Latest news with #Darling
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Julie Christie film that scandalised Sixties Britain is back – you must see it
When film fans think about the swinging Sixties in cinema, it tends to be with almost Austin Powers-esque nostalgia. One remembers the Beatles gaily dashing about in A Hard Day's Night, Sean Connery's brooding charisma as James Bond and, if you will, the broader delights of the perennially popular Carry On series. Yet many of British film's most talented film-makers, writers and actors also collaborated on films that are both quintessential time capsules of what a certain kind of moneyed bohemian, artistic life was like six decades ago, and also stand up well today. One such example of this kind of picture was John Schlesinger's Darling, which was first released in September 1965 and is now being reissued in cinemas for its 60th anniversary. If you haven't seen it, it is entirely worth getting to your nearest art house cinema and savouring. Sexually charged and transgressive even today, it is the study of a bored, amoral fashion model, Diana Scott (Julie Christie), who divides her self-interested attentions between two older and successful men: the kindly Melvyn Bragg-esque Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde) and the high-powered and equally ambitious advertising executive Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey). Diana, naturally, betrays both of them, as she has betrayed everyone else who she comes into contact with, but the bed-hopping storyline is not the central appeal of the picture. Instead, Frederic Raphael's Oscar-winning screenplay memorably conjures up an anti-romantic vision of Swinging London where everyone is on the make, and where personal integrity is subsumed to beauty, charm and ambition. Even the film's title is ironic. Schlesinger knew from the outset that the picture was going to be the opposite of the light-hearted optimism of A Hard Day's Night and other quintessential Sixties films. 'I think that our attitude to Darling was a good deal more cynical than merely an optimistic look at Swinging London,' he would admit. The idea for Darling came from a conversation with the journalist Godfrey Winn, who played himself in Billy Liar. Winn asked the director whether he was at all interested in making a film that was based on real life, and when Schlesinger replied that the idea hadn't occurred to him, the journalist told him about what the director called 'an extremely cynical arrangement that was publicised after someone's suicide, in which there was a girl who was being kept by a syndicate of people, people in showbusiness and banking and so forth, and they all had access to her in a flat. One day, she despaired at her predicament, and threw herself out of a window.' Diana does not end the film in similarly fatal fashion, instead being married off to an Italian prince, but nobody would mistake the eventual resolution for a cheery one; it concludes with Diana, betrayed in her turn by a vengeful Robert, leaving Britain for Rome and a new, hollow life there. The ending is an ironic inversion of that of Schlesinger's previous picture, Billy Liar, in which the protagonist is unable to flee to London with his dream girl, but had it not been for the now-forgotten actress Topsy Jane, Darling may never have existed. Jane was originally cast in the brief but pivotal role of Liz, Billy Liar's apparent means of escape, but she dropped out with mental health issues. This necessitated her replacement by the then-unknown Christie, who walked away with the picture in true a-star-is-born fashion. However, it was by no means certain that she would appear in the picture, both for reasons of commercial viability and her own initial distaste for the starring role. The first choice was Shirley MacLaine, who was a far better-known actress – her performance in 1960's The Apartment had been Oscar-nominated – but it was felt that Diana should be played by someone British. As Schlesinger later said: 'We always had Julie Christie in mind for the part, but she was an unknown quantity then, and there was a good deal of resistance… Julie was very perturbed by the part, because she said it wasn't like her. So I said 'You're an actress, for God's sake, you can understand where she's coming from, this character.' Christie – a professional to her fingertips, as she has remained throughout a long and illustrious career – did not need to be told twice. In any case, the screenplay that Christie was presented with had gone through a tortuous creative process. The initial idea had come from Schlesinger, who came up with the storyline in collaboration with the film's producer Joseph Janni. Yet the director was not a proven screenwriter himself, and so he turned to the modish young writer Raphael, who had had some success the previous year with the black comedy Nothing But The Best. The script that they came up with was originally entitled Woman On Her Way, but this was felt to be excessively on the nose, so the simpler, more effective current title was then decided upon. 'The writing of Darling lasted a very long time,' Raphael would recall. 'I started working with John and Joe early in 1962, and the film was eventually shot in 1965, which was a very long gap. I didn't get paid, because I didn't ask for money, which was foolish of me. I got quite tired of it, because John kept saying 'They don't like the script, dear', so we buggered off to Greece to work together.' Raphael would shortly experience his own small-scale betrayal, which would, in turn, affect the misanthropy which seeped into the film's script. 