iMovie: imported clips too bright

Using iMovie 9.0.8, imported .mov files are simply too bright. I'm posting an example here: The left one is the file open in VLC without any corrections, the right one is the same scene open in iMovie. Of course I can use the correction to try to work it into being similar to the original, but then I'm losing stuff in darker scenes of the clip. And the point is - why would that video be any different in iMovie?

Thankful for any hints. Tried changing the monitor color profile, but to no avail (and why would that be different in VLC and iMovie).