Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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gave him the key that enabled him to make the movie”. 951 The film however, is Ward’s
least autobiographical, except perhaps that the story of the separated lovers has some
resonances with the story of his mother and father’s meeting in Israel and the
difficulties they encountered in order to be together. Louis Nowra, Ward’s co-writer,
commented that:
Vincent brings into his films his whole being, so in Map of the Human Heart, he
was Avik […]. And with The Navigator, that’s sort of about New Zealand,
that’s him in New Zealand, and I think Vigil, that’s kind of his childhood on his
dad’s property. And the girl is Vincent, that’s him, a lonely little boy with his
imagination, that’s Vincent. Whereas in his latest film, I can’t see Vincent, I
just can’t see him, which is I think when technique began to overcome the core
of that love affair. 952
The loss of the director’s personal signature in some aspects of this film was perhaps a
result of the difficulties for an auteur such as Ward trying to retain his vision of the film
while working in a large and complex Hollywood context. What happened after the
initial edit of What Dreams May Come illustrates these problems. The first cut was
edited exactly as it had been written, and at the first test screening, with an audience
recruited “solely on the basis of their interest in the subject matter of the film”, the
reaction was very positive. The studio however, insisted on a second test screening
with a broader audience, who, according to the film’s producer Stephen Simon, “didn’t
accept the film at all and was actually hostile about the confusing nature of the first act.
We had to go back and re-edit the film with a much simpler and cleaner through-line in
mind”. 953 As Simon points out, a lot of money had been spent on making the film,
“therefore Polygram had a huge investment, and they needed to have the film appeal to
the widest possible audience […]. But making it a more mainstream film took some of
the power of the experience away from those who were deeply interested in the subject
matter”. 954
In an unpublished interview shortly after the release of What Dreams May Come, the
director described his position in regard to working in the commercial milieu of
951 Ward, "After Life," D3.
952 Lynette Read, interview with Louis Nowra, 29 February 2000.
953 Simon, The Force Is with You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives 236.
954 Simon, The Force Is with You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives 237.