'They then got someone else to do some work on the script, and as I hadn't been paid, I took a rather sour view of this, because I thought we were friends, but there aren't any friends in the business, and I should have known that. Besides, the work was dreadful, and virtually none of it ended up in the film.' Darling eventually began filming in August 1964 in the appropriately swinging cities of Paris, London and Rome, but production was not straightforward. The openly gay Schlesinger and the closeted Bogarde conducted a love affair off-set, and Harvey, who was rumoured to be bisexual himself, was deeply conscious of the fact that his casting in an extended cameo was the major reason that the production had managed to raise its budget of around £400,000. He had become an international star with his role in the 1959 picture Room At The Top, in which he had played an ambitious social climber not a million miles away from a male Diana Scott, but had failed to capitalise on his Oscar-nominated role since, and was desperately in need of a hit. Bogarde, meanwhile, was the fourth choice for the role of Gold, after Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Cliff Robertson had all turned it down. The character was then rewritten as British, and the versatile and talented actor – who was still tainted by the fall-out from the controversy behind his 1961 Victim – assumed the role. Schlesinger had more fun casting the minor parts – he took a cameo as a theatre director; the Inkling and academic Hugo Dyson appears briefly as a writer; and a real-life Spanish aristocrat, José Luis de Vilallonga, 9 th Marquess of Castellbell, plays the Italian prince who marries Diana – but the film was frequently on the verge of collapse due to a lack of funding. Only Bogarde's reluctant agreement to take a pay cut and David Lean's decision to cast Christie in the sought-after role of Lara in Dr Zhivago, which both created a buzz around her and, crucially, injected money into the production because of her needing to be bought out of her existing contract with the producer Janni, saw it proceed to completion. The jostling egos – Christie aside – and general air of one-upmanship may have fed into the film's uniquely claustrophobic atmosphere. But for Raphael, it made for a miserable experience. 'I'd seen the rushes in London and said that they were dreadful and wrecking the whole film, and I was right,' he said. 'Most of the stuff I'd seen was never in the movie, with Dirk, who was very good in the film, looking like a spurned hairdresser. He did say to me on one occasion 'I find this character very weak in this scene', and I found myself saying to him 'Why the f___ do you think we asked you to do it?'' The typically waspish screenwriter said of the star: 'Julie was extraordinary but not interesting. She couldn't say her lines to save her life and if she could mispronounce anything, she would. But in that movie, she does have an extraordinary quality – all the rawness of her backstory fed into it, and she was that girl.' Christie, perhaps mindful of the knowledge that the film's success rested on her slender shoulders, was very nervous in her first lead role, and often took refuge on the set to fall asleep. It fell to Bogarde to act as a friend and mentor to her, and in his memoir Snakes and Ladders, he wrote of Christie that 'She has more magnetism or, if you like, star quality than any actress I have worked with.' When the picture finally finished production, it was selected for an unusual accolade, and premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival on July 16 1965. If you had wished any film to symbolise the downside of the corrupt and materialistic West, you could hardly have asked for anything more effective. Its button-pushing sexual content was not just near the knuckle for the period, but positively shocking. One talked-about scene showed Diana and Miles attending a cross-dressing bisexual sex show in Paris, which is depicted coyly by today's standards but with enough detail for it to be clear what's going on. Then there's the almost casual revelation that Diana has decided to abort Robert's baby – at a time when abortion was illegal in Britain - rather than be tied down by the responsibility. Little wonder that he rounds on her, sneering 'Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in the bed at the same time. You're a whore, baby, that's all. Just a whore' and calling her 'a filthy little bitch.' Schlesinger also included a gay character, in the form of the photographer Malcolm, who is allowed to eye up a good-looking waiter, only to be reprimanded by Diana: 'We are not complicating our holiday with any disgusting sexcapades.' Unsurprisingly, the film had to be cut for both the UK and American release – it still received an X rating in this country – and the unexpurgated version was not released until a DVD release in 2007, which included shots of a man wearing a woman's corset and an extended version of the sex party. It's still strong enough to receive a 15 rating, even now. When it eventually premiered in edited form London in September, it received excellent reviews, all of which concurred that it captured the dark underbelly of the progressive society, and won several awards, including both a Bafta and Oscar for Christie. (Had it not had the BBFC -mandated cuts, it is more likely that it would have been greeted with protests.) One climatic scene in particular, in which Diana, amidst a breakdown, furiously tears off her clothes and jewellery, attracted attention (and was deleted from the initial American release of the film). Christie had not wanted to perform the scene, which required her to appear nude, but Schlesinger and Raphael argued that it was the depth of the character's descent, and thus integral to the picture. She eventually agreed, and the results made her a star. From being an unknown just a couple of years ago, she became perhaps the single most talked-about and iconic woman in Britain, a celebrity on a scale several times greater than even Diana managed. Her own life continued to contain parallels with