Fantasia Fest 2025: Reflection In A Dead Diamond Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Debuting at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Reflection in a Dead Diamond (or Reflet dans un diamant mort) is an awakening jolt to the eurospy genre, paying excellent homage to films that followed the early James Bond films from the 1960s. The story follows retired spy, John Diman (Testi), as he lives out his days along the Côte d’Azur. The film often flashes between his old self and his younger self (Renier) as his current circumstances mirror his previous experiences as a spy, forcing John to relive the mistakes he has made. Facing off with his dangerous adversaries and acquaintances is where the frantic style of directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani glow in a frequently forgotten genre.

John’s world, both past and present, begins to spiral and adapt to the filmmaking choices implemented by the duo, developing an unreliable narrator’s perspective that beautifully complements these chic inclusions. The peak of John’s adversity is unraveled through his confrontations with Serpentik (Thi Mai Nguyen), a shape-shifting assassin that forms his distrust of the people around him, unknowing if she’s lurking around the corner with her poisoned ring of death and sharp nails. Serpentik’s conflicts with the endless number of opponents is where audiences find the duo’s main application of their rapid editing and pulpy violence, cutting constantly between her blades and the gory impact on her victim’s body as it persistently references its ties to panel-to-panel comic book fighting.

Another mysterious and ominous figure further complicates John’s frame of mind as a sinister presence in a trench coat and fedora aims to hypnotize his victims with the blinding light of his absent face, causing them to question the fabric of reality and fiction. The film occasionally switches between the French-speaking world in normal reality and the Italian-speaking acting in creating a film-within-a-film, blurring the lines of what John really remembers about his fascinating spy life. Fragments of the story are deliberately separated to create an interesting puzzle for audiences to solve.

The design behind John’s undercover partner’s (Camara) dress further elevates his spiraling confusion. Covered in tiny mirrors that constantly reflect light similar to a disco ball, the dress also doubles for ninja-throwing stars and recording devices that are integral to the cinematic reveals that John seeks while hunting down notorious criminals. The contrast between her disco dress, John’s formal wear, and Serpentik’s inspired look from Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires creates a diversified color palette that compliments the editing and action, breathing life into the complex storytelling.

In the end, Reflection in a Dead Diamond delivers an incredibly stylish homage to the eurospy genre. The directing duo of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani incorporate quick-cut editing, pulpy violence, retro and evocative costume design to pull apart this unreliable narrator akin to a Quentin Tarantino James Bond film.

still courtesy of Cattet Forzani

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Costa Christoulas

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