h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And if so:

What was it (and what did you think of it)?

How did you know it was a New Zealand film?

Was the fact that it was a NZ film important in any way? eg did it affect the story, or your experience of watching?

1. Yes, several.

2. The one that most sticks in the mind is 'Heavenly Creatures'.

3. The opening sequence establishes the setting as 1950's Christchurch. Oh, and the accents of most of the characters are a bit of a giveaway too. Not to mention the fact that Peter Jackson made it.

4. It was refreshing to see a Kiwi film, but it didn't really affect my response to the story. (Note: The story was not at all refreshing. 'Disturbing as all get out' would be a better description.)

*idly wonders what triggered this thread*

Only Bad Taste & Braindead (bot of wich are winging they're way to me on DVD). I first saw them years ago. I think they're great, but I doubt if being made in NZ was really a factor! They're probably not representative of NZ's cinematic output.

I can't seem to find 'Meet the Feebles' on DVD, which is a pity in some ways but a relief in others.

Oh, and as for films that are thoroughly Kiwi, like 'Whale Rider' and a couple of others that escape me right now - well, I haven't seen them. That has a lot to do with not getting around to it.

....to be honest I wouldn't know, may have and just thought it was Australian, matters not to me where films come from, would have made a change from American films anyway!

Yes, quite a few. Mostly I liked 'em. Couldn't tell you the titles of most of them because I have the memory of a senile goldfish.

Surprised that no one has remembered that the whole LotR thing was made by and shot in New Zealand.

Jumped the gun a bit there. I have a feeling that 'The Quiet Earth' (a rather good post-apocaplypse thriller) is a NZ film, for example. As is surely 'Once Were Warriors', which althougfh i've not seen it I know is very well thought of round the world.

I'm not sure it affected my viewing. The scenery is awesome, and the towns do look different to UK/USA films, but I don't get a sense of national character from a NZ film that I get from say, French or Spanish cinema. But that may be because you use the same language. How much of the charcter that I perceive in European cinema is because I have to read them? But when I think of instantly recognizable film styles, I think French, Russian, Japanese, Hong Kong and even German.

In the minds of the rest of the world, I suspect that (however unfairly), NZ cinema gets lumped in with Australian Cinema (just as canadian Cinema gets lumped in with US Cinema. In that respect, with the obvious exception of Peter Jackson, NZ has never had the 'big' successes like Australia - directors like Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, and actors like Bryan Brown, Hugo Weaving, Guy Peirce, Sam Neill and even the cro-magnon like Russell Crowe have lifted Aussie films onto the international stage in a way that NZ just can't compete with, I think.

Sam Neill and Russell Crowe are actually both New Zealanders

Which rather interestingly proves the point that there two most famous exports (in acting terms) made most of there major breakthroughs in Australian and then US cinema, don't you think?

Anyone seen any films by Colin McKenzie... Now there was a Kiwi filmmaker who outshined Peter Jackson by a long way!

Well, I saw Once Were Warrios which was very good. Haven't seen the sequel yet. Also I need to get around to watching Whale Rider.
Other than that I watched Braindead, Beautiful Creatures and Lord of the Rings. Only the latter stands out in my mind.

Outshined??? ** slaps himself on head for his grammar!***

Outshone maybe...

Heavenly Creatures, and yes, I think it needed to be set in New Zealand to work.

Also, The Piano, directed by a New Zealander and set in New Zealand, although I've a feeling it may have actually been filmed in Australia.

RF

Actually, I have a feeling that I have seen Crowe in a NZ film, but I'm b*gg*red if I can remember the title of it. He played a gangland thug and ended up on the run with a Japanese girl.

Ended up at a Farmers ball type of affair. Very good, as I recall.

Wasn't 'The Navigator' made in New Zealand? Now that's a cracking little movie. One I'd like to own on dvd, truth be told.

Hang on. A quick bit of googling reveals Crowe moved to Australia in early childhood and has NEVER appeared in a film made or shot in New Zealand. Indeed, the film I was thinking of as Heaven's Burning which was made in Oz.

I think trying to claim him as a NZer is a bit tricky. Similar Googling tells me that Sam neill only ever appeared in one NZ film before upping sticks to Oz. So I think again his success is in Ozzie cinema, and not a lot to do with his NZ birth.

Do you mean 'Flight of the Navigator', Blues?

Nope. I mean 'The Navigator', sometimes known as 'The Navigator: A Medievil Odyssey'. A rare gem in the world of time travel movies as it's done with wit, passion and emotion.

And googling reveals it was indeed made in New Zealand, directed by one Vincent Ward.

But I have to say that looking at the list of 592 NZ movies on imdb (yeah, it's a slow day down here today), very very few of them (actually, only the ones people have mentioned here) look at all familiar.

An Angel at my Table (about Janet Frame), and A Portrait of a Lady (based on the Henry James novel); both directed by the Kiwi, Jane Campion. The latter film being one of my all time favourites.

Sam Neill, I believe, lives in NZ - I think he has a winery there

Crowe started his career in Oz but, I don't know how many Aussies will admit to it