Top 10 NZ films

By Russell Baillie and Peter Calder

1. Heavenly Creatures
(1994, Peter Jackson)

The rapturous study of the obsessive relationship between two Christchurch schoolgirls which led to matricide took an utterly specific incident in our
history and made of it a dizzyingly impressive movie in which form and content married perfectly. Adventurous yet controlled, it signalled a talent of precocious mastery and lays claim to being the best-realised fully New Zealand film.

2. Once Were Warriors
(1994, Lee Tamahori)

Still the big one, the first film to gross more than $6 million at the New Zealand box office also acted as a national social wake-up call. Its harrowing, violent but ultimately hopeful story was made all the more powerful by the performances of Rena Owen as Beth and Temuera Morrison as her brute of a husband. Director Tamahori rendered it all in grim, grand style.

3. Smash Palace
(1981, Roger Donaldson)

His first feature, Sleeping Dogs, deserves special mention for its makeshift brilliance and because it kickstarted modern local film-making, but in the story of a man fighting to keep the daughter he adores, Donaldson made a film of honesty and assurance which was the high point in Bruno Lawrence's distinguished career. It also exploited, better than any other film, the hostile magnificence of the volcanic plateau.

4. Goodbye Pork Pie
(1980, Geoff Murphy)

Murphy delivered better-written, better-made films in the later works Utu and The Quiet Earth, but we still like this one, the first New Zealand movie that local audiences took to in droves. Why a film about two dope-smoking car thieves driving a yellow mini from Kaitaia to Invercargill? We say it's sheer rebel-yell energy and, as Murphy once said: "The heroes behaved and spoke in a manner that sug-
gested New Zealand was the only place on Earth."

5. The Piano
(1993, Jane Campion)

Campion's 19th-century tale of sexual repression, colonialism and music lessons was part-gothic melodrama, part-frontier epic set in a strange New World of brooding landscapes and long beaches. It impressed the world enough to win a Palme d'Or at Cannes and Oscars for best original screenplay, best actress and best supporting actress. Nice music, too.

6. An Angel At My Table
(1990, Jane Campion)

Originally intended as a television three-parter, this
biopic of Janet Frame based on her auto-
biographies was superbly realised, managing a fine balance between historic details of the writer's life and the spirit of her work. Though shot for the small screen, it was visually striking. The three actors
playing Frame as child, teenager and adult — with them newcomer Kerry Fox as the adult — carried off their portrayals perfectly

7. Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale
(1986, Murray Ball)

We'd already had quite a love affair with Dog, Wal and Co by the time Ball's backblocks cartoon strip went from newsprint to celluloid. With its richly rendered animation, Dave Dobbyn's supporting songs, its vernacular humour and an exciting story, this became a Kiwi popcorn classic, cartoon or not.

8. Vigil
(1984, Vincent Ward)

The first New Zealand film to be invited into competition at Cannes. Ward's brooding mono-
chromatic expressionistic tone-poem set on a windswept sheep farm was often stilted and mannered, but it was the fledgling masterpiece of an extraordinary talent which has, frustratingly, never completely taken flight. Visually stunning and
wonderfully scored, it's a must-see in a survey of our cinema history.

9. Ngati
(1987, Barry Barclay)

The first feature made by Maori, this story of an isolated community in change managed to be at once polemical and engaging. It had a stereotype or two of its own, but for the first time Maori characters and perspectives were unselfconsciously and unpatronisingly presented and Pakeha prejudices were exposed to almost affectionate derision. Washed by Dalvanius' hummable Haere Mai, it was a memorable summery gem.

10. Scarfies
(1999, Robert Sarkies)

A late entry into this list, the debut feature of Sarkies (who co-wrote it with scribe brother Duncan) is about a group of Dunedin student flatmates who find themselves on a crash course in dope selling and kidnapping. It was a riot of laconic comedy, affectionate satire, dark thrills and southern chills.