Darling

Darling is a 1965 drama directed by John Schlesinger and starring Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey and Dirk Bogarde. Shallow, faithless relationships in the 1960s. So, so dated. And I don't mean that in the sense that it shines a light on a particular point in time, but that it looks like a 50s perspective on the 60s. As if it were dated when it was released. As if the film-makers were stuck in the 1950s but were trying to do social commentary of the 1960s. Not fun.

trailer:

BFI ScreenOnline says, "Darling lacks tongue-in-cheek humour and seems barely aware of popular music: odd for a film purporting to be modern and fashionable. Instead, it seems dated". The Guardian concludes "what came across at the time, and what still, on this its 50th anniversary, gives the film its energy, is the sense of a trio of highly intelligent social observers devising a near-documentary portrait of a smooth, rather ugly society in transition." TCM has an overview. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 67%.