A young girl comes of age on a remote New Zealand farm, isolated deep inside a beautiful but forbidding landscape of windswept forests and mountains. Be forewarned: the film is no picturesque fable of adolescent angst, but a brooding, dreamlike story that occasionally slips into eerie, portentous lyricism. Shot in luminous verdant tones, the surrounding terrain is allowed to determine (some might say overwhelm) the scenario, putting it at the mercy of the impassive power of nature. Character and story development are nominal: after her father dies falling off a cliff, the young heroine watches a menacing, mysterious poacher arrive to help her widowed mother and crackpot grandfather, with his unexpected presence adding a subdued current of muted violence and sexuality to the already troubled household. It's a dark, claustrophobic little film, dramatically taciturn but visually impressive.
15 Reviews
ART FROM NEW ZEALAND
kirbylee70-599-52617920 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Arrow Video has done quite a bit to make sure world cinema finds its way to the home disc market. Their handling of various Italian and Japanese productions has been amazing and allowed many films from both countries to find quality offerings. Now they've set their sights on down under releasing films from Australia and New Zealand including the previously offered SLEEPING DOGS and SMASH PALACE. This time around Arrow is offering VIGIL, an art film that made the circuit back in the day and was hailed by film critics.
The story opens with a young girl, Lisa "Toss" Peers (Fiona Kay), growing up in a remote hillside area with her parents and grandfather. Out with her father to round up sheep, he falls to his death among the rocks while trying to recover a lost stray. A poacher named Ethan (Frank Whidden) recovers her father's body and brings it to their home. Staying and attempting to help them he's rebuffed by Toss' mother Elizabeth (Penelope Stewart). At the same time her grandfather Birdie (Bill Kerr) allows Ethan to stay on and help him as he tries to keep the farm afloat. Elizabeth and Birdie but heads often. She wants to return to the city and Birdie insists that they remain here on the land that they've had for some time.
The focus of the movie is simplistic at times but the underlying and more important story here is that of Toss. We're presented with a young girl about to become a woman, a child and yet on the cusp of changing. She misses the comfort of having her father around but senses some emotions for Ethan as well. Is it a budding sexual awareness or youthful curiosity? Is it a means of getting her mother to move on after the death of her father? All are potential possibilities.
At the same time there is the attraction between Ethan and Elizabeth. While her husband is still barely cold she can't help but be attracted to this new man who has to possibility to take his place. But is he someone she can trust to do so, to be not only her new husband but father to Toss, or is he just marking time until he leaves?
I have to be honest and say that I've never been a fan of most art films. They seem to be so caught up in themselves and filled with sub context and metaphor that it becomes a challenge to view them as little more than celluloid snobbery. On rare occasion an art film will transcend that tag and actually be entertaining as well but those are few and far between. VIGIL falls into the middle somewhere.
The film has moments that entertain and provide plenty of story but not enough to fill out its 90 minutes running time. Long drawn out moments fill the film. Questions about why anyone would choose to live like this at this point in time also come to mind. At first I thought the film might be another apocalyptic film from down under but after a while I realized this film took place in the present. The end result was a movie that seemed like one that critics would rave over and most audiences would leave scratching their heads at wondering what they'd just seen and why they spent money to watch it. My guess is most will feel that way after viewing this.
That being said I've often stated that all films need to be saved and appreciated for what they are. What might be something awful to one person might be exceptional to another. That a company like Arrow is willing to present films like this in the cleanest way possible with additional material should be applauded. Extras here include an appreciation by film critic Nick Roddick made exclusively for this release, an on-set report from the long-running New Zealand program Country Calendar, an extract from a 1987 Kaleidoscope TV documentary on New Zealand cinema focusing on the film and it's director Vincent Ward, the theatrical trailer and for the first pressing only an illustrated booklet featuring writing on the film by critic Carmen Gray.
The story opens with a young girl, Lisa "Toss" Peers (Fiona Kay), growing up in a remote hillside area with her parents and grandfather. Out with her father to round up sheep, he falls to his death among the rocks while trying to recover a lost stray. A poacher named Ethan (Frank Whidden) recovers her father's body and brings it to their home. Staying and attempting to help them he's rebuffed by Toss' mother Elizabeth (Penelope Stewart). At the same time her grandfather Birdie (Bill Kerr) allows Ethan to stay on and help him as he tries to keep the farm afloat. Elizabeth and Birdie but heads often. She wants to return to the city and Birdie insists that they remain here on the land that they've had for some time.
