Release Date – 5th December 2025, Cert – N/A, Run-time – 1 hour 27 minutes, Directors – Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
When his neighbour disappears a retired spy (Fabio Testi) finds himself reliving, and being caught up by, various iterations of his dangerous past.
A 70s-style Bond homage told through the trippy 60s lens that brought us The Monkees’ Head, I’d struggle to coherently tell you much of what happens in Reflection In A Dead Diamond. But, what I can say, is that I think I still managed to enjoy it. The basics follow retired spy John D (Fabio Testi) falling through his past after the disappearance of his neighbour, who looks like a familiar face, in the seaside hotel he lives in.
From there a kaleidoscopic array of iterations of his life start to unravel with fracture-like cuts from one to the next. Like the different forms of Bond the story almost takes form of novel, movie, production, character, actor and segments of life – although which is which can sometimes be uncertain.
Past (young John D is played by Yannick Renier) and present, not to mention possible future alongside fictional and alternate timelines, start to fuse together with the baton passed with more frequency and haste, almost mid-scene, the more the film goes on and the main characters life appears to unfold all at once, the one mission that seemed to never truly be over. Co-directors and screenwriters Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s screenplay swiftly jumps in and out of meta situations with no full warning, adding to the baffling, spoof-style tone.
There’s clear detail in the 70s aesthetic that’s been recreated here and it allows for some of those spoof details to come through more. There may not be many full laughs, but a couple of exhales of amusement here and there. Even in the final 20 minutes where I truly had no clue what was going on as it seemed that everything on screen was a swirling array of colours while the speakers blared one of the loudest films I think I’ve ever heard. With everything unfolding Reflection In A Dead Diamond, at least as I saw it, was certainly a film impossible to sleep through. A good thing for a film with so much happening at once, although whether awake throughout or nodding off for a moment there’s still a task to work out just what’s happening.
Reflection In A Dead Diamond is a knowingly chaotic piece. It doesn’t always quite work, and can sometimes feel like multiple vignettes that have been cut up and spliced together at random intervals. As meta sequences are jumped in and out of with likable visual details there’s some amusement to be found in the more parody-based elements. But, even with the engagement, even if stemmed from slight perplexion, the film itself; with just how much it rushes past, through, over and into over its mere 87-minute run-time, can feel a bit much. Likely disengaging more than tiring, although it may well prove to also be that. How you inevitably feel about the film overall will likely come down to how you get on with been stuck in a falling, shattering, meta Bond spoof kaleidoscope.
A baffling and dizzying time, Reflection In A Dead Diamond manages to produce some likable elements in its visual details and occasional humour, but with all its chaos and barrage of sights and sounds it can sometimes prove to be a bit much.
Just A Little Bit Random 