Reflection in a Dead Diamond Review: A Fun Gem

Reflection in a Dead Diamond is Cattet and Forzani’s most dynamic and fun film yet, spoofing and honouring the many genres the writers-directors love.

From the first scene, husband-and-wife filmmaker duo Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet promise that their latest film is full of the sex appeal, wit and fun that defines their features to date. However, this one also has tuxedos, ninjas and comic book panels. The directors are always playful, but they’ve never been this fun.

Since before their feature debut Amer, the Brussels-based directors have engaged in loving but analytical conversations with the genres that they so clearly love. Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears exaggerated the mood and look of gialli to confounding effect, while Let The Corpses Tan (Greatest title ever!) branched out into Sam Peckinpah territory with thieves, revenge and shootouts. Reflection in a Dead Diamond sees the spy genre get a concentrated dose of Cattet/Forzani color palette, mostly claret red. Even at his most vengeful, James Bond never inflicted (or endured) the levels of grievous bodily harm seen in this elevated eurotrash.

Plotting might seem incidental to Cattet and Forzani’s work, but besides leading to all the bloody visual hijinks, the script for Reflection in a Dead Diamond shows real effort to craft palpable relationships and stakes. The older Diman is on holiday at a luxury hotel, but when a younger female guest turns up dead on the beach, Diman flashes back to his younger self in his spying heyday (Yannick Renier). The story of a mission that claimed the life of his fellow spy girlfriend (Céline Camara) at the hands of his arch nemesis (Koen De Bouw) sounds like old hat, but the cast never plays things less than straight. Renier in particular gives a performance that plays like an audition for James Bond, playful yet vulnerable, and in sync with the director’s vision of a kind of spy caper that doesn’t get made any more.

Indeed, there’s a lot of James Bond in Reflection in a Dead Diamond, with casinos and tuxedos (but no Bond in Speedos), but that’s only one target of the directors’ spoofing/admiration. The young Diman’s revenge mission sees him tracking down a number of mysterious assassins, most notably Serpentik (Thi Mai Nguyen), a nimble ninja who fashions every accessory (even her nail and hair extensions) into a weapon. The masked hijinks land somewhere between Irma Vep and Ninja III: The Domination, goofy in the moment but presented with such style and sex appeal that it’s hard not to appreciate the effort. Bernard Beets’ edit is a hyperactive nod to the efforts of gialli to hide the limited budget of their gore effects, inviting complaints from epileptics with its fast cuts, and atmosphere thick with the scent of bad cologne and too many martinis.

As Diman continues his recollections, and questions what he needs to do to rid himself of his past, Cattet and Forzani reach further back into their pasts, invoking the great European schlockmeisters with more style than most of them could muster. There are Mario Bava colour filters and scorching sun shots a la Jesus Franco, while Testi provides a living breathing link to Italian cinema of the ‘70s, when Hollywood proved too bland for most tastes, and tall tanned Italian men offered new excitement to audiences. Reflection in a Dead Diamond goes out of its way to keep its audience on its toes, plunging into increasingly confrontational imagery and camerawork until Diman reconciles himself to his failures and his old age.

The plot and Maneul Dacosse’s camera let loose in the climax, with spotlit action scenes and masks beneath masks. No-one is who they say they are in this world of ninja femme fatales and lasers hidden in jewellery. Reflection in a Dead Diamond underlines just how nonsensical the narratives of spy thrillers can be, but also allows us to enjoy them on those silly terms. Cattet and Forzani certainly do, and their homage to those halcyon days of style over coherence is as bloody, fun and memorable as the best of those films.

Reflection in a Dead Diamond will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on 13-15 October, 2025.