Darling is a 1965 British romantic drama film directed by John Schlesinger from a screenplay written by Frederic Raphael.[4] It stars Julie Christie as Diana Scott, a young successful model and actress in Swinging London, toying with the affections of two older men, played by Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey. The film was shot on-location in London, Paris, Rome and Shepperton Studios by cinematographer Kenneth Higgins, with a musical score composed by Sir John Dankworth.
Darling | |
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Directed by | John Schlesinger |
Screenplay by | Frederic Raphael |
Story by |
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Produced by | Joseph Janni |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Kenneth Higgins |
Edited by | James Clark |
Music by | John Dankworth |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated |
Release dates |
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Running time | 127 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £300,000[1] or $1.1 million[2] |
Box office | $4.5 million[3] |
The film premiered at the 4th Moscow International Film Festival on July 16, 1965, and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on September 16 by Anglo-Amalgamated. It became a critical and commercial success, grossing $4.5 million and received five nominations at the 38th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won in three categories: Best Actress (for Christie), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Costume Design. It also won four BAFTA Awards: Best British Actor (Bogarde), Best British Actress (Christie), Best British Screenplay and Best Art Direction (Black-and-White).
![]() | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2021) |
Diana Scott is a beautiful, bored young model married to Tony Bridges. One day, Diana meets Robert Gold, a literary interviewer/director for television arts programs, by chance when she is spotted on the street by his roving film crew and interviewed by him about young people's views on convention. Diana is invited to watch the final edit in the TV studio, and it's there that their relationship starts. After liaisons in bleak hotel rooms, they leave their spouses (and, in Robert's case, children) and move into an apartment.
As a couple, they become part of the fashionable London media/arts set. Initially, Diana is jealous when Robert sees his wife while visiting his children, but she quickly loses this attachment when she mixes with the predatory males of the media, arts and advertising scene, particularly Miles Brand, a powerful advertising executive for the Glass Corporation who gets her a part in a trashy thriller after she has sex with him. The bookish Robert prefers the quiet life; it is he who now becomes jealous, but increasingly detached, depressed and lonely.
Diana attends a high-class charity draw for world hunger for which she is the face. The event, adorned by giant images of African famine victims, is at the height of cynical hypocrisy and bad taste, showing Diana's rich white set, which now includes the establishment, playing at concern, gorging themselves, gambling and generally behaving decadently.
Already showing signs of stress from constantly maintaining the carefree look demanded by the false, empty lifestyle to which she has become a prisoner, Diana becomes pregnant, and has an abortion.
She flies to Paris with Miles for more jet-set sophistication. There she finds the wild party, beat music, strip dance mind game, cross dressing and predatory males and females vaguely repellent and intimidating, but holds her own, gaining the respect of the weird crowd when she taunts Miles in the game. On her return to London, Robert calls her a whore and leaves her, for which she is not emotionally prepared. Miles casts her as "The Happiness Girl" in the Glass Corporation's advertising campaign for a chocolate firm.
Diana finds comfort in the company of the gay photographer Malcolm who has created her now famous look and who is the only person who has shown her any real understanding and friendship. They go shopping and she engages in massive shoplifting. On location at a palazzo near Rome, Diana smiles in her medieval/Renaissance costume and completes "The Happiness Girl" shoot. She is much taken with the beauty of the building and the landscape and gets on well with the prince, Cesare, who owns the palazzo. With the friendly Malcolm, Diana decides to stay on in Italy. They stay in a simple house by a small harbour in Capri. Diana flirts half-heartedly with Catholicism. They are visited by Cesare, who arrives in a huge launch, invites them on board and proposes to Diana. Cesare is widowed and has several children, the oldest of whom is about the same age as Diana. Diana politely declines his proposal, but Cesare leaves the offer open.
Diana returns to London, and still living in the flat she shared with Robert, has a party with Miles and other assorted media characters. Robert has aged. Soon disillusioned with Miles and the vacuous London jet set, Diana flirts with the Catholic Church again. Impulsively, she flies to Italy and marries the prince, which proves to be ill-considered. Though waited on hand and foot by servants, she is almost immediately abandoned in the vast palazzo by Cesare, who has gone to Rome.
