Christie the Oscar at her first nomination in a contest that included Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music,” Samantha Eggar in “The Collector,” Elizabeth hartman in “A Patch of Blue,” and Simone Signoret in “A Ship of Fools.”
London has never seemed so decadent and immoral as in John Schlesinger’s “Darling,” a transitional film of the mid-1960s, released after the height of the Kitchen Sink Realism School (“Look Back in Anger,” “Room at the Top,” “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”) and around the time of the new movies about swinging London, beginning with the Beatles movies like “Help.”
As written by Frederic Raphael (based on his story) and directed by Schlesinger (who also contributed to the story with producer Joseph Janni), this movie couldn’t have been made in the 1950s due to censorship problems in depicting sexual promiscuity, abortion, and homosexuality. However, decades on, the film looks tame, a bit shallow-and too much of an allegory about a life devoid of any values or morals.
Julie Christie, then 23, became an overnight sensation after winning the Best Actress Oscar for playing Diana Scott, the amoral and immoral heroine who drifts into success easily and casually–at a price.
In the course of the plot, Diana works as a model and a bit actress, deserts her husband, and drifts through a series of affairs before settling on an empty, secluded life as a bored wife of an Italian aristocrat, learning the hard way the heavy toll of fame–and emptiness. One of the problems of the film is that we get a portrait of a young woman that spans years, but despite the scope, the narrative just moves from one chapter to another without explaining much the transitions in Diana’s life.
Giving a cool, stylized performance, Julie Christie is still the main reason to see the movie. Film critics have been too harsh, I think, on the picture, and how badly it has dated over the years.
There are still merits in the detached approach of John Schlesinger, who had assembled an amazing cast for this film, including Laurence Harvey, Dirk Bogarde, Alex Scott, and Helen Lindsay
Real Impact
This trendy film, with costumer Harris dressing Julie Christie in miniskirts, had a huge impact on the fashion world.
Oscar Nominations: 5
Picture, produced by Joseph Janni
Director: John Schlesinger
Story and Screenplay (Original): Frederic Raphael
Actress: Julie Christie
Costume Design (b/w): Julie Harris
Oscar Awards: 3
Story and Screenplay
Actress
Costume Design
Oscar Context
In 1965, Darling competed for the top award with another British-made film, David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago” (also starring Julie Christie, as Lara), Stanley Kramer’s pretentious drama, “Ship of Fools,” the Broadway based “A Thousand Clowns,” and the musical “The Sound of Music,” which swept most of the Oscars.
One of the youngest actresses to win the Oscar, Julie Christie moved to Hollywood and gave some distinguished performances in the 1970s, including Robert Altman’s “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” for which she earned another Oscar nomination.