The focus of the movie is simplistic at times but the underlying and more important story here is that of Toss. We're presented with a young girl about to become a woman, a child and yet on the cusp of changing. She misses the comfort of having her father around but senses some emotions for Ethan as well. Is it a budding sexual awareness or youthful curiosity? Is it a means of getting her mother to move on after the death of her father? All are potential possibilities.
At the same time there is the attraction between Ethan and Elizabeth. While her husband is still barely cold she can't help but be attracted to this new man who has to possibility to take his place. But is he someone she can trust to do so, to be not only her new husband but father to Toss, or is he just marking time until he leaves?
I have to be honest and say that I've never been a fan of most art films. They seem to be so caught up in themselves and filled with sub context and metaphor that it becomes a challenge to view them as little more than celluloid snobbery. On rare occasion an art film will transcend that tag and actually be entertaining as well but those are few and far between. VIGIL falls into the middle somewhere.
The film has moments that entertain and provide plenty of story but not enough to fill out its 90 minutes running time. Long drawn out moments fill the film. Questions about why anyone would choose to live like this at this point in time also come to mind. At first I thought the film might be another apocalyptic film from down under but after a while I realized this film took place in the present. The end result was a movie that seemed like one that critics would rave over and most audiences would leave scratching their heads at wondering what they'd just seen and why they spent money to watch it. My guess is most will feel that way after viewing this.
That being said I've often stated that all films need to be saved and appreciated for what they are. What might be something awful to one person might be exceptional to another. That a company like Arrow is willing to present films like this in the cleanest way possible with additional material should be applauded. Extras here include an appreciation by film critic Nick Roddick made exclusively for this release, an on-set report from the long-running New Zealand program Country Calendar, an extract from a 1987 Kaleidoscope TV documentary on New Zealand cinema focusing on the film and it's director Vincent Ward, the theatrical trailer and for the first pressing only an illustrated booklet featuring writing on the film by critic Carmen Gray.
thoughtful, worthwhile and ultimately optimistic.
christopher-underwood15 August 2019
A beautifully photographed movie where the characters seem more than usually shaped by their surroundings. The unremitting cold wet climate in the unforgiving New Zealand hills forces those making a life there to spend more of an effort than your average city dweller. The father dies, the grandfather goes crazy, the mother seeks another life or another partner and the little girl accepts it all because it is all she has known. I was reminded of Samuel Beckett and also of Werner Herzog and perhaps there is something of each of them here. The constant and wearing daily effort just to stay alive and an urge to test oneself further, almost to build castles in the sky. As with the writer there is also just enough humour to keep us engaged and to distract us occasionally from the absolute desperation and futility of those efforts. Not an easy or speedy watch but thoughtful, worthwhile and ultimately optimistic.
Slow and ponderous
briancham199425 June 2020
Hauntingly beautiful coming-of-age film
Kiwi-717 August 1998
A slow-moving film, exquisitely shot, that to me is the best of pre-1990's New Zealand films. Mystical, magical, haunting, poetic, moody, moving...these words come to mind when trying to describe the film. Best images: Toss in the ballet tutu and gumboots; the unexpected spurt of blood on Toss's face when docking the lambs; Mum at the window; "Beans to God". Applause for script, cinematography, direction, and Fiona's remarkable performance as Toss.
grand dark feeling of emptiness
SteveSkafte2 October 2010
I grew up in the frames of "Vigil". Not to say that I was born in New Zealand - rather, I spent my early years in the lonely valleys and hillsides of Nova Scotia. But this film captures the desperate sense of isolation, the profound and perfect life buried beneath year after year of aching dreamtime, heartwaking nights beneath stars, mornings of fog that weigh you down with the power of all the heavens.
