Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

213
world – albeit seen through European eyes”. 703 These divergent readings could be seen
as evidence that Ward was beginning to develop his own personal style of filmmaking –
one which combined his experiences of growing up in New Zealand with a European
Romantic sensibility in an original synthesis.
Summary
Despite its much larger budget, cast and crew that required a more co-operative
approach, Vigil consolidated Ward’s auteur status. In order to make the film, Ward
needed to find sympathetic collaborators who shared his vision and were willing to
accommodate his ideas, since he was not only intimately involved in the process of
scripting the film, he was also involved in every aspect of production – finding
locations, working on the sets, casting, working closely with the actors - as well as
being actively involved in post-production. He demanded a great deal of the cast and
crew, and most (but not all) of the cast and crew members responded positively to his
perfectionist approach. The process of working on the film created at least one
partnership that lasted beyond the making of Vigil – that between Ward and John
Maynard, the producer, who proved to be sufficiently sympathetic to the director’s aims
and supportive of his methods that Ward asked him to produce his next film, The
Navigator. (Maynard’s loyalty to the director and commitment to the project would,
however, be severely tested during the difficult process of finding funding for the film.)
The critical success of Vigil had an impact on the general direction of New Zealand
filmmaking. Firstly, as Katherine Goodnow points out, it was “a film that demonstrated
to funding bodies the viability of an ‘art-house’ style”. 704 Secondly, Ward’s
uncompromising artistic commitment impressed New Zealand filmmakers. Even
Bridget Ikin, according to Goodnow, has described the film as “my only inheritance”. 705
Thirdly, it has had an influence on the themes and mood of New Zealand films up to the
present day. Philip Matthews attributes the “land-mysticism, the heightened almost
supernatural vision, the sadness” of recent New Zealand films such as Niki Caro’s
Whale Rider (2003) and The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2003) to Ward’s
influence. In his view, Vigil and The Navigator “remain two of the finest and most
influential films of the 1980s”, and he argues that both films “rely, as the subsequent
703 "Am Rande Der Welt," Die Tageszeitung 14 June 1985.
704 Goodnow, Kristeva in Focus: From Theory to Film Analysis 98.
705 Goodnow, Kristeva in Focus: From Theory to Film Analysis 98.