that of her character – swap out Gold and Brand for the actors Terence Stamp and, notoriously, Warren Beatty – but she displayed rare acuity when it came to the parts that she took later, a legacy of the kudos that this role gave her. Some may suggest that Darling has dated, and that its cynicism and modishness (as well as nods to fashionable directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni) mark it as a film of its time. They may be right, but it also retains a strange, almost transfixing power, largely because of its lead. It was the beginning of a legendary career for her, and she deserved all the acclaim that she received. And Christie herself retained something of the spirit of Darling, after everything. As she told this paper in 2008: 'I honestly don't see anything wrong with hedonism. Life is for having fun with.' Diana may well have agreed with her. The 60th anniversary restoration of Darling is in cinemas from May 30 Beyond Darling: Julie Christie's five greatest roles 1. Billy Liar (1963) As the free-spirited, charismatic Liz, Christie may only be on screen for around ten minutes or so in what was her breakthrough role, but she bursts into cinema as an irrepressible and wholly likeable force of nature. The greatest question for many viewers is why, exactly, Tom Courtenay's fantasist Billy doesn't seize the opportunity to jump onto the train with Liz and embrace a new and happy life, rather than remaining locked up in his fertile imagination. His loss, however, was cinema's gain. 2. Doctor Zhivago (1965) Along with Darling, Christie's great breakthrough role was as the love interest Lara in David Lean's mega-budget adaptation of Boris Pasternak's bestselling novel about the after-effects of the Russian Revolution. Amidst the endless snow, Maurice Jarre's schmaltzy but unforgettable theme tune and scene-stealing performances from character actors (her old inamorata Courtenay among them), Christie manages to anchor the film by playing Lara as simultaneously wholly comprehensible and effervescently mysterious. To be frank, one would launch a revolution just for her. 3. Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) The Kinks sang on Waterloo Sunset about how 'Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station, every Friday night' and the song, written about Christie and her then-lover Terence Stamp, immortalised them as a quintessential Swinging London couple. It was inevitable, then, that they would star opposite each other in Nicolas Roeg 's excellent Thomas Hardy adaptation. Christie was cast as the strong-willed and independent Bathsheba Everdene and Stamp, appropriately enough, appeared as the dashing but venal Sergeant Troy. Roeg managed to make the film both wholly of its time and thoroughly contemporary, and Stamp's scarlet military tunic and virile swagger inspired a thousand hipsters – as well as the entire aesthetic of The Libertines. 4. Don't Look Now (1973) Christie reunited with Roeg for one of cinema's greatest ghost stories, a uniquely haunting study of loss and mystery set in a never more sinister Venice. Although Christie's part was largely a supporting one, with the late, great Donald Sutherland in the central role of her grieving husband convinced that he sees the apparition of her late daughter, they both featured in the film's most (in)famous moment, a lengthy sex scene shot in Roeg's signature time-jumping fashion. It dared to portray married love – and that taking place after terrible loss – in a sensual and exciting fashion, rather than the usual jokey or negligible treatment. It thus led to persistent rumours that the actors got carried away and ended up making love on camera for real. Roeg never denied this with the authority that he should have. 5. Away From Her (2006) Christie became much less prolific as an actress in the early 2000s, and today has apparently retired from cinema. She has only made a handful of on-screen appearances in the past two decades, and the most recent of these came in 2012, in Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. However, she did have one final great role in her, and that was as the Alzheimer's-afflicted Fiona in Sarah Polley's affecting and deeply compassionate study of loss in life. She was deservedly Oscar-nominated for her vanity-free performance, in which she eloquently conveys the indignity and horror of mental decline. If she never makes another film, this stands as a magnificent and resonant testament to her remarkable gifts as an actress.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nick Kroll shares shocking insight into John Mulaney's relapse ahead of famous intervention
Big Mouth creator Nick Kroll has shared his deepest fears about watching his friend and collaborator, fellow comedian John Mulaney, spiral during his drug addiction relapse in 2020. On the latest episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Kroll candidly explained the process of trying to organize the now-famous 2020 intervention that prompted Mulaney to check into rehab. 'It was so scary and brutal to go through because he was in New York. I was in LA. It was at the height of the pandemic,' Kroll explained on the podcast. 'So it was incredibly stressful to be in the midst of the pandemic, trying to literally coordinate and produce an intervention, bringing a bunch of different people together, friends from college.' In addition, Kroll's wife was about to give birth. 'And I was shooting Don't Worry, Darling, which there was no stress there,' he joked of the highly publicized drama surrounding the film. 'Then John was running around New York City like a true madman. And I was so deeply scared that he was gonna die,' Kroll continued. 'And I was trying to orchestrate all this of combining all the elements that go into these things, like the intervention person, where he was gonna go, who was gonna be at it. 