"Vigil" understands childhood. From the confusion of relationships, to the expression of emotion, the distance of adults, and the impetuosity and irrationality of youth. The wisdom of the young, held back without even the slightest consideration for right and wrong. The final answers to questions like "Why was I born?" and "Why am I me and not someone else?". The final answers that are really just acceptances. Eternal questions. For most of my life, since I was the very same age as the girl depicted in this story, I've been looking for a film that captured children as they really are, as they really behave, instead of just some adult's idea of how they act. This catches that elusive sense. For the first time, it puts me inside the childlike mind, lets me see through the same eyes that I once had. Unlike so many, I haven't forgotten what it was like to be this age, what it was really like. No other film understands childhood with such straight purity as this.
The sight of "Vigil" is like riding in a car with snowy windows. Like finding yourself in a poorly insulated house as the glass develops ice crystals and blurs your vision of the outside world. "Vigil" is life through a glass darkly. Alun Bollinger, the cinematographer, seems to see beyond the level of possibility. Beyond what naturalistic photography can conceivably capture. He takes the solid and safe and turns it deadly. Takes the inanimate and makes it breathe. It's as if horses were dreams and you find yourself riding nightmares in the pasture. It's dark and cold, yet full of life and light. Even the shadows tell of light. For if one is capable of perceiving the beauty of light, there is no end of it to be found in a film like "Vigil".
If a man like Vincent Ward had an achievement in life, a reason to be an artist, this film is that. He creates a tale of such perfection, such breath and personification, that I never realized how desperately I'd been searching my whole life for it to come around. With his co-writer, Graeme Tetley, a story of believability and human understanding has been woven together so tight, so pure, that I can't even speak of cinematic considerations. I can't think of undue questions or dissections. The reality is complete. For scene after scene, a solid image is perfectly presented, composed. Faces, houses, a derelict car, a jousting match. Nothing is weak. Nothing is unimportant.
This is the fifth film I've seen by Vincent Ward. One of them (What Dreams May Come) engaged me, but the visuals kept a distance. Two others (River Queen and Map of the Human Heart) were held back by unconvincing performances, though they were engaging otherwise. The Navigator, which he made four years later, is another truly great film - though of a much different style. But I'm not thinking of other films tonight. I'm dreaming of this world, and taking my vigil at the window. Tonight is calm, and the early Autumn air has settled outside my home in the Annapolis Valley. I'm thinking of the images I've seen, feeling changed and refocused, picked up out of my depression. This story has re-awoken the most desperate parts of my soul. It has left me with, to quote a song, "that grand dark feeling of emptiness".
For more of this feeling: Days of Heaven (1978), The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1983), Tender Mercies (1983), The Stone Boy (1984), Ironweed (1987)
"Vigil" understands childhood. From the confusion of relationships, to the expression of emotion, the distance of adults, and the impetuosity and irrationality of youth. The wisdom of the young, held back without even the slightest consideration for right and wrong. The final answers to questions like "Why was I born?" and "Why am I me and not someone else?". The final answers that are really just acceptances. Eternal questions. For most of my life, since I was the very same age as the girl depicted in this story, I've been looking for a film that captured children as they really are, as they really behave, instead of just some adult's idea of how they act. This catches that elusive sense. For the first time, it puts me inside the childlike mind, lets me see through the same eyes that I once had. Unlike so many, I haven't forgotten what it was like to be this age, what it was really like. No other film understands childhood with such straight purity as this.
The sight of "Vigil" is like riding in a car with snowy windows. Like finding yourself in a poorly insulated house as the glass develops ice crystals and blurs your vision of the outside world. "Vigil" is life through a glass darkly. Alun Bollinger, the cinematographer, seems to see beyond the level of possibility. Beyond what naturalistic photography can conceivably capture. He takes the solid and safe and turns it deadly. Takes the inanimate and makes it breathe. It's as if horses were dreams and you find yourself riding nightmares in the pasture. It's dark and cold, yet full of life and light. Even the shadows tell of light. For if one is capable of perceiving the beauty of light, there is no end of it to be found in a film like "Vigil".
If a man like Vincent Ward had an achievement in life, a reason to be an artist, this film is that. He creates a tale of such perfection, such breath and personification, that I never realized how desperately I'd been searching my whole life for it to come around. With his co-writer, Graeme Tetley, a story of believability and human understanding has been woven together so tight, so pure, that I can't even speak of cinematic considerations. I can't think of undue questions or dissections. The reality is complete. For scene after scene, a solid image is perfectly presented, composed. Faces, houses, a derelict car, a jousting match. Nothing is weak. Nothing is unimportant.
