Reflet dans un diamant mort

A thrillingly kaleidoscopic and note-perfect pastiche of the Eurospy capers of yesteryear, Reflection in a Dead Diamond offers frenetic spectacle for the discerning genre fan. Yet for all its flash, there is a haunted story simmering beneath its reflective surfaces, taunting us with the possibility of a narrative, while constantly refusing to let a conventional story materialise, instead bombarding us with an ever-impressive montage of brutally surreal and ambitious audiovisual spectacle that fuses Eurotrash flesh onto giallo bones. Waves crash, and the drinks fizz. Diamonds, leather and lashings abound. Directors Cattet and Forzani plunge us into an experiential world that becomes increasingly fragmented as the boundary between fiction and reality blurs throughout the film's rapid-fire pacing and incredibly colourful design. Infused with just the right amount of playful gore, wasting not a single second throughout its expansive reshaping of perception, Reflection in a Dead Diamond offers an array of dizzying stylistic flourishes that make it a visually intoxicating, deliriously entertaining and drop-dead-gorgeous adventure, one that is worth its weight in diamonds.

The title really gives it away already; is a title that you come up with when you are drunk at 4 in the morning and you think you had a brilliant idea. It is a film that makes no sense from the start to the end, but I want to say that it should be studied for inspiration for a good movie on the same concept. There are a lot of good cinematographic elements.

Everything is a good injection of ideas, reformulated in a modern key. Some textures and coloring were off, but I can see the vision and the idea behind it. The screenwriter must have gone insane on this project, i feel like nothing was left of this film in me, as most of these cool ideas are coming from comics i know well, but the fact that someone come up with this project, and someone else wanted to invest lot of money realizing it deserves an applause, experimentation is cool and is needed sometime, so i feel like is important to take this film for what it is, yea substancially there is no real story, but many episodes where you start to wonder if the writer remembers all the random things he wanted to say, but probably this is very riminescent of Diabolic,

I found the Italian accent irritating and badly done; it was not real, and they didn't even try to make it real, which is infuriating since they could have spent 3 more minutes on those lines. Too many actors aren't good, but great for silhouettes and graphics, so yeah, it's a 6 for me simply for the bold courage it takes to make something like this, with a bit more story and refinement, they could have made a banger, but this isn't that, let's leave it as a great "reference" movie.

Be prepared to be assaulted with imaginary and editing beyond your imagination.

You have stepped into a world of cinema for cinemas sake and you're going to love it. Weather you get it or understand it that's irrelevant watch you will get is 90 mins of pure entertainment.

I can begin to explain this film but let it be said if you have ever sat at home watching old 60 kitch spy movies or euro thrillers and wished they still made them, well here you go served up with a splash of Dario Argento ,mario brava or and number of euro trash from that period and then sprinkle just a touch of tarintino and there you have it.

Visually this movie rocks and the music pulses.

It's a mind bender but if you get on board early and just go with it you will be in for a fun ride.

Performances were on point for this type of film and every one look glamorous. I had the pleasure of seeing it in cinema as a limited release at my local Arthouse check it out if your in the mood I was and it was a great ride not perfect by any means but a lot better than another sequel that tells the same old story.

Will it hold up on steaming maybe and it is a movie you have to see twice.

.. in the shortest way possible. Ok, so try to imagine 60s-80s James Bond plus Kill Bill plus Davis Lynch plus a touch of LSD and you'll have a good sense of what this film is about. Personally, I love it. Maybe you will too. Or not. But if you want something different, this is worth a watch or two.

8/10.

An absolute fan while growing up in Italy of low budget, scary and extremely stylized GIALLO thrillers (Dario Argento's "Profondo Rosso" & "Suspiria"; Sergio Martino; Lucio Fulci & co), I didn't know this crafty and passionate french film couple, Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet, entirely devoted to directing homages of the Genre. Their last opus in competition in Berlin and winner at Tribeca 2025, is a mezmerizing and unexpected achievement worth discovering. It made me look up their other gem "The Strange Color of your Body's Tears" (2013, released in the US), with 2 more pics to watch (from 2009 & 2017).

The film is an original cocktail of spy, suspense, slasher, romance and kinetic visuals, at times akin to experimental cinema and visual art.

The dosage is high on shiny colours, néo-pop atmospheres, shards, skin masks, split screens and carefully researched vintage italian musical hits. The special FX (by Brussel's Studio l'Equipe) are surprisingly good, especially when it comes to wounds and latex: they don't reek of CGI and deserve a European Film Award next year. Like the overall unknown cast including belgian Yannick Renier (the older brother of french star Jérémie Renier), and 1960's comeback hero FABIO TESTI (the first "Django") who once reined over B-Movies and spaghetti westerns together with Franco Nero and Giuliano Gemma. The speedy grand finale (no spoilers!) still allows the older and elegant Testi (born in 1941) an apt melancholy ending, and a frameshot possibly inspired by...Visconti's "Death in Venice", just to give another idea of how many ideas and ecclectic references our 2 happy helmers can cram in 1hour and 27 minutes.

Reason why I don't understand the bored or dismissive other User's reviews (Wes Anderson's latest miss, "The Phoenician Scheme", has a far more convoluted and tedious plot); surely all the film and key comix references (well known by Q. Tarantino) are exquisitely euro~trash: mainly DIABOLIK, the still going strong comic book based on the ruthless masked killer-robber etched in 1962 by the "in" Giussani sisters of Milan, and made into 3 Blah italo film-sequels by the unininspired Manetti Brothers (2019-22). And even avoiding intellectualizing while reviewing, "REFLECTIONS IN A DEAD DIAMOND" is just that: as much flash and action as a reflection on time and memory failing us, fading from our life, the real one and the one we share on screen.

(PS: to sum the landmarks of the genre & its current heirs: "Neo-Giallo: A Beginner's Guide", article by Isaac Feldberg in PASTE Magazine & online/14-9-2021)