6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In a remote valley a farmer dies. In his wake comes a hunter. The farmer's daughter watches him. He starts a relationship with her mother and helps her grandfather to build a strange new invention. To the child, he is a predator. She must expel him from her valley.
Starring: Penelope Stewart, Frank Whitten, Bill KerrDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
1962 was a really interesting year in the annals of film for a variety of reasons. Huge epics were still drawing considerable crowds to theaters, as evidenced by the top grossing film of that year, David Lean’s immortal Lawrence of Arabia. Other epics did at least reasonably well that year, including Lawrence’s follow up in the Number 2 position, The Longest Day, and even a highly troubled production that still made that year’s Top 10 (in position 6), the Marlon Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty. That year’s Top 20 saw a number of other iconic entries, including two films that might each be considered sui generis, the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate and the showbiz sendup (which was also a thriller in its own way) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? . Two ostensibly “smaller” films also made the Top 20, and they share one other salient element, one that pertains in a way to Vigil, an interesting if flawed 1984 New Zealand film from Vincent Ward that was the first offering from the nation to compete at Cannes. The Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress for films released in 1962 pitted two very young female performers against each other, Mary Badham, who portrayed the inimitable Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (at that point in time, the youngest ever nominee in that particular category), and eventual winner Patty Duke, who of course gave an unforgettable performance as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. Both of these characterizations have rightly gone down in history as among the finest child (and/or youth) work ever captured on celluloid, and both continue to move audiences to this day. Duke went on to a long and storied (if sometimes troubled, as evidenced by her own confessional memoirs) career, but somewhat strangely Badham never really capitalized on her incredible feature film debut, instead following up the legendary Harper Lee tale with a few television appearances and a couple more film roles before largely disappearing from view. Something somewhat similar seems to have happened to Fiona Kay, the remarkable (then) young actress who is front and center throughout Vigil, in a performance that I personally would rank as near equal to that of either Duke or Badham, in a role that requires her to traverse a rather wide range of emotions and motivations. According to the IMDb, Kay (who, like Badham and Duke in those aforementioned films, made her feature film debut in this role) appeared in only one feature film after Vigil, Jane Campion’s strangely underrated An Angel at My Table, a film which came out several years after Vigil (the IMDb does show a couple of interstitial shorts and/or television roles that Kay also did).
Vigil is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains (more or less) the same generic information that has been included on some of its other recent New Zealand based releases:
Vigil was digitally restored by the New Zealand Film Commission from original film elements. The restoration was supervised and approved by Vincent Ward. The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono sound.With a couple of minor exceptions (noted below), this is a really pleasing looking transfer, one that offers a really lush rendering of the film's often impressive palette, and one which circumscribes potential problem areas like mist strewn mountaintops with relative ease. Ward often indulges in (sometimes extreme) close-ups, especially with regard to Fiona Kay, and fine detail is typically excellent in these moments, easily offering the texture of the fabrics of the weird "ski mask" hats she wears. The film is also full of rather splendid scenic vistas, and depth of field is often quite impressive in these shots. There are occasional problems with shadow definition, and some moments look to have a just slightly bluish/purplish tinge to them (aside and apart from intentionally blue sequences like the one scene in screenshot 14 accompanying this review). There are also some tiny flecks that have made it past the restoration gauntlet, but you really have to keep your eyes peeled to notice them. Grain looks natural throughout the presentation and encounters no compression difficulties.
Vigil's LPCM 1.0 track is understandably narrow sounding, but it has sometimes surprising depth, with layers of dialogue and ambient environmental effects rather nicely prioritized throughout. The film's enjoyable score by Jack Body sounds full bodied, and there are no problems with dropouts, distortion or damage.
If I hadn't been so generally blown away by Fiona Kay's performance in this film, I might have given the overall effort a 3.5, since it does encounter some narrative hurdles and tends to wander a bit at times. But Kay really anchors this film as a really unique and unforgettable character, and Ward's visual sense buoyed by the excellent work of cinematographer Alun Bollinger really elevated this film for me personally above some of its tawdrier aspects. Technical merits are first rate, and Vigil comes Recommended.
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