Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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also – in his most recent project – had difficulty aligning regional (New Zealand)
concerns with the interests of international investors.
This thesis has examined the biography and work of a leading New Zealand filmmaker.
It has sought to define what makes Ward’s work distinctive and the evolution of his
aesthetic. As a contribution to the under-researched tradition of film study in New
Zealand, it has documented the process by which his films were made. Close study has
confirmed my belief that they represent an exceptionally important body of work.
As a test of auteur theory, I believe my study of the films has shown the basic relevance
of this approach to a director with his type of artistic personality. In Ward’s case, an
individualist approach accords with the Romantic aspects of his aesthetic. My auteurist
analysis has identified characteristic themes, visual motifs, stylistic tendencies and other
distinctive interests. In my discussions with the director, I became aware that every
creative decision he made was carefully thought through and that he is the kind of
auteur who sees a close dialogue between theory and practice. This is one reason why I
have employed an expanded conception of auteur theory that considers practice as well
as theory – the distinctive characteristics of the director in action, in addition to the
textual results of that action. As such, I believe that in its exploration of biographical
influences and production activities as well as filmmaking contexts, this case study may
have made a contribution to the development of auteur criticism. At the same time, I
have seen auteurism as only one dimension of my study, needing to be complemented
first by a study of intellectual and cultural history (the overall contexts of Romanticism,
Expressionism and the New Zealand film tradition, among other sources), and secondly
by an account of the film industry contexts (financial, technological, and organizational)
in which any director must operate. This eclectic or “thick” description seems
appropriate for the complex medium of film. It is also one way of responding to Ward’s
dislike of labels – I do not want to refrain from categorization but I must acknowledge
that an adequate description involves not one but many categories, allowing us to
discuss but never to exhaust a complex work of art which continues to exist – in W.H.
Auden’s phrase - “in the valley of its making”, never entirely ceding to the critic its own
complex power and mystery. 984
984 W.H.Auden, “In Memory of W.B.Yeats”. Helen Gardner, ed., The New Oxford Book of English
Verse (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972) 920.