Arrow Video, with
domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group,
will be bringing auteur filmmaker
Vincent Ward’s 1984 film release of Vigil to the home entertainment
marketplace on June 12 as a newly minted Blu-ray release.
You can’t really talk
about Vigil without referencing Vincent Ward as a writer and director
— as a filmmaker — and the reason for that is that Vigil is probably an
unknown quantity to most American audiences.
It opened at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition
for the Palme d'Or (losing out to Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas). This was news in and of itself as Vigil
was the first New Zealand film ever to be considered for the Palme d'Or.
It worked the festival
circuit briefly and then dropped out sight.
The important thing for Ward was that the film opened doors to other
opportunities. The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
followed in 1988, then came Map of the Human Heart (1992) and
the 1998 Robin Williams fantasy, What Dreams May Come (which won the
Oscar for Best Visual Effects).
Along the way he got
involved in the Alien 3 fiasco as one of the writers.
Vigil is a visual bit of storytelling that leaves the
viewer wondering what much of the imagery represents. It is the sort of film that one talks about
with others afterwards … what was that about, this about … what does that
represent? That sort of thing.
The film takes place in a
remote area of New Zealand (the western area of the North Island), where we are
introduced to a coming-of-age girl — 12 years-old — named Lisa, but everyone
simply calls her Toss (played by Fiona Kay).
She lives on a ranch with her mother (Penelope Stewart) and grandfather
(Bill Kerr), and witnesses the tragic death of her father as he tried in vain
to rescue a stray sheep in the rugged — picturesque — terrain that is much of
their spread.
A mysterious hunter named
Ethan (Frank Whitten) carries her father’s body back to the farm and remains as
a hired hand, at first, and then later as her mother’s lover. In her grief; her loss, Toss begins to
imagine all sorts things about the stranger.
Add to this basic narrative the visual
cues of Ward’s direction and the spectacular beauty of the New Zealand
countryside and you end up with a film and story that is both lyrical in nature
and yet strangely foreboding … a tale of sexual awakenings.
Bonus goodies include a
newly prepared video session with film critic Nick Roddick, who examines the
film in-depth, plus there is a vintage on-set New Zealand television piece and
1987 New Zealand TV program/documentary from “Kaleidoscope” that examines Vigil
and filmmaker Vincent Ward.
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