La diosa del asfalto

Oi! How can I say how I felt about this film using actual words. This is a description that requires a lot of hand gestures.

It moves in such a way that you are carried along with the action, not separated from the action by this big "movie". It has a fly on the wall feeling to it, and it all fits together. Each scene, well each shot really, fits perfectly jigsawed in with those surrounding it. Very polished and precise. It seems to just naturally happen, not forced. Even the frequent use of flashbacks came off as natural and easy.

Very beautiful to look at. Warm colors and textures. Very sweet, real romance.

Humanity peeled down to most raw and simple. I was pulled by the shirt-collar through each path of the story. I really couldn't have stopped watching it even if I had wanted to (which I didn't). Very controlled, purposeful tension.

Beautiful.

I don't have time to go into in-depth considered praise for this film, but it's a film I have watched several times, and feel it deserves a pat-on-the-back. Although some of the underlying issues that the main characters have gone through are in many respects very serious and macabre, I don't think it was the director's intent to make this a depressing movie which dwells on those issues alone. Goddess is an art movie. It's designed to be visually different and controversial for its handling of subject matter. Blindness, incest, murder, dysfunctionality. An unexpected combination of events against the spectacular backdrop of the Australian outback. Ironically, the central character is blind, and cannot see all this visual beauty directly. But, she somehow finds a strength and sensitivity amongst the far from beautiful physical abuse she grown up with. Somehow with this is intertwined an ex-fashion model from Japan, and a cult car. It's an artistic celluloid canvas. I don't think an average director could put all these elements together and come off with a really watchable and intriguing movie. I love the central character's feisty, yet carefree independence. Free-spirited female viewers will love this. I think most male viewers will miss the subtlety of the movie's intent, and will therefore not enjoy it so much. Makes a really refreshing change from your regular Hollywood flick.

Like too many arthouse movies 'The Goddess of 1967' seems to think that some excellent cinematography is enough to carry a superficial script full of stereotypical characters. It isn't. Apart from a handful of memorable visual images I can think of nothing positive to say about this movie. One again, a non-Australian shows a group of ugly Australian cliches against a background of a beautiful but harsh landscape. Personally I'm sick of this outdated, narrow view which in no way represents the diversity and richness of contemporary Australian life. To add further to the shallowness and predictability of this movie the Japanese car buff played by newcomer Rikiya Kurokawa is so poorly developed and pointless that he may as well wear a t-shirt saying "silly Asian character" and leave it at that. The inexplicably touted Rose Byrne's "fiesty blind girl with a dark past" has slightly more depth, but only just. The "odd couple" with a "culture clash" on a "quirky road trip" where they "find themselves" - c'mon! Haven't we seen this kind of lazy scenario too many times before already? This is third rate film school stuff with nothing new or original to say despite its pretensions. Give this one a miss unless you love cars as much as "Boy" does. There's no other reason to sit through this dull, mediocre arthouse bore.

THE GODDESS OF 1967 is a film by Clara Law and husband Eddie Fong. It's set in Australia and it's by a Hong Kong/Australian director famous for her less 'Aussie' films. It's about a Japanese businessman (Rikiya Kurokawa, look out for this name, a great performance by a Prada model(?!) in his first role) who finds a classic car (a Citroen DS 1967) on the internet and comes to Australia to buy it. Anyway, when he arrives he finds the owners dead and ends up on a journey in the car across the outback with a blind Australian girl (yeah, it's a road movie). It becomes quite dark and twisted after that and I better not say anymore as not to spoil it. It makes great use of flashbacks which are great stand alone stories, and interestingly the flashbacks are shot to look 'normal' whereas the the main story has a strange 'dreamy' look. The look of the film reminded me of innovative HK directors like Wong Kar-Wai and his cinematographer Chris Doyle. Clara uses a lot of visual effects and graphics that work well, (although sometimes look like vague attempts to be experimental) and obvious back projection behind the drivers in the car which I thought was great but alot of people might not like. Dion Beebe's cinematography was great, the negative was somehow bleached giving a strange look with unnatural glowing colour. Like Floating life, the colours are amazing. Sometimes it's a bit too Australian which might actually put Australian's off the film, at the same time be appealing to non-Australians. It's a bit depressing but you'll get over it. It's a journey into the dark-side contrasted by the beauty of the Citroen which leads the journey.

In movies - road movies especially - we are looking for change in the characters, the relationships and possibly the balance between two themes. In the Goddess we see Deidre become more whole, at a physical level by wanting and experiencing tender lovemaking. And debatably in the end as her search to confront her dad/granddad is fulfilled - death and his death in particular no longer an obsession. What of the male character though? Although very well played and amusing - what journey does he really undertake? Has he learned to drive with his eyes closed? Learned to love a being without scales?

And in looking for themes that may be juxtaposed or in tension with each other - yes there is Megacity Vs Outback, there is beauty vs ugliness, black holes vs religion, responsibility for yourself vs the excuse of horrid childhood - but for me somehow they were a bit fitted in, if any one stands out - perhaps it is travelling with a purpose vs with your eyes closed, and the frightning thing of travelling with a purpose (to buy the car or kill your dad) turns out to be: What then? What do you do next? Perhaps being able to travel with your eyes closed is a better skill after all.