"Director: Vincent Ward"

• What Dreams May Come | DVD | (15/11/1999) from £14.59   |  Saving you £-7.60 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair. The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. --Shannon Gee

• Vigil | Blu Ray | (11/06/2018) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Vincent Ward once described as the Antipodean Werner Herzog made his feature debut with Vigil, heralding his status as one of New Zealand's most distinctive filmmaking talents and paving the way for such equally remarkable and unclassifiable efforts as The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey and Map of the Human Heart. A stranger appears in a remote New Zealand farmland at the exact time a farmer accidentally falls to his death. The mysterious outsider grows close to some of the dead man's family, to the point where he and the widow become lovers. But her eleven-year-old daughter, Toss, struggling to come to terms with the death of her father as well as her impending womanhood, believes the intruder to be the devil and sets about protecting her family and their homestead. Propelled by Fiona Kay's outstanding performance by as Toss, she would earn a standing ovation when Vigil screened at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival the first time ever that a New Zealand feature played in the main competition. Features: High Definition (Blu-ray) presentation Original mono audio (uncompressed LPCM) Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Brand-new appreciation by film critic Nick Roddick, recorded exclusively for this release On-set report from the long-running New Zealand television programme Country Calendar Extract from a 1987 Kaleidoscope television documentary on New Zealand cinema, focusing on Vigil and Vincent Ward Theatrical trailer FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Carmen Gray

• What Dreams May Come | Blu Ray | (27/02/2017) from £6.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair. The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. --Shannon Gee

• River Queen | DVD | (09/06/2008) from £8.14   |  Saving you £7.85 (96.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An intimate story set during the 1860's in which a young Irish woman Sarah and her family find themselves on both sides of the turbulent wars between British and Maori during the British colonisation of New Zealand.

• The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey | Blu Ray | (23/07/2018) from £11.69   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Following the release of his 1984 debut feature Vigil, Vincent Ward returned four years later with The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, a film that would cement his position as one of the most exciting filmmaking talents to emerge during the eighties. Cumbria, 1348 the year of the Black Death. Griffin, a young boy, is plagued by apocalyptic visions which he believes could save his village. Encouraging a small band of men to tunnel into the earth, they surface in 1980s New Zealand and a future beyond their comprehension but must complete their quest. Nominated for the Palme d Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is a bold and often startling fusion of medieval fantasy and time travel science fiction, quite unlike anything you ve seen. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition (Blu-ray) presentation Original mono audio (uncompressed LPCM) Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Brand-new appreciation by film critic Nick Roddick, recorded exclusively for this release Kaleidoscope: Vincent Ward Film Maker, a 1989 documentary profile of the director made for New Zealand television Theatrical trailer FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kim Newman and an introduction by Vincent Ward

• What Dreams May Come | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £4.49   |  Saving you £1.50 (25.00%)   |  RRP £5.99

  After Chris Nielsen (Williams) dies in an accident he tries to remain close to his beautiful mortal wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra). With the friendly spirit (Gooding Jr.) assigned to guide him he begins to adapt to his new state of being in a setting that can only be described as heavenly. However when his distraught wife takes her own life she is banished to an eternal damnation. Chris vows to find her so they can share eternity together but no one has ever succeeded in rescuing a soul from such a horrific fate. With the help of his heavenly friends Chris sets out on the most perilous and harrowing journey of this life or afterlife: a quest for everlasting love that will take him to hell and back!

• Map Of The Human Heart | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Magical adventure story of Avik and Albertine - and a love that survived decades of time impossible distances and the ravages of war.