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Two years before the publication of her emblematic feminist diatribe The
Female Eunuch made her a household name, Germaine
Greer starred in this darkly comic curio funded by the BFI Production Board. Gleefully sending up the misogynist
cliché of the clingy girlfriend, Greer portrays a shrieking harpy whose
desperation to obtain a declaration of love leads to increasingly deranged
displays, as her deadpan lover (Alistair Burg) ignores
her outbursts. The dialogue consists entirely of Greer's frenzied yelps of
'Darling, do you love me?', until the man expires under her throttling grasp,
finally choking out "I love you" as Greer stares into the camera, satiated at
last. Simultaneously funny and disturbing, the film plays with the gender
stereotypes that Greer sought to destroy in her pioneering written work.
Monthly Film Bulletin's review compared the film unfavourably to Yoji Kuri's
Japanese animation Ai (1962), in which a woman pursues a long-suffering man
across the town, repeatedly panting the word 'ai' ('love'). The comparison is
interesting: with her blanched face and shock of black hair, Greer perhaps resembles an onryo, a spirit that returns to
the physical world to wreak vengeance in Japanese folklore.
Darling... also references the famous shot in Ingmar Bergman's Persona (Sweden, 1966), as the
faces of Greer and Burg
briefly merge into one.
Like Greer, the crew members were predominantly Australian, some of them
significant figures in the 1960s counterculture. Martin Sharp was a major
contributor to Oz, the satirical anti-establishment magazine published both in
Australia and the UK, and was later convicted on obscenity charges following the
publication of one of his poems; the conviction was later overturned. Director
of photography Bob Whitaker was best known for his still photography work with
musicians, including the gruesome (and swiftly withdrawn) cover for The Beatles'
North America-only LP Yesterday and Today, in which the band appear strewn with
dismembered doll parts and slabs of raw meat.
Alex Davidson
*This film can also be viewed via the BFI's YouTube channel.
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Complete film (3:28)
Production stills
