Posted: Sat., Dec. 31, 1983, 11:00pm PT

Constance

(New Zealand)

By Variety Staff

Mirage. Director Bruce Morrison; Producer Larry Parr; Screenplay Jonathan Hardy; Camera Kevin Hayward; Editor Philip Howe; Music John Charles;; Art Director Ric Kifoed

Donogh Rees Shane Briant Judie Douglass Martin Vaughan Donald MacDonald Marc Wignall

Constance is a highly stylized film about a beautiful young woman living in Auckland in 1946 who dreams she is a Hollywood superstar.

Constance (Donogh Rees) is given to such contrived charades as dressing as Marlene Dietrich at parties and singing along to a recording of Dietrich's hit, 'Falling in Love Again.'

Rees' stiffness of manner may be director Bruce Morrison's idea of the artificiality of the concept as a whole.

Imported actor Shane Briant has the right air of handsome, predatory decadence as a visiting Hollywood still-photographer. There is an outburst of sexual violence during a photo session which is given the blurred-lens, freeze-frame, jump-cut treatment, and it makes an effective contrast to the film's otherwise sharply focused sedate pace.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1984. Running time: 103 MIN.