THE GODDESS OF 1967
Alice Kavanagh 2003
COMMENTS
Neither silent or moving
Neither perceivable or imperceptible,
Neither nothing or everything
A state of mystery, paradox, ambiguity
That is what I tried to capture in this film
Clara Law, Director.
As moody spectacle, The Goddess Of 1967 is a fascinating, superbly crafted work. It occasionally threatens to turn into a conventional mystery-thriller, but deliberately defuses these expectations ... The Goddess Of 1967 is undoubtably one of the most exciting and groundbreaking Australian movies of the year.
Adrian Martin, The Age.
Outstandingly original in both conception and realization·. the direction and acting are excellent, and Byrne's mesmerizing performance as B.G brilliantly inflected and unpredictable.
Roderick Conway Morris, International Herald Tribune
The Goddess of 1967 is touched everywhere by Clara Law's wonderful whimsy, her gorgeous cinematic aesthetics, her ability to deal with unlikely characters and her unerring sense of structure
Kay Armatage, Toronto Film Festival.
FILM DETAILS
Specifications
Runtime 119 minutes
Language English
Colour Colour
Certification MA (Australia)
Production Companies
New South Wales Film & Television Office
Distributors
Palace Australia
Fandango Italy
Golden Scene Hong Kong
Kairos Filmverleih Germany
Additional Support
Panavision Australia Pty Ltd Camera equipment
The Australian Film Finance Corporation Funding
Cast and Crew
Director Clara Law
Writers Eddie Ling-Ching Fong & Clara Law
Cast Rose Byrne as BG (Blind Girl)
Rikiya Kurokawa as JM (Japanese Man)
Nicholas Hope as Grandpa
Elise McCredie as Marie
Tim Richards as Drummer Boy
Executive Producers Wouter Barendrecht
Akiko Funatsu
Helen Loveridge
Peter Sainsbury
Michael J. Werner
Producer Eddie Ling-Ching Fong
Original Music Jen Anderson
Cinematographer Dion Beebe
Editor Kate Williams
Casting Anousha Zarkesh
Production Design Nicholas McCallum
Costume Design Annie Marshall
Helen Mather
Assistant Director Chris Webb
Construction Coordinator Geoff Howe
Music Score Engineer Ross Cockle
Dialogue Editor Livia Ruzic
Post-production Assistant Billy Browne
Promo Reel Editor Laurie Butler
Assistant Camera Sally Eccleston
Release Dates
Italy 2nd September 2000 Venice Film Festival
Canada 8th September 2000 Toronto Film Festival
USA 7th November 2000 Hawaii Film Festival
Switzerland 21st December 2000 (German speaking region)
Netherlands 25th January 2001 International Film Festival Rotterdam
Italy 26th January 2001
Hong Kong 14th April 2001 Hong Kong International Film Festival
Australia 25th April 2001
Netherlands 17th May 2001
Czech Republic 8th July 2001 Karlovy Vary Film Festival
France 18th July 2001
Brazil 24th August 2001
Hong Kong 5th September 2001 Australian Centenary Film Festival
Australia 5th September 2001 (Video Release)
Hong Kong 13th September 2001
Belgium 19th September 2001
Germany 4th April 2002
Box Office
Australia- Opened on 5 screens week ending 30/04/01 $31 425
US Gross- $12 677
Awards
Art Film Festival 2001
Clara Law
Golden Key Award
Best Direction in Art Fiction
Chicago International Film Festival 2000
Clara Law
Silver Hugo
Best Director
Tromso International Film Festival 2001
Clara Law
Fipresci Award
Venice Film Festival 2000
Rose Byrne
Volpi Cup
Best Actress
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FILM RESOURCES
Film and Cast Information
Official Palace website
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Event listings and film info from
http://www.popcorntaxi.com.au/Events.asp?Event_ID=78
Event Listing Deep Space: Sensation & Immersion Cinema (VIC) 20/12/2002
http://www.if.com.au/tools/find.taf?fn=detail&id=3299
News from In Film Magazine Italian Producer & Australian Directors Set Up New Film Company 06/03/2002
http://www.if.com.au/tools/find.taf?fn=detail&id=0497
Urban Cinefile
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=4792&s=Reviews
Internet Movie Database, cast, production, reviews, awards
http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0255195
Internet encyclopedia of cinematographers
http://www.beer1.freeler.nl/PaginasDoPh/beebe.htm
International Cinematographers guild
http://www.cameraguild.com/
Clara Law Biography
http://www.mostradelcinemadivenezia.com/cinema_e.html?main=ENGXYZfiles57XYZgoddess.html
Awards info
http://www.artfilm.sk/info2001/awards.html
Synopsis and Director information
http://www.artfilm.sk/artfic2001/goddess.htm
Director Biography
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/2003/en/person/697.html
Cast info on Rose Byrne, Infilm Magazine 14/01/2003, press release
http://www.if.com.au/tools/find.taf?fn=detail&id=3362
Interviews
Elise McCredie Clara Law: an impression of permanence in Realtime Arts http://www.realtimearts.net/rt43/mccredie.html
Kathryn Millard, Interview with Clara Law in Senses of Cinema, Issue No. 13, Apr-May 2001
editorial for Issue 13 http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/13/law.html
David Stratton, Interview with Rose Byrne, audio file available on sbs website.