This is the fifth film I've seen by Vincent Ward. One of them (What Dreams May Come) engaged me, but the visuals kept a distance. Two others (River Queen and Map of the Human Heart) were held back by unconvincing performances, though they were engaging otherwise. The Navigator, which he made four years later, is another truly great film - though of a much different style. But I'm not thinking of other films tonight. I'm dreaming of this world, and taking my vigil at the window. Tonight is calm, and the early Autumn air has settled outside my home in the Annapolis Valley. I'm thinking of the images I've seen, feeling changed and refocused, picked up out of my depression. This story has re-awoken the most desperate parts of my soul. It has left me with, to quote a song, "that grand dark feeling of emptiness".
For more of this feeling: Days of Heaven (1978), The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1983), Tender Mercies (1983), The Stone Boy (1984), Ironweed (1987)
Certainly not like anything else
showtrmp23 April 2012
SPOILER: I don't know when I've seen a film that was so beautiful and yet so utterly baffling. It's not like any other movie you'll ever see. Every single image is stark and brutal--the director, Vincent Ward, is trying to enter a primitive painting and make drama out of it. And he has a perfect setting--a sheep farm in New Zealand--that comes from Thomas Hardy's accounts, in which nature wages an unending, unfathomable conspiracy against the characters. It's in the actual story Ward tells that he gets into trouble. His 12-year-old heroine, Toss (Fiona Kay) witnesses her farmer father's death from an accidental fall (as he tries to rescue a sheep) and the camera sits on her impassive face for the first of several eternities. Her restless mother (Penelope Stewart) seizes the opportunity to put the farm up for sale. Her dotty grandfather (Bill Kerr) is like every dotty grandfather in the movies--he putters around, muttering feisty-old-goat aphorisms and tinkering with whimsical machines--and quickly becomes insufferable. Ethan, (Frank Whidden) the hunter who carried the father's corpse back to the farm, shows up again looking to replace the father. Toss and her mother are both attracted and repelled by him.
In one remarkable sequence, we see Toss experimenting with Ethan's gun. She looks through the gun sights and begins tracking Ethan through the house, as if she were ambushing James Bond. When Ethan sees her, he steps boldly toward her and removes the sight, which she had taken off the gun and is holding to her eye like a telescope. We are in D.H. Lawrence sexual-awakening territory now, but the combination of Lawrence and Hardy doesn't ignite the way it should--the director's austere manner (keeping everything at a distance) begins to seem remote and rather obscure. The scenes don't follow from each other; each one goes off on its own, and the characters shift attitudes and allegiances to no clear purpose. The performers start doing a lot of staring and squinting into the camera (for LONG periods) only Stewart makes any impression, as she's the only one who actually engages with the person she's speaking to (and the only one who seems to have any grasp on reality.) The last fourth of the movie is unspeakably depressing. We finally realize that this is the kind of film where explanations and logic are left out, and the resultant confusion is presented as "depth". Fascinating and infuriating, in just about equal measure.
In one remarkable sequence, we see Toss experimenting with Ethan's gun. She looks through the gun sights and begins tracking Ethan through the house, as if she were ambushing James Bond. When Ethan sees her, he steps boldly toward her and removes the sight, which she had taken off the gun and is holding to her eye like a telescope. We are in D.H. Lawrence sexual-awakening territory now, but the combination of Lawrence and Hardy doesn't ignite the way it should--the director's austere manner (keeping everything at a distance) begins to seem remote and rather obscure. The scenes don't follow from each other; each one goes off on its own, and the characters shift attitudes and allegiances to no clear purpose. The performers start doing a lot of staring and squinting into the camera (for LONG periods) only Stewart makes any impression, as she's the only one who actually engages with the person she's speaking to (and the only one who seems to have any grasp on reality.) The last fourth of the movie is unspeakably depressing. We finally realize that this is the kind of film where explanations and logic are left out, and the resultant confusion is presented as "depth". Fascinating and infuriating, in just about equal measure.
