Heavenly Creatures

Heavenly Creatures
Heavenly Creatures film poster
Directed by	Peter Jackson
Produced by	Jim Booth Peter Jackson
Written by	Fran Walsh Peter Jackson
Starring	Melanie Lynskey Kate Winslet
Music by	Peter Dasent
Cinematography	Alun Bollinger
Editing by	Jamie Selkirk
Studio	WingNut Films
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	14 October 1994 (1994-10-14) (New Zealand) 16 November 1994 (1994-11-16) (US) 12 September 1995 (1995-09-12) (Canada) 8 January 1995 (1995-01-08) (Australia)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	New Zealand
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (est.)

Heavenly Creatures is a 1994 film directed by Peter Jackson, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his wife Fran Walsh, about the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand. Filmed on location in Christchurch, it features Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in their screen debuts. The film deals with the obsessive relationship between Pauline Parker (Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Winslet), two teenagers who murdered Parker's mother (Peirse). The events of the film cover the period from the girls' meeting in early 1953 to the murder in 1954.

The film opened to strong critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival in 1994 and became one of the best-received films of the year. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production; however, particular attention was given to the performances by the previously unknown Winslet and Lynskey, and for Jackson's directing. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Plot

In 1950s Christchurch, New Zealand, a 14-year-old girl from a working class family Pauline Parker (Lynskey) befriends the more affluent English 15-year-old Juliet Hulme (Winslet) when Juliet transfers to Pauline's school. They bond over a shared history of severe childhood disease and isolating hospitalizations, and over time develop an intense friendship. Pauline admires Juliet's outspoken arrogance and beauty. Together they paint, write stories, make clay figurines, and eventually create a fantasy kingdom called Borovnia, which begins to be as real to them as the real world. Pauline's relationship with her mother becomes increasingly hostile and the two fight constantly. This angry atmosphere is in contrast to the peaceful intellectual life Juliet shares with her family. Pauline spends most of her time at the Hulme's, where she feels accepted. During a day trip to Port Levy, Juliet's parents announce that they are going away and plan to leave Juliet behind, and her fear of being left alone makes her hysterical. Her hysteria culminates in her first experience of "the Fourth World," a land where all is beautiful and she is safe. She asks Pauline to come with her, and the world that Juliet sees becomes visible to Pauline, too. After this event, the two refer to the Fourth World as the place they'll go when they die, and they name actors they like as "saints" in that world. This is presented as a shared psychosis that becomes the girls' predominant reality, severely affecting their ability to accurately perceive real-world events.

Juliet has an attack of tuberculosis and is sent to a clinic, and again her parents leave the country, leaving her alone and desperately missing Pauline. Pauline is desolate without her, and the two begin an intense correspondence, writing not only as themselves, but in the roles of the royal couple of Borovnia. During this time Pauline begins a sexual relationship with a lodger, which makes Juliet jealous. For both of them, their fantasy life becomes a useful escape when under stress in the real world, and the two engage in increasingly violent, even murderous, fantasies. After four months, Juliet is released from the clinic and their relationship intensifies and becomes sexual. Juliet's father blames the intensity of the relationship on Pauline and speaks to her parents, who take her to a doctor. The doctor suspects that Pauline is homosexual, and considers this a cause of her increasing anger at her mother.

Juliet catches her mother carrying on an affair with one of her psychiatric clients and threatens to tell her father, but her mother tells her he knows. Shortly afterward, the two announce their intention to divorce, upsetting Juliet terribly. Soon it is decided that the family will leave Christchurch, with Juliet being left with a relative in South Africa. She becomes increasingly hysterical at the thought of leaving Pauline, and the two girls plan to run away together. When that plan becomes impossible, the two begin to talk about murdering Pauline's mother, Honora, as they see her as the primary obstacle to their remaining together. As the date of Juliet's departure nears, it is decided that the two girls should spend the last two weeks together at Juliet's house. At the end of that time Pauline returns home and the two finalize plans for the murder. Honora plans a day for the three of them at Victoria Park, and the girls decide this will be the day. Juliet puts a broken piece of brick into a stocking and they go off to the park. After having tea, the three walk down the path and when Honora bends over to pick up a pink charm the girls have put there, Juliet and Pauline bludgeon her to death.

In a postscript it is revealed that the next day Pauline's diary was found, in which the plan for the murder had been outlined. The two are tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. It is a condition of their eventual release that they never meet again.

