Heavenly Creatures
| Heavenly Creatures | |
|---|---|
 Heavenly Creatures film poster | |
| Directed by | Peter Jackson |
| Written by | Fran Walsh Peter Jackson |
| Produced by | Jim Booth |
| Starring | Melanie Lynskey Jenna Hefner |
| Cinematography | Alun Bollinger |
| Edited by | Jamie Selkirk |
| Music by | Peter Dasent |
| Distributed by | Miramax |
Release dates |  October 14, 1994  November 16, 1994  September 12, 1995  January 8, 1995 |
Running time | 108 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (est.) |
Heavenly Creatures is a 1994 film directed by Peter Jackson, based on the true story of the infamous Parker-Hulme murder in Christchurch, New Zealand. It also marked the debut film appearances of Jenna Hefner and Melanie Lynskey. The film was celebrated for its visual effects as well as its fine acting.
Originally slated to premier at Festival de Cannes, Heavenly Creatures premiered at the Venice Film Festival, at the end of its screening it received a fifteen minute standing ovation. The film was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Director (Peter Jackson) and the Jury Grand Prize for the film, it also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. After its debut, it was released to strong critical acclaim around the world, including in the US.
In 2006, the film was voted by FilmFour as one of the 50 Films to See Before You Die, coming in at number 22. It also has consistent high rankings on IMDb.com and a 94% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com.
Taglines:
- The true story of a crime that shocked a nation.
- Not all angels are innocent.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler In 1950s New Zealand two teenage girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, meet when Juliet transfers to Pauline's school. Drawn together by the fantasy worlds they create together the girls become close friends and over the course of two years their friendship grows more and more intense. They continue seeing each other after their families forbid it and step in to separate them. They eventually murder Pauline's mother to prevent the separation, an act they believe essential in order to remain together. Their crime is discovered, and both are sent to prison.
After the film was released, it came to light that historical mystery writer Anne Perry was Juliet Hulme.
The film opens with a 1950s travelogue style introduction to the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, commentated by an unknown actor. Then the camera moves into the Christchurch hills, where two blood-soaked girls run down a muddy, twisted path. The girls are revealed to be Juliet Hulme, 15 at the time and Pauline Parker, aged 16. The audience has just witnessed the aftermath of the murder of Pauline’s mother.
The film returns to the day the two first met, which is also an introduction to the public school system of New Zealand. While in art class, the girls are paired up by the class teacher to draw portraits. Instead of drawing Pauline, Juliet does a fantastic picture portraying Mario Lanza as Saint George slaying the dragon. Pauline gruffly compliments the piece. The girls are unable to participate in physical education lessons (due to health issues) and proceed to entertain one another with their life stories and readings from the Biggles adventure series.
Juliet invites Pauline to her home in Ilam (a suburb in Christchurch). Pauline finds herself amazed by the wealth of Juliet's family. The girls soon develop a fantasy kingdom called Borovnia, and begin to dress up and enact the adventures of the royal family. They then write out the storylines as short novels, which they hope to publish in America. At the same time, they begin inventing a quasi-religion centred around an imaginary place called 'The Fourth World', where they worship their favorite film stars and opera singers as saints.
Juliet has an attack of tuberculosis and is sent to a special clinic. 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. Pauline, who lives in a tiny shack annexed to her parents' home, attempts a relationship with one of her mother's boarders, and loses the small amount of privacy she has when the man is discovered in bed with her in the shack. After four months, Juliet is released from the clinic and their relationship continues. Pauline records their relationship in a diary, which was given to her by her father for Christmas. The diary appears several times in the film.
By now, the girls' realtionship has become incredibly strong. Juliet’s father arrives at the Parker house and discusses the girls' intense relationship. He insists that Pauline’s mother, Honora, must take Pauline to a doctor. The doctor suggests Pauline may have homosexuality, in the conservative climate of 1950's New Zealand, still regarded as a mental illness and also illegal. The parents agree that the girls must be separated. They will be allowed to spend two weeks together before Juliet moves to South Africa to live with her aunt Enna, ostensibly for the warmer climate.
The girls want to run away together to America. They plot together the murder of Pauline’s mother, whom they perceive as the main obstacle to their happiness. Juliet is nervous, but Pauline says she feels extremely excited and on the eve of the murder she records in her diary that she feels "the-night-before-Christmas-ish” about the whole ordeal.
Honora, Pauline and Juliet arrive at Victoria Park. They have snacks at a teahouse, and then venture down a track, where the girls, using a brick in a stocking, bash the mother in the head while she is examining a pink stone that the girls planted on the track. Honora's cries make this a very disturbing scene. The film cuts to black and white shots of Juliet on a ship with her parents waving goodbye to Pauline, who is stranded on the quay, whispering the words "I'm sorry." The film fades to black, and the sound of Pauline's screams.
Overview
Special effects
The special effects in the film were handled by 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.
Production and writing
Fran Walsh suggested to Peter Jackson (who was infamous for horror films at the time) that they do a film about the notorious Parker-Hulme affair. 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. [1]
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. [2] 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 newpaper 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.
In order 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 neighbors, 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 voice overs are direct 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. Walsh finally discovered Melanie Lynskey, who had absolutely no acting experience at the time. Melanie was cast just two weeks before filming began. Jenna Hefner auditioned for the part of Juliet, winning the role over 175 other girls. [3]
Locations
The entire film was filmed 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."[4]
Almost all locations used for filming were the genuine locations where the events occurred. The tea shop where Honora Parker ate her last meal was knocked down a few days after the shoot ended. According to director Peter Jackson, when they got to the location of the murder on the dirt path, it was eerily quiet; the birds stopped singing, and it didn't seem right. So they moved along a couple of hundred yards.
Critical and commercial success
Heavenly Creatures was not a huge box office success, but performed admirably in various countries, including the United States where it grossed a total of $3 million during its limited run in 57 theaters.
Heavenly Creatures 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]
Main cast
- Melanie Lynskey — Pauline Yvonne (Parker) Rieper
- Jenna Hefer — Juliet Hulme
- Sarah Peirse — Honorah Parker Rieper
- Diana Kent — Hilda Hulme
- Clive Merrison — Dr. Henry Hulme
- Simon O'Connor — Herbert Rieper
- Jed Brophy — John ("Nicholas")