Recently seen the movie
Citizenkenn_1-121 January 2007
At the starting scene of the movie, I did not know what to expect..as I continued to watching..I began to drawn to each character in their own way in the movie as in the connection between the mother, the grandfather, the poacher (the stranger).All together in one. But the real star in the story is TOSS- the little girl who witness her father's death. Throughout the whole movie, one begin to see how she is coping by her father's departure and somewhat feel alienated she wore an hawk-like hat to cover her face from the rest of the world ..and coming of age to discover who she really is and most of all the value of her womanhood.
The movie is a bit slow but it has a nice background based on its time, kinda bluish-gray mixing with different weathers during the scenes which made it magnificent and captivating to watch..Don't expect drama or actions..This movie is somewhat for the innocent. Just a feel-good movie. Go your nearest store; buy or rent it. You will enjoy it..
The movie is a bit slow but it has a nice background based on its time, kinda bluish-gray mixing with different weathers during the scenes which made it magnificent and captivating to watch..Don't expect drama or actions..This movie is somewhat for the innocent. Just a feel-good movie. Go your nearest store; buy or rent it. You will enjoy it..
Hard to maintain a 'Vigil' when you want to fall asleep.
sarcasm_for_free24 July 2022
As a wart-and-all depiction of life on an isolated New Zealand farm, which shows the stresses of strains of dealing with unruly sheep, malfunctioning machinery and dangerous terrain, Vigil is no doubt an important time capsule.
It might be studied generations from now, as a true snapshot of history. I can just imagine conferences devoted to it, populated by brooding academics debating it's quaint charms and 'how much we've left behind' by moving to a far more industrialised economy. We'll all be eating bugs soon instead of meat, fish and eggs dontcha know ;)
As a spectacle of entertainment though, it's a pretty pallid experience. Lot's of scenes of dirt-encrusted farmers discussing the finer points of their chosen profession is not my idea of fun... and that doesn't even take into account the many moments where there's no dialogue at all, just rustic people wandering around the countryside as the 'atmospheric' music swells to hitherto unheard levels of pomp.
All very touching, but it does little to alleviate the distinct impression you may be wasting your time a tad. Throwing in a half-hearted love affair, and a vague subplot about 'returning to civilisation' doesn't exactly make up for the overriding feeling of boredom, either.
Still, the girl is very good, Shame she didn't much of her acting career after this, but her choice I guess. And as mentioned, nowt much wrong with the cinematography.
But if I want a similar experience in the future, I'll probably skip this borefest and have a flick through Farmer's Weekly instead. Now, let's see... so, combine harvesters are half price off at the mo? Interesting, vveerrrryy interesting... 4/10.
It might be studied generations from now, as a true snapshot of history. I can just imagine conferences devoted to it, populated by brooding academics debating it's quaint charms and 'how much we've left behind' by moving to a far more industrialised economy. We'll all be eating bugs soon instead of meat, fish and eggs dontcha know ;)
As a spectacle of entertainment though, it's a pretty pallid experience. Lot's of scenes of dirt-encrusted farmers discussing the finer points of their chosen profession is not my idea of fun... and that doesn't even take into account the many moments where there's no dialogue at all, just rustic people wandering around the countryside as the 'atmospheric' music swells to hitherto unheard levels of pomp.
All very touching, but it does little to alleviate the distinct impression you may be wasting your time a tad. Throwing in a half-hearted love affair, and a vague subplot about 'returning to civilisation' doesn't exactly make up for the overriding feeling of boredom, either.
Still, the girl is very good, Shame she didn't much of her acting career after this, but her choice I guess. And as mentioned, nowt much wrong with the cinematography.
But if I want a similar experience in the future, I'll probably skip this borefest and have a flick through Farmer's Weekly instead. Now, let's see... so, combine harvesters are half price off at the mo? Interesting, vveerrrryy interesting... 4/10.
A moody, arresting piece filled with the unexpected.
Harbert14 March 2000
Vincent Ward's work in this film reminded me of the use of images by Bergman in his early films. Rough country, silhouetted figures, unexpected angles and movement, an avoidance of bright colour.
We have to struggle to get to know the characters a little, and that is what I found was drawing myself in to the film. Ward could be accused of not telling the story fully enough. I found that his style kept me wondering what might happen next.
