Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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described himself as liking and being interested in nineteenth-century German
Romanticism and “the northern European experience”, and he also has strong German
connections through his mother.
Romantic artists, because of their commitment to originality, have traditionally disliked
being categorised, and Ward has expressed similar views. It is certainly true that
labelling him as a Romantic or Expressionist filmmaker (even in the broadest sense)
cannot fully “explain” his approach. These concepts (visionary, individual, auteur,
Romantic, Expressionist) have been used so broadly that my task was to pin down the
particular sense in which they might be applicable to Ward. One aspect of Romanticism
that proved to be particularly relevant to Ward’s approach was the conception of the
artist as visionary. Another relevant Romantic concept was the emphasis placed on
individual sensibility and imagination. I have sought to clarify the implications of this
idea, for example by studying the genesis of Ward’s film scripts. It is Ward’s
individualist auteurist approach, evident in the strength of his “vision” and of his desire
for artistic control over all aspects of his work that distinguishes him from other New
Zealand directors of his generation. There is also a distinct link with Romanticism in
Ward’s interest in mysticism and the role of the unconscious and irrational. Although
he does not see himself as a religious filmmaker, his work is concerned with spirituality
in its diverse forms. His interest in the irrational and the grotesque (linked with
Romanticism particularly in its Gothic forms) is evident in the atmosphere of unease
created in his early films, especially A State of Siege and Vigil. The role of the
unconscious is explored in the “dream-like” elements of his work and is linked to the
figure of the doppelgänger (the divided self) which figured strongly in both Romantic
and Expressionist art forms. Ward is likewise fascinated with the divided self, not
surprising in terms of his own sense of divided identity (for example, the mixture of
German Jewish and Irish Catholic in his background). The figure of the outsider on the
fringes of society – a figure that has its origins in the Byronic hero - has also been a
constant theme in his work.
While Romanticism provides a useful starting-point, Ward’s work can also be more
specifically associated with Expressionism. Although several of the main protagonists
in his films make literal journeys from one end of the world to the other, the focus in his
work is always on their inner journeys. The psychological state of the characters is