'It was so f***ing stressful.' Kroll continued: 'You're all of a sudden going back being like, oh, that's why I've had an inconsistent friend for the last X amount of time. Oh, this explains that. And so it gives you both empathy for them and also tremendous amount of anger because they've been lying to you.' Kroll recalled being on the phone with Mulaney and sharing his fears. 'Both of us crying, me just being like, I'm so scared you're gonna die,' Kroll said. 'And so I felt him feeling the same way, but also like, just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, I'm in this new Airbnb. I gotta go.' The infamous intervention involved about a dozen of Mulaney's famous friends, including Kroll and late night host Seth Meyers. They all convened in New York and lured Mulaney to attend after convincing him he was having dinner with a friend from college. Speaking to Meyers on his eponymous show in September 2021, Mulaney said: 'When I opened the door, I knew right away it was an intervention. That's how bad of a drug problem I had, that when I opened a door and saw people, I went, 'This is probably an intervention about my drug problem.'' Mulaney went straight to rehab from the staged intervention and stayed for two months. He admitted to being addicted to Adderall, Xanax, Klonopin, and Percocet, and was also heavily using cocaine. The comedian then turned the ordeal into a Netflix special called John Mulaney: Baby J, which debuted in 2023. Mulaney has credited the intervention with saving his life. 'I don't mean to be weird. It was a star-studded intervention. It was, like, a good group,' Mulaney said of the intervention in the Netflix special. Despite being angry at the time, he did acknowledge that the act was life-changing. 'I am grateful to everyone at my intervention,' Mulaney said in the Netflix special. 'They intervened. They confronted me and they totally saved my life.' If you or someone you know is suffering from drug addiction, you can seek confidential help and support 24-7 from Frank, by calling 0300 123 6600, texting 82111, sending an email or visiting their website here. In the US, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration can be reached at 1-800-662-HELP
Wales Online
3 days ago
- Sport
- Wales Online
Tonight's Swansea City transfer news as offer made for defender and Darling close to decision
Tonight's Swansea City transfer news as offer made for defender and Darling close to decision The latest news from the Stadium Centre-half Ricardo Santos is leaving Bolton Wanderers at the end of June Here's your round-up of all the latest Swansea City news for Wednesday, May 28. Swans 'offer contract' to free agent Swansea City have reportedly offered a contract to outgoing Bolton Wanderers defender Ricardo Santos. The 29-year-old is a free agent having seen out his contract with the League One outfit, and Football League World claims the Swans, along with Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday, have now submitted an offer. Sign up to the Swansea City WhatsApp service to get breaking news and top stories sent to your phone Santos has also been linked with Derby County recently, and leaves Bolton having made 25 league appearances last season. Club sources have played down suggestions that a move to bring Santos SA1 is on the cards, although a new centre-back is likely to be on the agenda this summer, regardless of whether out-of-contract star Harry Darling decides to extend his stay at the club. Santos spent a total of five years with Bolton, and won promotion from League Two in his first season before taking the captain's armband between 2021 and 2024. The second half of last season was a testing time for Santos, who suffered rom a chronic pelvic injury that kept him out for three months. Nevertheless, he has still been tipped to the make the step up to the second tier. Darling decision close Harry Darling is close to making a decision on his future, WalesOnline understands. Darling, whose current Swans deal comes to an end this summer, has been pondering an improved contract offer from the club over the last few weeks, with his situation attracting interest from several other clubs. Wrexham and Birmingham City are among those keeping a close eye on developments, and there's an acceptance among Swansea's powerbrokers that Darling is likely to be entertaining offers from elsewhere. It's understood there is still some hope Darling will commit his future to the club, although confidence has clearly waned over the last week or so. Either way, a decision over what comes next is believed to be imminent. Quartet called up to under-21s Four Swansea City youngsters have been named in Matty Jones' latest Wales under-21s squad for the upcoming friendly with Norway in Spain. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here. Joe Cotterill and Cameron Cogreve, both of whom were included in Craig Bellamy's senior training camp earlier this month, join Cameron Congreve and Evan Watts in this latest squad, which will head out to Malaga to take on the Norwegians on Friday night. Article continues below This clash will be their final game before the start of their 2027 U21 Euro qualifying campaign, which gets under way later this year. Cymru U21: Evan WATTS (Swansea City), Lewys BENJAMIN (Wolves), Luke ARMSTRONG (Cardiff City), Archie HARRIS (AFC Bournemouth), Luey GILES (Cardiff City), Zac WILLIAMS (Crewe Alexandra), Ben HAMMOND (Nottingham Forest), Thierry KATSUKUNYA (Aston Villa), Dylan LAWLOR (Cardiff City), Sam PARKER (Swansea City), Alex WILLIAMS (West Bromwich Albion), Rhys THOMAS (Man City), Joel COTTERILL (Swansea City), Kai ANDREWS (Coventry City), Jonathan BLAND (Barnsley), Joel COLWILL (Cardiff City), Troy PERRETT (Cardiff City), Cian ASHFORD (Cardiff City), Tanatswa NYAKUHWA (Cardiff City), Cameron CONGREVE (Swansea City), Chris POPOV (Leicester City).