Diana flees to London to Robert, who, taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability, charms her into bed and into what she thinks is a stable, long-term relationship. In the morning, in self-disgust, he tells her that he's leaving her and that he fooled her only as an act of revenge. He reserves a flight to Rome, packs her into his car, and takes her to Heathrow airport to send her back to her life as the Princess Della Romita. At the airport, Diana is hounded by the press, who address her reverentially as Princess. She boards the plane to leave.
According to Richard Gregson, agent for John Schlesinger, the budget was around £300,000 and was entirely provided by Nat Cohen at Anglo-Amalgamated.[1]
Shirley MacLaine originally was cast as Diana,[5] but was replaced by Christie. Production on Darling commenced in August 1964 and wrapped in December.[6] It was filmed on location in London, Paris, and Rome.[7] The Romita palazzo was portrayed by the Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano. The final scene was shot at Heathrow Airport in London.[7][8]
In 1971, New York magazine wrote of mod fashion and its wearers: "This new, déclassé English girl was epitomized by Julie Christie in Darling—amoral, rootless, emotionally immature, and apparently irresistible."[9]
Despite receiving many awards at the time of release, the film later developed a mixed reputation. In his New Biographical Dictionary of Film entry on Schlesinger, David Thomson writes that the film "deserves a place in every archive to show how rapidly modishness withers. Beauty is central to the cinema and Schlesinger seems an unreliable judge of it, over-rating Christie and rarely getting close enough to the action to make a fruitful stylistic bond with it".[10] Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide described it as a "trendy, influential '60s film – in flashy form and cynical content".[11] Tony Rayns though, in the Time Out Film Guide, is as damning as Thomson. For him, the film is a "leaden rehash of ideas from Godard, Antonioni and Bergman", although with nods to the "Royal Court school", which "now looks grotesquely pretentious and out of touch with the realities of the life-styles that it purports to represent."[12]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Darling holds an approval rating of 67% from 18 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10.[13]
The film was a commercial success, grossing $12 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of only £400,000. It earned $4 million in theatrical rentals.[14]
According to Richard Gregson, the film only earned £250,000 in the United Kingdom, but Nat Cohen sold the U.S. rights to Joe E. Levine for $900,000 and made a profit – and the film was more successful in the U.S.[1]
Institution | Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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Academy Awards | 1965 | Best Picture | Joseph Janni | Nominated |
Best Director | John Schlesinger | Nominated | ||
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 | ||
British Academy Film Awards | 1966 | Best British Film | John Schlesinger | Nominated |
Best British Actor | Dirk Bogarde | Won | ||
Best British Actress | Julie Christie | Won | ||
Best British Screenplay | Frederic Raphael | Won | ||
Best British Art Direction – Black-and-White | Ray Simm | Won | ||
Best British Cinematography – Black-and-White | Kenneth Higgins | Nominated | ||
Directors Guild of America Awards | 1966 | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | John Schlesinger | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards | 1966 | Best English-Language Foreign Film | Won | |
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Julie Christie | Nominated | ||
Best Director – Motion Picture | John Schlesinger | Nominated | ||
Laurel Awards | 1966 | Top Female Dramatic Performance | Julie Christie | Won |
Mexican Cinema Journalists | 1967 | Best Foreign Actress | Won | |
Moscow International Film Festival | 1965 | Grand Prix | John Schlesinger | Nominated |
National Board of Review Awards | 1965 | Top Ten Films | 6th Place | |
Best Director | John Schlesinger | Won | ||
Best Actress | Julie Christie | Won | ||
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | 1965 | Best Film | Won | |
Best Director | John Schlesinger | Won | ||
Best Actress | Julie Christie | Won | ||
Writers' Guild of Great Britain | 1966 | Best British Comedy Screenplay | Frederic Raphael | Won |
Outstanding British Original Screenplay | Won |
Films directed by John Schlesinger | |
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Feature films |
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Documentary |
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Television |
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