Darling

Still effervescent and relevant at 60 Darling has been given a 4K restoration for its release into cinemas and later on DVD/Blu-ray.

One of the first things that strikes as Diana (Julie Christie) as begins her narration is the pitch perfect jazz soundtrack of John Dankworth that encapsulates the period, together with John Schlesinger’s sparkling direction.

Diana is a model with ambitions though stuck in a dull marriage until she meets tv reporter Robert (Dirk Bogarde) with whom she immediately strikes up a friendship that soon develops.

Meeting Robert provides Diana with a boost up the social ladder but only so far. Until she meets Miles (Laurence Harvey) a powerful advertiser who exposes her to the people she wants to meet and aspires to be. When the cracks begin to appear Diana befriends gay photographer Malcolm (Ronald Curram) with whom she goes to Italy and there almost instantly takes the attention of Prince Cesare (Jose Luis de Vilallonga).

That summary could make Diana look like a simplistic, unashamed bed-hopper with stars in her eyes and prepared to compromise almost anything to get what she wants. She is certainly a compulsive liar and couldn’t be counted on for emotional support. But then she is in a world of men who have the same attitude. A board meeting chaired by Miles is composed totally of men in suits taking decisions that could potentially make or break her.

And Diana is smart picking up quickly on a strange truth or dare type game in Paris, where she dismantles Miles’s character. Or in brilliant scene when she has an argument with Robert on the London Underground after he has accused her of being a whore. Grabbing his money she begins to shout on the escalators that she’s worth more to try to humiliate him.

And Robert is the one she returns to every time only he has his limits. For all the power that Diana wields and uses to enrich her life as she moves up the social ladder, playing men at their own game, there’s only disappointment. As such the film has a relatively downbeat ending with Diana questioning what she has really achieved.

Christie won an Oscar for her performance (there were two others for Julie Harris’s costumes and Fredric Raphael’s original screenplay). It’s an outstanding performance playing a woman who fundamentally is just trying to do the best for herself against almost all the odds. Complex and deeply flawed Christie captures he nuances and brings to life an understandable and sympathetic character.

Bogarde has less screentime and his character doesn’t move on that far from when he first appears. An intellectual and more logical, Robert is not as emotionally driven as Diana hence his decisions regarding their relationship, though they are not taken without a degree of personal anguish.

Darling will be in UK cinemas from 30 May and on 4KUHD and Blu-ray from 16 June 2025.

Special Features for 4K UHD and Blu-ray:
NEW Sofia Coppola on Darling
NEW Let’s Call It Darling: An Interview with Frederic Raphael
NEW After a Fashion: Julie Harris's Costumes for Darling
Excerpt from BEHP audio interview with John Schlesinger
Behind the Scenes stills Gallery
Costume Designs Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer