Distributors buy N.Z. films

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 6

Distributors buy N.Z. films

NZPA staff correspondent London Three New Zealand films have been snapped up by film distributors of both British cinema and television after being screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The marketing director of the New Zealand Film Commission, Mr Lindsay Shelton, said, “The British response has been totally positive with three diferent theatre companies being very interested and both television channels competing for rights to the films.” Mr Shelton said that Vincent Ward’s film, "Vigil,” and “Constance,” the first feature film by Bruce Morrison, would be shown in British cinemas. Both films will be distributed by Enterprise Pictures, which also has the United Kingdom rights for “Beyond Reasonable Doubt.” As well, the -8.8. C. has bought the television rights for “Vigil” and “Constance.” Mr Shelton said the 8.8. C. had bought all British rights to John O’Shea’s “Among the Cinders” and was vying with Britain’s Channel Four

for Melanie Read's first feature, “Trial Run.” He said that other deals were going ahead with British television and cinema for “The Silent One," directed by Dave Gibson. A number of deals for all the New Zealand films had not yet been completed. “There is also very special demand for 'The Silent One' in the United States,” he said. Strong interest in “Vigil” has led to negotiations with European film distributors, specifically for French, German and Swedish cinemas. The film by Vincent Ward has proved one of the more controversial ones screened at the festival, with European press reviews giving extremely different points of view. Philip French, a reviewer for the British "Sunday Observer,” criticised the film as “a humourless slow-mov-ing fable.”

However, “The Times" critic said, “Vincent Ward reveals himself as a rare visionary. The hills and bogs and mists of the remote sheep country (from which Ward himself comes) take on a primeval majesty and terror which touches the passions and the subconscious of the people who inhabit them." The prestigious French newspaper, "Le Monde." described "Vigil” as "leading us to the spirit of the silent cinema to fantastic landscapes where anything can happen.”