The Gold Diggers

A dash of Kafka, surrealism, and Julie Christie, Good visuals. Gold, banks and colonial economy. Didn't work for me. Awful film to endure. Colette Lafonte was interesting. I am surprised that it won the best film award at Florence or was it competing with worse films?

Minimalist, visually innovative and distinctly art-house Sally Potter's "The Gold Diggers" is all of these, meaning its audience is also distinctly limited. You might even go so far as to say it's the kind of pretentious twaddle that gives art-house movies a bad name, though Potter did manage to draw an Oscar-winning actress, (Julie Christie), into the proceedings. There is little in the way of plot. (as you might expect), and typical of Potter it can be read as some kind of feminist tract, that is if you have to 'read' it or see it at all. Highly regarded in some quarters, largely dismissed in others; personally I found it intolerable.

This is a black and white curiosity piece, an early work from Sally Potter and featuring the wonderful Julie Christie, working no doubt for next to nothing as there doesn't appear to be a budget to speak of. Visually stunning and interesting score but hard to understand what is exactly going on. There is relatively little dialog and some narration, neither of which makes any sense at least to me. Still anything with the luminous Miss Julie Christie is worth a look and the striking cinematography is very compelling. Filmed in England I suppose but some of the snowy outdoor shots look more like they might have been shot in Iceland but I do not know. I cannot highly recommend this film unless you are a Christie fan which I am or you like artsy films that may or may not have a hidden signification.