At Fantastic Fest, Belgian filmmakers Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani deliver what many spy fans have long wanted: an octogenarian superspy story steeped in giallo and anime sensibilities.
Their new film, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, follows John Diman (Fabio Testi), a retired operative living a quiet life on the French Riviera. Early dementia blurs his days, and when his attractive young neighbor vanishes, memories of a 1960s mission flood back.
Those flashbacks, in which a younger Diman is played by Yannick Renier, center on a tangled assignment involving an oil magnate, a nuclear angle, and a shape-shifting assassin called Serpentik. The femme fatale’s many faces are portrayed by multiple actors, underlining the film’s fluid approach to identity.
Cattet and Forzani openly borrow from Ian Fleming and the Italian crime comic Diabolik, but their clearest influence is anime director Satoshi Kon. Reflection in a Dead Diamond echoes Kon’s Millennium Actress and its “stereoscopic” technique, using a fractured narrative that rewards repeat viewings by revealing new layers.
That formal playfulness fuels the movie’s central question: did John really lead a life of espionage, or is