Cast

• Melanie Lynskey — Pauline Parker
• Kate Winslet — Juliet Hulme
• Sarah Peirse — Honora Parker
• Diana Kent — Hilda Hulme
• Clive Merrison — Dr. Henry Hulme
• Simon O'Connor — Herbert Rieper
• Jed Brophy — John ("Nicholas")
• Peter Elliott - Bill Perry
• Gilbert Goldie - Dr. Bennett

Production

Development

Fran Walsh suggested to Peter Jackson (who was noted for horror-comedy films) that they write a film about the notorious Parker-Hulme murder. Jackson took the idea to his long-time collaborator, producer Jim Booth (who died after filming). The three filmmakers decided that the film should tell the story of the friendship between the two girls rather than focus on the murder and trial. "The friendship was for the most part a rich and rewarding one, and we tried to honour that in the film. It was our intention to make a film about a friendship that went terribly wrong," said Peter Jackson.

Fran Walsh had been interested in the case since her early childhood. "I first came across it in the late sixties when I was ten years old. The Sunday Times devoted two whole pages to the story with an accompanying illustration of the two girls. I was struck by the description of the dark and mysterious friendship that existed between them - by the uniqueness of the world the two girls had created for themselves."

Jackson and Walsh researched the story by reading contemporary newspaper accounts of the trial. They decided that the sensational aspects of the case that so titillated newspaper readers in 1954 were far removed from the story that Jackson and Walsh wished to tell. "In the 1950s, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were branded as possibly the most evil people on earth. What they had done seemed without rational explanation, and people could only assume that there was something terribly wrong with their minds," states Jackson. To bring a more humane version of events to the screen, the filmmakers undertook a nationwide search for people who had close involvement with Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme forty years earlier. This included tracing and interviewing seventeen of their former classmates and teachers from Christchurch Girls' High School. In addition, Jackson and Walsh spoke with neighbours, family friends, work colleagues, policemen, lawyers and psychologists. Jackson and Walsh also read Pauline's diary, in which she made daily entries documenting her friendship with Juliet Hulme and events throughout their relationship. From the diary entries, it became apparent that Pauline and Juliet were intelligent, imaginative, outcast young women who possessed a wicked and somewhat irreverent sense of humor. All of Pauline's voiceovers are excerpts from her journal entries.

Casting

The role of Pauline was cast after Fran Walsh scouted schools all over New Zealand to find a Pauline 'look-alike'. She had trouble finding an actress who resembled Pauline and had acting talent before discovering Melanie Lynskey. Kate Winslet auditioned for the part of Juliet, winning the role over 175 other girls. The girls were both absorbed by their role so much that they kept on acting as Pauline and Juliet after the filming was done, as is described on Jackson's website. The filming of the murder scene had an impact on them as the viewing of the film has to some viewers.

Locations

The entire film was shot on location in Christchurch city in the South Island of New Zealand. Jackson has been quoted as saying "Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story, and as such I felt it important to shoot the movie on locations where the actual events took place."

Special effects

The special effects in the film were handled by the then newly-created Weta Digital. The girls' fantasy life, and the "Borovnian" extras (the characters the girls made up) were supervised by Richard Taylor while the digital effects were supervised by George Port. Taylor and his team constructed over 70 full-sized latex costumes to represent the "Borovnian" crowds—plasticine figures that inhabit Pauline and Juliet's magical fantasy world. Heavenly Creatures contains over thirty shots that were digitally manipulated ranging from the morphing garden of the "Fourth World," to castles in fields, to the "Orson Welles" sequences.

Release

Heavenly Creatures had a limited box office success, but performed admirably in various countries, including the United States where it grossed a total of $3,049,135 during its limited run in 57 theaters and $5,438,120 worldwide.

The film has garnered critical praise, and was an Academy Award nominee in 1994 for Best Original Screenplay. It featured in a number of international film festivals, and received very favourable reviews worldwide,^{[citation needed]} including making top ten of the year lists in Time, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The New Zealand Herald.

The success of Heavenly Creatures won Peter Jackson attention from American company Miramax, who promoted the film vigorously in America and signed him to a first look deal and launched the career of Kate Winslet. The film's international release coincided with members of the New Zealand media tracking down the real-life Juliet Hulme, who now writes murder mysteries in Scotland under the name Anne Perry. Until this point, Jackson had been careful in interviews not to reveal this information, although he argued that her identity had already been common knowledge in some New Zealand theatrical circles as early as 1992. This turn of events saw the expression of some contrasting views between Jackson, Walsh and Hulme in interviews,^{[citation needed]} about the film's fidelity to what had occurred (although Hulme admitted she had not seen the film, and had no desire to.)

In 1996, the movie was released on videocassette and on Laser Disc at its original runtime of 99 minutes. In 2002 the film received DVD releases in Region 1 in an "uncut version" which ran for 109 minutes. Region 2 and Region 4 released the original 99 minute theatrical version. In 2011, the U.S. online movie services Netflix and HuluPlus began streaming the film in its original 99 minute version.

External links

• Heavenly Creatures at the Internet Movie Database
• Heavenly Creatures at AllRovi
• Heavenly Creatures at Rotten Tomatoes
• Heavenly Creatures at Box Office Mojo