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/interviews.php3?id=24
David Stratton, Interview with Clara Law, audio file available on sbs website.
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/interviews.php3?id=21
No author listed, Cast quotes from iF Magazine http://www.if.com.au interviews in
http://www.popcorntaxi.com.au/Events.asp?Event_ID=78
No author cited, Interview with Clara Law on Palace films official site
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Boxoffice
Bruce Nash, The Numbers.
http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2001/0GDDS.html
Box Office Summary 30/04/2001
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/boxoffice.asp
Reviews
Kay Armatage from Toronto Film Festival
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Marcus Chan the Goddess of 1967 2002
http://www.naturalbornviewers.com/archive/g/goddessof1967/review.htm
Mark Deming
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll
Brad Green 07/06/2001
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=4792&s=Reviews
Rick Groen Loves Laboured 27/04/2001
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/movie/MOVIEREVIEWS/20010427/RVGODD
Richard James Havis in The Hollywood Reporter
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Claus Horn
http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0255195
Andrew Howe in Film Written Magazine 09/05/2001
http://www.filmwritten.org/reviews/2001/goddessof1967.htm
http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=5154
Bruce Kirkland We don't have faith in this film Goddess
Toronto Sun 27/04/2001
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesReviewsG/goddessof1967_kirkland-sun.html
Richard Kuipers 07/06/2001
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=4792&s=Reviews
Steve Kulak in The New Internationalist
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Rob Lowing Goddess takes a familiar route in The Sun Herald
http://old.smh.com.au/news/0104/29/features/features10.html
Tom Lyons Citroen vehicle's no lemon, The Goddess of 1967 in eyeWeekly
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_04.26.01/film/onscreen.html#1
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_09.07.00/film/festival.html
Adrian Martin in The Age
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm
Roderick Conway Morris Seeking a Goddess in the Outback in the International Herald Tribune
http://www.palace.net.au/goddess/goddess.htm (excerpt)
http://www.iht.com/IHT/RCM/00/ (full text
Carmine Pascuzzi The Goddess of 1967
http://www.mediasearch.com.au/film/showreview.asp?id=212
Richard Phillips Confused and cold-hearted The Goddess of 1967, directed by Clara Law 30/04/2001
http://wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/godd-a30.shtml
Margaret Pomeranz
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.php3?id=682
Megan Spencer
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s286507.htm
David Stratton
http://www.sbs.com.au/movieshow/reviews.php3?id=682
Peter Thompson Film: The Goddess of 1967 Sunday Online, Australia 27/04/2001
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_796.asp
Andrew L. Urban 07/06/2001
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=4792&s=Reviews
Fiona A Villella Materialism and Spiritualism in The Goddess of 1967 in Senses of Cinema, Issue No. 13, Apr-May 2001.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/13/goddess.html
Andy
http://www.geocities.com/sooguy2001/film_2000/2000_09_08.html
Dusteyes 25/04/2001
http://efilmcritic.com/review.php
Linda
http://www.moviepie.com/filmfests/goddess_of_1967.htm
Movie Review Query Engine
http://www.mrqe.com/
Various user comments from IMDB
http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?0255195
http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0255195
Film and Cultural Commentary
Richard Corliss The Girls Night Out in Time Europe October 2, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 14
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/1002/festival.html
Ross Gibson The Nature of Nation in South of the West: Postcolonialism and the Narrative Construction of Australia, Bloomington, University of Indiana press, 1992, pg 63-81.
