The Cinematheque

“Explodes with a style closer to Stanley Kubrick or Krzysztof Kieślowski. In fact, it is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and groundbreaking Australian movies of recent years.”

Adrian Martin, The Age

Before Hollywood beckoned, a 20-year-old Rose Byrne was cast in Clara Law’s second Australian-made picture, an oneiric, Rubik’s Cube road movie that earned the up-and-comer Best Actress at Venice. The Goddess of 1967 opens on a well-heeled Japanese hacker (Kurokawa Rikiya) hopping a plane to rural Oz to buy a sought-after 1967 Citroën DS, aka Goddess (“Déesse”) in autophile circles. There he encounters an eccentric blind woman (Byrne) in possession of the keys, who proposes a five-day test drive across the Outback to square up with the real owner. Their ensuing odyssey—rendered with anachronistic panache (rear projection, colour tinting) by Law and cinematographer Dion Beebe—accelerates both forward and back, each roll of the odometer unlocking a tucked-away chapter of their traumatic pasts. Steeped in the postmodern sensibilities of the era (cue cutaway to Alain Delon’s Citroën-driving hitman from Le samouraï), Goddess positioned Law as a leader in Australian art cinema, earning her the directing prize at the Chicago IFF.

In English and Japanese with English subtitles

Virtual Q&A with Clara Law and Eddie Fong on January 19.

“Outstandingly original in both conception and realization.”

Roderick Conway Morris, International Herald Tribune