"Cattet and Forzani create a total cinema within REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND – not because they manage to replicate reality but because they manage to eradicate it." Marshall Shaffer, Slant Magazine (2025)

"No need to 'deconstruct' these images, just take them at face value. Cinema is second-hand illusion anyway and beautiful because of it." dirtylaundri, Letterboxd (2025)

"Retired spy John D (Italian screen icon Fabio Testi) is living his senior days in a luxe Côte d'Azur hotel when his neighbour vanishes under circumstances most mysterious. His pulse quickens, his mind races, the muscle memory of paranoid survival skills kick back into life. John has a terrible suspicion that enemies from decades ago may finally be coming for him.
Award-winning mad geniuses of radical genre storytelling, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani have become legendary for such extraordinary landmarks as "Amer", "The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears" and "Let The Corpses Tan". Now, they've created a positively astonishing reinvention of '60s Euro-spy films that lives in a universe entirely of its own construction, brimming with Giallo iconography, caustic brutality, and unbelievably obsessive visual language. REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND is as much a fetishistic love letter to cinema as it is about the act of filmgoing itself, vibrant with highly stylized costume and set designs, mindblowing choreography and a supporting cast that includes Yannick Renier, Koen De Bouw, Maria de Medeiros and, as super assassin Serpentik, dancer Thi Mai Nguyen, who amazes in spectacular set pieces with rusted fish hooks, among other sharp things. Of course, Testi's casting is particularly inspired, and he’s wonderful here. A kaleidoscopic deconstruction of memory and mortality, REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND is an astonishing act of hyper-detailed, volcanically imaginative filmmaking that stands at the very top of an unwaveringly brilliant filmography." Mitch Davis, Fantasia Festival 2025

"Frenetisch geschnitten, mit Bildern, die die extreme Großaufnahme und die Hyperrealität lieben, während der Atem der Protagonist*innen, das Sirren der Messer und das Knarzen der Lederoutfits sich lautstark in den Retro-Soundtrack mischen. REFLECTIONS IN A DEAD DIAMOND ist nur 87 Minuten lang, enthält aber Sinneseindrücke, die bei einem gemächlicheren Ansatz einen mindestens doppelt so langen Film füllen könnten und ein umfassendes cineastisches Glücksgefühl zurücklassen." Christian Klose, Indiekino

Der Mittsiebziger John D. lebt in einem Luxus-Hotel an der Cote d'Azur und ist fasziniert von seiner Nachbarin, die ihn an seine wilde Zeit als Geheimagent an der boomenden Riviera der 1960er Jahre erinnert. Als die mysteriöse Fremde eines Tages spurlos verschwindet, wird John mit seinen längst vergessenen Dämonen konfrontiert. Sind seine einstigen Widersacher zurück, um eine alte Rechnung zu begleichen?

"For anyone who's been along for the ride with Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, you know what you're in for: Kaleidoscopic breakdowns of the Euro fantastique– giallo ("The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears"), erotic dramas ("Amer"), and spaghetti westerns ("Let The Corpses Tan") – reconstructed into perfect, fetishistic cinematic objects.
With REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND, the master stylists focus their gaze on mid-century espionage pictures, creating a collapsing fever dream that's equal parts Ian Fleming's James Bond and Diabolik, and in this humble programmer's opinion, a triumph of their multi-decade cinematic project.
With a dizzying array of cinematic language in its arsenal, this blast of hyper-pulp doubles as an essay film of the highest order, brimming with passion, violence, and eroticism in each frame. To those seeking pop nirvana, look no further!" Jake Isgar, Fantastic Fest 2025

"Channeling and recombining elements of retro film styles – notably giallo horror and the 60s/70s Euro-thriller – they push the iconography of their beloved sub-genres to their furthest limits, amplified by frenzied rhythmic editing that pushes imagery to the edge of abstraction." Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily (2025)