Adrian Martin Letter to France in Trafic, Issue no.43 (Automne 2002) pg 60-71 June 2001
http://www.otrocampo.com/7/letterfrommelbourne.html
Jane Mills Prizes and Projections 2001: the features. The struggle for cineliteracy
http://www.realtimearts.net/rt45/afi_mills.html
Tom O'Regan Australian National Cinema, Routledge, London and New York, 1996
Stephen Teo Autumn Moon in Senses of Cinema Jan 2001
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12/autumn.html
Stephen Teo Local and Global Identity: Whither Hong Kong Cinema? in Senses of Cinema 2000
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/7/hongkong.html
Articles on Hong Kong cinema from Jump Cut. A review of contemporary media
http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/szeto/hongkong2.html
WEB PRESENCE
Film information was sourced almost exclusively through the internet with searches resulting in interviews, reviews, critical analysis, promotional information and mentions in cultural and literary works.
There was quite an extensive online presence for The Goddess of 1967 (Law 2000), due mostly to its release 2000/2001 after the internet became a popular vehicle for promotion and many newspapers and magazines developed web mirrors of their paper selves. It also appeared in articles on film and cultural studies.
A search on the Movie Review Query Engine revealed 19 reviews, 11 in English, 4 in French, 2 in German and 2 in Italian. This reveals the international appeal of the film and reflects its distribution across the European Art Cinema scene.
ANALYSIS
The Goddess of 1967 (Law, 2000) is a fairly simple story; a Japanese man (JM - Rikiya Kurokawa) comes to Australia to buy his Goddess a 1967 Citroen. When he arrives he finds the owner dead and the car in the possession of a blind girl (BG - Rose Byrne). She says they need to ask the owner if he can have it and so begins a five-day journey into the outback. The car is not only a vehicle for their physical journey but it also allows the film to traverse memories of BG's past, both bitter and sweet, through a series of flashbacks. We find that the Goddess is a 'family car', once belonging to BG's grandfather and her aim in this trip is to take revenge on him for the abuse she received as a child. The car itself is also a representation of modernity and for JM, a commodity, a machine of beauty, an object to possess along with his mobile and satellite phones and laptop. It also alludes to JM's past, like the hero in the French film where he first saw the 1967 Citroen; he is a criminal on the run, having committed some kind of computer fraud. As they progress through this unusual road movie the two protagonists learn to forgive, to trust and eventually to love. This is not a revealing tale in itself, but the way director Clara Law has chosen to tell this story makes for a complex and unique film.
This film is undoubtedly an art film, it wasn't designed to appeal to everyone - and this is reflected in its reception. It was released to critical acclaim internationally, gaining Rose Byrne a best actress award at the 2000 Venice Film Festival and Clara Law best director at Chicago International Film Festival in the same year. It also received acclaim in Australia from many film critics; however it was not a runaway success at the box office making $31 425 (Aus $) in its opening week in Australia and only $12 677 (US $) gross in the U. S. But box office success is not the only criteria in judging a successful film, especially a film that is not made for a mass-market audience. Unlike her earlier films made in Hong Kong there was no ethnic language market to guarantee this film a more extensive penetration into a smaller market. As an English language film made within a medium sized cinema like Australia's, it needed to ensure appeal to an international market or flounder. So it emphasised its art cinema tendencies and hence did very well in European markets. Many of the reviews of the film on the internet were in German, French or Italian and this reflects its distribution across the European 'art cinema' scene. Clara Law tried to make a piece of art, she pushed her techniques towards the experimental and resulting film is by no means flawless and it doesn't always work, even for the intended audience. Reviews varied wildly: often criticising its length, lack of linear narrative, sparse dialogue and emotional distance from the characters, while praising the visual techniques and postmodern sensibilities. However it is a film which has continued to garner interest since its initial release, appearing as a reference point for several articles dealing with Australian film culture, chosen as one of the films to be screened in a tour spanning the history of Australian road movies in AFI's Burning Rubber in 2001, and cropping up in articles discussing both Australian and Hong Kong culture. Made for a worldwide art cinema circuit rather than a local market, it is also an excellent example of the continued internationalisation of the Australian film industry. Clara Law is a director who demonstrates emphatically the international melding of cultures Australian cinema has been steadily undergoing since the 1990s.
