“Darling” (1965)
Tom Courtenay may have been the star of “Billy Liar,” but Julie Christie walked away with the movie, just a-swinging her purse right onto that train to London where we pick her up (ostensibly) in “Darling.” It’s not the same character, but the same kind of character, one whom fascinated Schlesinger; the modern independent woman, sexually free and resisting against the norms of marriage but held back by a society that hasn’t quite evolved enough to contain her. Schlesinger and Christie achieved that symbiotic director-star relationship, where she was simply a natural extension of her persona and he captured it beautifully. Christie is magnetic as model Diana Scott, drifting to and from different men in swinging ’60s London, and she was deservedly rewarded with a Best Actress Oscar for the film. Schlesinger was nominated for Best Director, and he captures the unique energy of London at the time in stylish black and white, a smooth yet kinetic camera seeing all aspects of Diana’s world, never judging, but never shying away from some of the ugly truths in her often glamorous life. Diana ends up frozen in a prison of her own design, and the character at the end of the film is quite depressing compared to the free, careless pixie she once was, but Schlesinger makes it clear that it is society that truly imprisons Diana despite the choices she has to live with. “Darling” continued the world that was built in “Billy Liar” and Schlesinger proved his talent and absolute brilliance with a camera with his third feature.
“Far from the Madding Crowd” (1967)
After Julie Christie won her Oscar playing a free-spirited model of the moment in “Darling,” Schlesinger cast her in this period piece, an adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel with decidedly modern themes of sex, love and marriage. Christie plays Bathsheba, a strong-willed independent woman who inherits a farm property and decides to run it herself. She refuses suitors like the earthy, rugged shepherd Gabriel (Alan Bates) and the older landowner Boldwood (Peter Finch, also great in “Sunday Bloody Sunday”) because she doesn’t truly love them and can’t bring herself to marry without love. She becomes entranced with the sexy, sly military man Troy (Terence Stamp) who seduces her, marries her and then no joke, fakes his own death and joins the circus in order to end their tempestuous union. It’s a gorgeous film, sumptuously depicting the rural English countryside, but Schlesinger’s camera does more than just capture its natural beauty; it interprets the material, commenting on it visually, and creating a subjective look into Bathsheba’s world (helped in no small part by the cinematography of Nicolas Roeg). Whether it’s a psychedelic sequence of Troy seducing her with his swordplay (stop sniggering at the back…) or a simple pan to a music box, it speaks volumes about Bathsheba’s station and her mental state. Schlesinger’s “Darling” ended up frozen on a magazine cover, stuck in a marriage in the modern world, and in ‘Madding Crowd,’ these themes come up again, the free woman trapped in the amber of a traditional marriage, love and sex much more complicated and fraught with danger than it seems. The director transplanted the persona of Christie he’s already helped establish to this period piece in order to make his comment about sex and marriage in modern times. She is a wild-haired, passionate sprite in this film, and fills it with her unique feminine power. Schlesinger clearly had a thing for strong women and it is no more clear than in “Far from the Madding Crowd.” Fingers crossed for a Blu-ray release of this gorgeous, underrated classic soon.