Daily Record
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Russell Martin already has clear first Rangers transfer target for takeover kings as plan goes beyond old guard
The former Southampton boss is among the frontrunners to land the vacant Ibrox hot seat Rangers next boss contender Russell Martin is already putting plans in place for a potential Ibrox tenure. And while his backroom staff is taking shape the incoming US consortium could already know the first signing that the former Southampton boss will made. Record Sport revealed that Maurice Ross would be Martin's right hand man if he lands the job - with Steven Gerrard and Davide Ancelotti also in the running to be Philippe Clement's permanent successor. And Martin could snap up a star he has worked with closely if he is given the chance to lead the new era at Rangers by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises. Swansea centre-back Harry Darling is out of contract this summer - and has already been signed twice by Martin at MK Dons and then to the Welsh side. The 25-year-old has a contract offer on the table from Swansea but is yet to put pen to paper - leaving the door open to Darling to reunite with a boss he "loved" in the Scottish Premiership. Speaking after his £1million move to Swansea in 2022, Darling said: 'I was with (Martin) at my last club and we've stayed in contact. I love working with him. 'I know the way the manager plays so it was just a case of getting the deal over the line. I just can't wait to get started. 'Although I'm a ball playing centre-back, my first job is to keep clean sheets, defend well and do that for the team. If I can do that a bit first, then goals are just added extras.' Rangers will need reinforcements at centre-back this summer with Leon Balogun leaving the club at the end of his deal and versatile loanee Neraysho Kasanwirjo and Rafa Fernandes returning to their parent clubs. But many fans will hope to see the takeover kings and the new boss push to bring back Vaclav Cerny permanently. The Czech winger has returned to parent club Wolfsburg - but German outlet WAZ suggest an exit from the Bundesliga side could still be on the table. It is claimed that the club are "open" to selling the 27-year-old but he will "initially return" to Germany to be assessed by the next permanent boss at the Volkswagen Arena. An asking price of around £7.5million is being floated - with reports in Turkey suggesting Besktas have already made "initial contact" about the availability of the forward. Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Douglas County warns of rising opioid overdose crisis
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Public health leaders in Douglas County are concerned about a spike in suspected opioid overdose cases. It's said to be twice the number of cases they're accustomed to seeing. The community's public health department isn't sure why this uptick exists. Biden shares message after diagnosis: 'Cancer touches us all' Emergency response workers in Douglas County say they see a steady stream of suspected opioid overdose cases, as many emergency medical teams do. A social media post from the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department is a call for attention to this matter. The post shares data gathered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, showing 33 suspected overdose cases in a twelve-county area. Many of those cases are based in Lawrence. 'I appreciate them raising awareness. This really is a community problem,' Chief John Darling, who leads EMS workers at Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical, said his emergency medical workers are sympathetic to these patients, especially since there's a behavioral health facet at stake. Since early 2025, that first response agency has seen a 69 percent increase in total incidents, 83 percent of which involves a patient needing an ambulance to reach emergency care. 'The real solution to this is taking into account all of the factors that cause people to become dependent on opioids and other substances, and then, helping them find different methods of behavioral intervention to change their behavior,' Darling said. Leaders at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department aren't sure what's behind the spike in these cases. Dee Kinard, an informatics manager with that agency, reminds the public Narcan doses and fentanyl test strips are available at various locations around Lawrence, including a vending machine at 15th and Iowa. View the latest Weather Alerts in the Kansas City region on FOX4 'Anytime we see an increase, it reminds us that we need to get the message out that people can access treatment, and there are harm-reduction strategies available for people to use. That saves lives,' Kinard said. Darling is also compassionate to these patients. He also points out several addiction treatment agencies around Lawrence are working to lessen the grip of dependency some patients experience. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