The Goddess of 1967 is Clara Law's second film since moving to Australia in 1995 with husband and creative collaborator Eddie Fong. She was born in Macau in 1954, received a degree in English Literature from Hong Kong University before moving to London in 1982 to study film. On her return to Hong Kong she made several films, The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus (Law, 1989), Farewell, China (Law, 1990), Autumn Moon (Law, 1991) and The Temptation of a Monk (Law, 1993) to critical acclaim including several with Fong. Her first Australian feature was Floating Life (Law, 1996), which continued her theme of Chinese diaspora to Australian suburbia. Themes of migration are less explicit in Goddess, but a common thread of individuals trying to find themselves in a strange land continues. Clara Law's body of work, though spanning two distinct national cinemas, Hong Kong and Australia, are both concerned with identity and cultural myths of belonging. Through most of her films she is preoccupied with identity in a new country, specifically the Chinese diaspora as in Autumn Moon (Law, 1991) and Floating Life (Law, 1996). In The Goddess of 1967 (Law, 2000) the characters are concerned with similar issues of isolation and dislocation but their journeys are condensed to a migration across the outback.
The film is visually spectacular, each shot exquisitely framed. Dion Beebe who Clara Law worked with on Floating Life (Law 1996) was the cinematographer; he was recently awarded an Oscar for his work on Chicago (Marshall, 2001). Born in Brisbane, he relocated to Cape Town in South Africa with his family at the age of 5; he studied film first in Pretoria and then graduated from AFTRS in 1990. Some of the features he has worked on include Praise (Curran 1998), Holy Smoke (Campion 1998), and Charlotte Gray (Armstrong, 2001).
Another person who contributed to the film's overall success is actor Rose Byrne who won best actress at the Venice film festival for her role in The Goddess of 1967 (Law 2000). She is probably best known in Australia for her role in Two Hands (Jordan) but has also appeared in My Mother Frank (Lamprell, 2000), and her film debut was in Dallas Doll (Turner, 1993). In an interview with David Stratton, she explained the process involved in making the film: there was a four-week rehearsal period and intense research into playing BG. She explained that the hardest aspect for her was learning to respond to sound cues rather than visual ones and to ensure her facial reactions and movement were unselfconscious, explaining that people blind since birth move differently, unaware of how it appears. By the time they began shooting the film, she said that the physical had become habit.
As well as the people who contributed to the film's look and feel there were certain techniques that Law used to support her vision. Her use of non-linear narrative, her treatment of sound and background music and the distinctive look of the film all contribute to its complexity and ambiguity.
Not least of these was the way different sections of the film are denoted using different colours, Tokyo is overwhelmingly blue and grey, and dreamlike. The scenes with BG and JM in the present utilised bleach bypass on the negative: this transmuted the colour, corrupted it to use Clara Law's expression, resulting in a more intense look and increased contrast. It is a visual representation of the inner world of the characters, a harsh, emotionally distant realm. The high contrast results in scenes where often the two characters seem to stand opposed, one in total light and the other complete shadow further emphasising the emotional distance between them. This technique was not used in the sections set in the past, implying the existence of a moment when there is the possibility of an undamaged BG. The flashbacks were designed as stories in themselves, complete with distinct tonal and colour differences.
The 'stories within a story' structure reveals a narrative both linear and non-linear. Linear as BG and JM travel in the Citroen from the city to the outback and also more like a mosaic, jumping through time and space to delve into the characters. We start in Tokyo, move to Australian suburbia and then the Citroen and their journey to the outback, interspersed with flashbacks. This betrays the fact that Clara Law did not intend to make a narrative-based film. Indeed the creative process began with the themes she wanted to explore, moved on to the characters and then the story was developed.
A film of balance and contrast, the emotional intensity of scenes is balanced by the objective beauty in the camera work and the colour. Like when Grandpa stands on the step of his bus-come-house, glass of red in hand and gives his speech about being able to love all his daughters: revolted by his words you can't help but be simultaneously amazed by the beauty of the sky. Or when BG at 7 runs from the burning shack where Marie tries to call her back so that they can pay for their sins together, a sickening death with flames leaping in slow motion, again there is a visual feast of horror as the visual intersects with meaning. Sometimes there is a distinct separation of meaning (narrative), vision and sound. Clara Law said that she tried to use sound and music as separate tools from the visual, not always working to towards the same goal at the same time. This is a different approach than what we are used to, traditionally film keeps a more straightforward connection, a see explosion, hear boom method. It is representative of the experimental aims of the director, lends the film complexity and partially explains the vastly differing responses it received. It explains why some people felt that though the acting was good they felt they couldn't engage much with the characters, and that the film left them cold.
