Darling

Julie Christie took home an Oscar for playing ambitious model Diana Scott in this 1965 British classic. Six decades later, Darling returns in a crisp, new restoration. Helmed by British New Wave auteur John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy), this satirical tragedy follows the chaotic personal and professional life of a model who navigates fidelity and showbiz in an increasingly consumerist London of the 60s.

Sex and the City, 1960s London edition. John Schlesinger's Darling is understandably a product of its times. This holds true for some iffy elements like white dolling up black children as domestic helpers or protagonist Diana gleefully uttering the n-word to describe her black neighbors. But these aspects aside, Darling still holds up as an immersive character study, not just with its tragic heroine but also with the ever-changing city of London. Eyes Wide Shut scribe Frederick Raphael's screenplay plays out as a pseudo-biography of a London model's life as we see her rise through the ranks in the city's social spheres and make the leap towards acting (reduced to a scream queen in campy horrors), and bed an influential man one too many times. Even when these manipulative narcissists eye her with their perverted gaze, Diana is still shown to have enough voice and agency in her extramarital pursuits. From an insecure journalist driving a cramped car to a sleazy director booking fancy suites for his affairs, the men in Diana's life are colorful characters in their own right. But the ways in which their vanity and control affect Diana's perception of high society are where Darling truly shines.

Julie Christie's performance stands the test of time. The audience is bound to find itself in a voyeuristic perspective as we see Diana descend into boredom, solitude, and seemingly manic depression. It's not a comfortable ride, but considering this is a '60s product, Darling is surprisingly not as exploitative as it would seem to be. Julie Christie's brilliantly nuanced performance evokes both the glitzy objectification and the tragic fate of Golden Age stars like Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo. By the second half, when Diana gears towards a royal rendezvous in Italy, one can be tempted to think of her as a precursor to the real-life Princess Diana, complete with ill-fated romances and unwanted press attention. While Schlesinger is masterful in subverting familiar "rise-and-fall" motifs, it's Christie's charismatic performance that makes Diana stand out as a memorable character. Just because the men in her life are gaslighting brutes doesn't necessarily imply that Diana is moping throughout the film. Diana's search for brief glimmers of hope in her usual say-cheese-and-smile routine is brought out with conviction, even in silent moments with Christie just smiling or introspecting against scenic backdrops.

A fitting restoration for a black-and-white city parable. Despite Darling mostly limiting itself to its booze-spilling, sex-heavy world of showbiz, the city does subtly reflect the changing realities of post-war Britain. Vignettes of vox-pop interviews with various Londoners reflect a working population's perceptions of the job market, nationalism, and homosexuality. Barring elegant detours to France and Italy, an economically broken London sets crucial scenes, be it with billboards advertising shallow ideals of female beauty or demolished houses and immigrant labor-dependent construction prophesying the changing face of the city. These urban realities are cheekily edited to complement Diana's inner turmoil, while some aerial views of the city make the modern viewer marvel at how they filmed it all in a drone-less era. An apt example of this is early on in the film, as Diana sits inside a journalist's car, with the camera shifting from a close-up of the vehicle and continuously descending up in the heavens to give a wide-eyed glimpse of a bleak metropolis. Thanks to this sharp 4K restoration by StudioCanal, the black-and-white 1965 classic returns with more depth and detail for the alluring bittersweet charm of both Julie Christie's Diana and 60s-era London.