christie, but ultimately he is just another one of the men Julie uses to further her career and satisfy her carnal desires. 

So much of this film is dependent on an understanding of the times. The 1960s was a transformative decade in England, and that rapid shift is on full display here. You can clearly see the influences of the swinging 60s here that were so heavily lampooned in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The British Invasion was in full swing, and free love was in the air. Looking back at Darling with that in mind almost makes the actions of Diana forgivable. Almost. There is a certain group of men who would look at this and want to be one of the men she falls for. Others who put a greater value on monogamy and healthy relationships will find her to be shallow and not worth the risk. I was in the latter camp, watching her bed-hop and just getting more and more disappointed in her and in this story. I felt the same watching Michael Caine in Alfie. But in Alfie, he has a bit of self-revelation in the final act. That doesn’t happen with Diane. 

Diana ends the film as a princess, something that she really doesn’t deserve. She has money and status and even four adoptive children. Her new husband, though, doesn’t really feel like the type that is overly affectionate and, when he leaves her for the better part of a week to go visit his mother, she feels the emptiness of her new life, dining alone with nothing but the servants for company. It doesn’t take long for her to run back to London, seeking out her former husband, Robert. But he uses her, taking advantage of her fragility to get revenge sex before kicking her out of his life. She ends the film as a princess but is emotionally lost, unable to enjoy life like she thought she would. It’s a satisfying ending for a character that really doesn’t deserve a happy ending. We last see her preparing to fly back to the palazzo, peppered by reporters who want to sell the façade of a happy life that doesn’t exist. Her face is plastered across magazine covers, but the face and smile are as artificial as her happiness. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Joseph Janni

Best Director: John Schlesinger

Best Actress: Julie Christie (won)

Best Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen: Frederic Raphael (won)

Best Costume Design - Black-and-White: Julie Harris (won)

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Release Date: September 16, 1965

Running Time: 127 minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, and Laurence Harvey

Directed by: John Schlesinger