Darling

Dirk Bogarde - Robert Gold
Laurence Harvey - Miles Brand
Julie Christie - Diana Scott
José Luis de Villalonga - Cesare
Roland Curram - Malcolm
Basil Henson - Alec Prosser-Jones
Helen Lindsay - Felicity Prosser-Jones

For a period in the mid-6os, British cinema developed a booming mini-industry in swinging London movies, and Julie Christie's Oscar-winning perceptive portrayal of a seductive beauty at the centre of it all provided the definitive image of its moral flipside. It does seem very much of its time these days, with little more substance than the lifestyle it portrays, though Christie, and Dirk Bogarde as one of her more sympathetic boyfriends, are compelling in John Schlesinger's acclaimed social satire.

Everyone calls Diana Scott (Julie Christie) 'Darling'. Following the break-up of her teenage marriage, the ambitious young model begins looking for fame and fortune, she soon realises that nothing succeeds like sex when it comes to climbing the social ladder, and subsequently ditches her lover. Using a stream of famous and infamous men, she embarks on a series of affairs to sexually manipulate her way to the top. Prominent TV journalist Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde), abandons his family to live with her and introduces her to a more powerful and wealthy social set. Next, Diana meets somebody more attractive: public relations executive Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey), and meets all the right people in the film industry whilst fully experiencing the swinging 60’s London scene. She soon becomes a prisoner of the jet-set lifestyle she herself had conquered after marrying millionaire Italian widower Cesare (Jose-Luis deVillalonga), despite material possessions her life remains vacuous.