We have to struggle to get to know the characters a little, and that is what I found was drawing myself in to the film. Ward could be accused of not telling the story fully enough. I found that his style kept me wondering what might happen next.
Beautifully rendered
PaulGJackson15 January 2000
Well this film is hard to categorize, but let's just say it is filled with gorgeous and wondrous textures and images. The stark scenery is brilliantly captured by the camera here.
Classic Vincent Ward palette of delectable images and haunting music. - Bravo!
Classic Vincent Ward palette of delectable images and haunting music. - Bravo!
Dull, Dull, Dull
myq229 July 2005
Perhaps I'm just a cynical, unsophisticated knuckle-dragger and nowhere near as cultured as the film festival crowd, but I absolutely loathed this film. To me it epitomizes what is essentially wrong with the film industry in New Zealand; that being the fact that Kiwi film makers seem hell-bent on making boring movies designed to appeal to less than .000000001% of the population. Occasionally, someone gets it right, and every 8-10 years we'll get something like Sleeping Dogs, Goodbye Pork Pie, Ngati, or Whale Rider. But more often than not the local product ranges in quality from only just watchable to mind-numbingly dull, the latter being the case with Vigil. It's not a badly made film - in fact the acting is first rate, and the photography quite stunning - the major problem is the sheer drudgery of it all. Stunning misty landscapes, rustic sets, quaint old farm buildings, and close-ups of leaky taps do not save this stinker from a storyline that drags slower than a mini towing a b-train. Avoid this film at all costs.
Childhood captured with brilliance.
Amyth4725 May 2019
My Rating : 8/10
'Beans up your...'
'Vigil' is about a lonely young girl living with her family on an isolated, mist-cloaked farm and the disturbing realities she faces along the way.
Beautiful, funny and grand - don't be fooled by it's minimalist settings but try and look for the primal feelings of childhood which is captured so wonderfully.
Highly recommended.
'Beans up your...'
'Vigil' is about a lonely young girl living with her family on an isolated, mist-cloaked farm and the disturbing realities she faces along the way.
Beautiful, funny and grand - don't be fooled by it's minimalist settings but try and look for the primal feelings of childhood which is captured so wonderfully.
Highly recommended.
Everyone has to start somewhere
jz-1016 October 2005
Vigil has some good ideas, and occasional moments when they're realized fairly well, but this is anything but a satisfying movie. There's virtually no content at all, and it is painfully slow in revealing its emptiness. None of the characters are compelling, the scenery, is unremittingly gray and bleak, the mood is as drab as the leaden sky under which it's filmed.
At this point in time, NZ films were often remarkable only for their weirdness, and Vigil, although tender and with heart, is not an exception.
Vigil's greatest value may be as a study in Vincent Ward's development, which burst open to reveal his wonderful talent in the remarkable gem, The Navigator, two years later, the first of some first-class movies from New Zealand, such as The Piano, Whale Rider, and of course, The Lord of the Rings.
At this point in time, NZ films were often remarkable only for their weirdness, and Vigil, although tender and with heart, is not an exception.
Vigil's greatest value may be as a study in Vincent Ward's development, which burst open to reveal his wonderful talent in the remarkable gem, The Navigator, two years later, the first of some first-class movies from New Zealand, such as The Piano, Whale Rider, and of course, The Lord of the Rings.
A classic pretentious arty mess.
wadechurton12 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The main problem with Kiwi movies is that the critics won't review them dispassionately. Go to virtually all the film sites and you'll read that this is some kind of classic. It is in fact a boring art-bullied waste of time. The performance by Fiona Kay is excellent, but she is the only fleshed-out character, and doesn't really behave as a normal person, more an adult's rather twisted vision of what a small girl might do and think. None of the other thinly-sketched characters are in any way sympathetic, the setting is within a singularly depressing sodden-hills landscape, and the screenplay is mean-spirited and unfathomable. Why for instance does the mother spend considerable time sewing a tutu for Toss and then blithely let her go out and play in the filthy, muddy outdoors in it? Why does the mother suddenly take up with a surly poacher who shows disturbingly pedophile designs on her young daughter? Are we supposed to find the differently-sane grandfather and his deranged, self-absorbed prattle somehow endearing? You want art, fine, here's your art. You want a proper movie, avoid 'Vigil' until Bad Movie Night.
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