Septuagenarian spy Monsieur Diman (Fabio Testi) lives in a luxury hotel in Cote d’Azur. Not that you would know this without reading the movie synopsis. This is a film so wilfully fragmented that the storyline becomes entirely secondary to the sound and the visuals. The plot is virtually impossible to follow. This is a movie to be felt and contemplated, not to be understood. There’s enough gore and groove on display to keep you equally entranced and disgusted for its entire duration of 87 minutes.,
Our tan suit and panama hat clad protagonist boasts the looks of George Clooney, the charms of Dirk Bogare and the gun skills of Bruce Wlllis. He becomes obsessed with a woman who reminds him of an old acquaintance. So he begins to daydream in very vivid colours. His fantasy pursuit leads him to a web of intrique and peril, forcing Diman to team up with a sensual agent (Céline Camara), and to contend with a sexy male nemesis (Koen De Bouw). They must find the elusive Markus Strand, and the dangerous Serpentik. These characters shift between French, English and Italian for no apparent reason. And there’s also a little German and a little Spanish thrown in for extra flavour. Just because. It’s up to you to put the puzzle pieces together, and make sense of the story in any way you see fit.
The references to James Bond are countless, as the movie openly seeks to hay homage to the most famous secret agent in the history of fim. The rotating shutter lens, the silhouettes against sunset, the gun pointing at audience (breaking the fourth wall), the suited and booted agent, the colourful stripes twirling around in kaleidoscopic mode, the epic and sensual music, and – of course – the countless diamonds are all there. But Reflection in a Dead Diamond goes a couple of steps further, dousing the action in more blood and vintage textures than the American franchise, and treading firmly on giallo territory.
The fast editing, the frenetic music, the highly saturated colours and the bright-red, abundant blood that became the trademark of Dario Argento are also there for everyone to see. The violence is very graphic: body parts are severed, eyes are gouged out, heads are crushed against broken glass, a finger is inserted into an open gash, and much more. The bordeaux-coloured cartoons of pulp literature are also present. As is the Italian song 24,000 Baci (a popular pick amongst European filmmakers, featuring in Emir Kusturica’s Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, from 1981, and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, from 2018).
Not everything is old and derivative, though. Hélène Cattet insert Bruno Forzani insert Caravaggio paintings into their film, as well as abundant full-body skin masks that peel off to reveal a brand new person underneath it. Sounds weird? That’s precisely the point. Don’t try to make much sense out of this movie gumbo. Just sit back and enjoy the flavours. With your eyes closed even. Particularly if you are squeamish.
The French-born and Brussels based directing duo behind this film have shared both their bed and the director’s seat for a long time. This is the fourth feature film that this married couple have made together, the previous one being the similarly loud, colourful and violent Let the Corpses Tan (2017).
Reflection in a Dead Diamond premiered in the Official Competition of the 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing at IndieLisboa, at the Mediterrane Film Festival (in Malta), the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival.
