The Goddess Of 1967 Review

A young Japanese car freak, played by Rikiya Kurokawa, arrives in Australia to pick up the 1967 Citroen DS, the `goddess` of the film`s title, which he`s acquired through the internet - but his contact address is the scene of a tragedy, a murder suicide. The stranger meets a blind girl, Rose Byrne, who offers to guide him to the real owner of the cherished car, a journey five days into the outback. These preliminaries out of the way, this very odd couple hits the road...Clara Law makes films about outsiders, about fish out of water - and this is an extreme example of her themes. The screenplay she wrote with Eddie L.C. Fong actually contains enough material for two films, and a lengthy and elaborate flashback structure, involving the blind girl`s horrific past, and featuring Nicholas Hope as her evil grandfather, is not as successful as it might have been. But nevertheless, this is in many ways an exciting film. Clara Law won the award for best director at the Chicago International Film Festival last year, she is a very visual filmmaker and Dion Beebe`s photography is astonishing. Rose Byrne, who won best actress prize in Venice, gives a touching performance in the leading role, while Rikiya Kurokawa is the epitome of `cool` - an amusing cross cultural reference derives from the fact that he identifies with Alain Delon in THE SAMURAI, a French film made in - 1967! If this Goddess isn`t a complete success, it has enough invention and beauty to make it well worth exploring.Comments From Margaret PomeranzPart of Clara Law?s film is mesmerising, she ventures into an unsettling world and you want it to be a fascinating experience. But ultimately I found this film so cold that it betrayed some of the very emotional subtext at its core. And much as I admire Dione Beebe as a cinematographer I found the film so harsh to watch with its high contrast, cold tones that it finally repelled me visually. This much-used bleach-bypass operation is these days being used to excess to the detriment of many films. It?s most probably more suited to segments of a film than to the whole. The characters are elusive even though the performances are attractive. Not an easy film to embrace.