As an Australian film the portrayal of the outback is an interesting one, not only does the landscape make for a beautiful backdrop but it is also a potent Australian symbol. Landscape has several simultaneous and sometimes contradictory meanings throughout this film. This makes for an interesting examination within the tradition of Australian cinema. In The Goddess of 1967 there is both a continuance of the traditional treatment of landscape in Australian film and a departure.
There is a contrast between the worlds inside and outside the car. This is shown through the obvious artificiality of the scenes moving beyond the car windows soft and blurred, the characters are trapped within their own emotional worlds. Part way through their journey they each gets out of the car and walks in opposite directions, but both return, JM saying as he gets back into the car, that he's come home. If the car becomes a home for the both of them then the land they travel through can be seen to represent their homelessness. This reinforces an idea of isolation and abandonment and continues the myth that every plot outside the city limits has tended to signify one thing: homelessness (Gibson, 1992) a common use of landscape in Australian film.
Just as the landscape and the Goddess are used to contrast the inner and outer worlds of the characters so too it contrasts between the characters themselves. The vast expanse of Australian outback and the machinations of a blue and dreamy Tokyo become a comparison between BG and JM. BG is synonymous with the land, she knows it intimately, and can direct JM sightlessly, laughing when he gets bitten by the lizard - she knows it won't poison him and is comfortable in this country, infused with the knowledge of generations. She has connection to it, when threatened as by Drummer Boy or her mother's intimidating god she runs to nature, and is seen clutching a tree, refusing to let go, or sleeping curled foetal at the base of a tree, watched protectively by dingoes. Both are construed as wild passionate, hard and unforgiving. It (Australian society) can portray itself as marvellous because it has subsisted with all its flaws, in this grand yet unreasonable habitat. (Gibson, 1992) This is how we come to see BG, damaged yet admirable, again we can see a traditional use of landscape in Australian film as a way to understand identity, in this instance the personal identity of BG.
It is also recalls ancient legends of hellish antipodes (Gibson 1992) the outback as a place beyond society where perversion can manifest, as it does in the character of Grandpa, and where belief can warp into sacrifice in Marie's suicide. This is the attitude of Grandpa, there is no guilt or shame in his incestuous behaviour, and in the godless surroundings of the desert he mines he finds support for his view, or at least no contradiction.
What marks this film as distinctive is its treatment of Australian landscape not as a fixed element that functions simply as a realistic setting but its willingness to treat it as a flexible symbol. It is this abstract representation, (through techniques like the bleach bypass and the muted and blurred background when the car is moving), which highlight the mythic role of landscape in the Australian imagination and identity in a way few other films do. The landscape joins other aspects of the film as part of a larger visual puzzle. Maybe it takes a director who migrated here via Hong Kong, with aspirations to art to make a film that represents Australian landscape as the mythic, transmutable and contradictory presence it is.
The Goddess of 1967 (Law, 2000) is a fragmented feast. Clara Law's uncompromising vision means there is a definite sense of directorial intent at each moment. She melds the elements of her film in a unique way, it can sometimes be a difficult film to grapple with, by no means flawless, at times powerful, tedious, confusing, emotionally distant and elusive, but intriguing none the less. Certain scenes play over in the mind and reaction is no more straightforward than the film itself. Finally it is a unique and brave vision that expands the definition of Australian cinema.
Filmography
Praise dir. John Curran, 1998.
Holy Smoke dir. Jane Campion, 1999.
Charlotte Gray dir. Gillian Armstrong, 2001.
The Goddess of 1967 dir. Clara Law, 2000.
Chicago dir. Rob Marshall, 2002.
Two Hands dir. Gregor Jordan,1999.
My Mother Frank dir. Mark Lamprell, 2000.
Dallas Doll dir. Ann Turner, 1994.
The Reincarnation of Golden Lotus dir. Clara Law, 1989.
Farewell, China dir. Clara Law, 1990.
Autumn Moon dir. Clara Law, 1991.
The Temptation of a Monk dir. Clara Law, 1993.
Floating Life dir Clara Law1996.