Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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1977, Solo, Tony Williams, 1977, Wild Man, Geoff Murphy, 1977, and Off the Edge,
Mike Firth, 1977). The film was also seen to be unusually artistic in filmic terms.
Stephen Ballantyne, in the NZ Listener praised the directing style: “If film is a
language, Ward speaks it with natural ease, which is more than can be said for many of
our fellow countrymen”. 428 Salient commented: “Ward and his crew knew how to use
the medium of film. They managed to translate Janet Frame’s story, which is securely
grounded in the medium of literature (words) into their own story, created out of light
and shade, movement and stillness, expression and depiction”. 429
This review gave much of the credit for the film to Alun Bollinger: “Whether gliding
round the rooms of the cottage, capturing in extraordinary close-ups Malfred’s eye or
hand, or challenging the brutal pounding sea, Bollinger’s camera-work is a powerful
evocation of light, colour and shape, and most of all shadow”. 430 Like many reviews it
also singled out Anne Flannery’s performance as worthy of praise. Flannery’s
“expression, timing and depth of feeling” played “a central role in the film’s success”.
She had “an extremely difficult job, in creating a character with very little resort to
words, who is literally scared to death, yet who all the while maintains a mental
rationalization and ‘mature’ exterior as a defense. In a sense, Malfred’s mind unravels,
but it doesn’t become untidy. Flannery captures this brilliantly”. 431 Catherine de la
Roche observed similarly that Anne Flannery’s “beautifully modulated performance as
Malfred communicates […] the innumerable shades of experience in past and present,
recollection and stark reality”. 432 In general, the local response to the film was
surprisingly positive, considering the occasional awkwardnesses that were an inevitable
result of inexperience and an extremely limited budget. Clearly the enthusiasm had
something to do with the fact that here was proof that New Zealand’s new film industry
could produce art as well as action films and knockabout comedies.
Overseas responses were also appreciative. When A State of Siege and In Spring One
Plants Alone toured the USA, in 1980-81, The San Francisco Chronicle commented on
the “quietly powerful performance of Anne Flannery, her eyes lost in reverie”. 433 The
428 S. Ballantyne, "Drawing Battle Lines," NZ Listener 2 September 1978: 26.
429 Wilson, "A State of Siege," 19.
430 Wilson, “A State of Siege,” 19.
431 Wilson, “A State of Siege,” 19.
432 De la Roche, “Joint Work Turns Janet Frame Novel into Film”.
433 Judy Stone, "A Hypnotic Look at an Old Woman," San Francisco Chronicle 11 February 1981: 61.