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Diamond Skulls

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2014}}

{{infobox film

| name= Diamond Skulls

| image=Diamond Skulls film.jpeg

| caption=

| director= Nick Broomfield

|producer= Tim Bevan
Jane Fraser

| writer= Nick Broomfield
Tim Rose Price

| starring = {{plainlist|

| music=Hans Zimmer

| cinematography=Michael Coulter

| editing=Rodney Holland

| studio=Working Title Films

| released={{Film date|1989|09||London Film Festival}}

| runtime=100 minutes

| country=U.K.

| language=English

|budget=$1.5 million{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=14 December 1998|page=102|title=15 years of production}}

}}

Diamond Skulls (also known as Dark Obsession) is a British 1989 thriller directed by Nick Broomfield who also co-wrote with Tim Rose-Price. An established documentary filmmaker, this is Broomfield's first work of fiction.{{Cite news |title= Portrait of the artist: Nick Broomfield, documentary-maker |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/11/1 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=11 September 2007 |access-date=5 February 2016 |issn=0261-3077 |language=en-GB |first=Interview by Laura |last=Barnett}} It is produced by Tim Bevan and Jane Fraser and stars Amanda Donohoe, Gabriel Byrne and Struan Rodger and has a music score by Hans Zimmer. It includes the last film performance of Ian Carmichael.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/12257/Diamond-Skulls/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325023340/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/12257/Diamond-Skulls/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 March 2016 |title=Diamond-Skulls – Cast, Crew, Director and Awards – NYTimes.com |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |year=2016 |access-date=19 June 2016}} (slow loading, as are links){{cbignore}}

Plot

Lord Hugo Bruckton is a young Englishman who is the heir to a vast fortune. He is married to Ginny, who seems devoted and loyal to him, and they have a young son. But Hugo is haunted by jealousy, for he imagines Ginny in the arms of a colleague. He begins to spy on her and goes into a rage over her suspected infidelity. One night, after a social gathering with members of his old British Army regiment, Hugo and his friends go out for a drive. He accidentally runs over a woman, who dies at the scene. All but one of his friends urge Hugo to drive on. In his drunk state of mind, Hugo had imagined himself running over Ginny.

Over the next few days, a psychological war ensues. Peter, Hugo's business associate, wants to use the cover-up to leverage power over the estate. Jamie, who's dating Hugo's sister, wants to go to the police to report it. Hugo's family closes ranks as Ginny and the rest side with Hugo, who fears that his arrest and imprisonment will ruin the family's reputation. As the police investigation closes in on Hugo, the power struggle leads to deadly consequences.

At the end, Peter and Hugo murder Jamie and arrange it to look like a suicide—that it had been Jamie driving the car that killed the woman—and he had killed himself out of guilt by throwing his dead body off a seaside cliff. The police believe the story and close the case, and the amoral Hugo gets away with everything as he continues his sordid and unwholesome life undisturbed.

Cast

{{castlist|

}}

Production

In this movie Amanda Donohoe was faced with the added pressure of simulating sexual intercourse with another actor in front of director Nick Broomfield, with whom she was developing a romantic relationship. "I left the filming of that scene until the end of shooting," said Broomfield in reference to the controversial sex scene between Donohoe and Gabriel Byrne.{{cite web |title=Amanda Donohoe: A Career Built on Controversy |work=apnews.com |url=https://apnews.com/article/1abe7c096b5a58ec8919374513281b45 |access-date=7 February 2022}}

Rating

Diamond Skulls received an NC-17 rating upon its release in the United States during June 1991.

Reception

Diamond Skulls received generally mixed reviews: the film carries {{a or an|{{RT data|score}}}} approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on {{RT data|count}} reviews, with an average of {{RT data|average}}.{{Cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/diamond_skulls |title=Dark Obsession |website=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=Fandango |access-date={{RT data|access date |df=iso}}}}{{RT data|edit}} The film was given two thumbs up by Siskel & Ebert.{{Cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dark-obsession-1991 |title=Dark Obsession Movie Review & Film Summary (1991) {{!}} Roger Ebert |last=Ebert |first=Roger |website=www.rogerebert.com |access-date=19 June 2016}}

In the New York Times review Diamond Skulls; Aristocracy When It Thinks No One is Looking, Janet Maslin considered that "rarely does a documentary film maker make the transition to fiction as adroitly as Nicholas Broomfield has in Dark Obsession, a psychological thriller displaying a documentarian's fascination for small, telling details." Maslin also praised "an eerie score by Hans Zimmer, a chilling performance by Struan Rodger as Sir Hugo's cold blooded business associate and the unremarked upon inclusion of many odd bits of traditionalism that have presumably made men like Sir Hugo what they are".{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE1DF1E3BF934A35755C0A967958260&partnerRotten%2520Tomatoes |title=New York Times Review- Diamond Skulls; Aristocracy When It Thinks No One Is Looking|work=The New York Times |date=17 February 2023 }} by Janet Maslin, 7 June 1991

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb title|id=0097158|title=Dark Obsession}}
  • {{Mojo title|darkobsession}}

{{Nick Broomfield}}

Category:1989 films

Category:1989 thriller films

Category:Films scored by Hans Zimmer

Category:British thriller films

Category:1989 crime drama films

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s British films

Category:English-language crime drama films

Category:English-language thriller films