Julie Christie stars as Diana Scott, a young model who doesn’t know what she wants from life. She leaves her husband to be with a literary interviewer (Dirk Bogarde), only to find herself soon becoming involved with an advertising executive (Laurence Harvey), who may be able to boost her career, and then with an Italian prince (José Luis de Villalonga), who will transform her into royalty. Each of these relationships fails her in some way, and the film is deliberately ambiguous about whether she is using these men or they are using her.
It’s visually striking and the music by John Danworth adds a further dimension. It’s unpredictable, too, rather than simply opting for cosy kitchen-sink Englishness – such as when a party in Paris proves to be a transgressive experience featuring unsettling identity games.
Julie Christie is excellent as the young dreamer who is deeply confused. The film is all the more effective and engaging as a character portrait because it doesn’t seek to moralise.
No comments:
Post a Comment