Much of the film was shot at the original locations, ''e.g.,'' Christchurch Girls' High School and the official residence of the Rector of Canterbury University (Juliet Hulme's father).
The film was released on November 16, 1994 in the USA and on October 14, 1994 in New Zealand. Upon its release it was a huge critical success, and has earned its way on many top 10 lists of 1994, the film was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
'''Tagline:''' ''The true story of a crime that shocked a nation.''
''Not all angels are innocent.''
Plot summary
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 world they create together, the girls become close friends and, over the course of two years, eventually lovers. They continue seeing each other after their families forbid it and step in to separate them geographically. They eventually murder Pauline's mother to prevent the separation. 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 1950s shots of Christchurch, New Zealand, which is commentated by an unknown actor. Then the camera moves closer and closer 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, and their obsessive relationship over the period of 1954 and 1955, and the scene that is just shown was the aftermath of the murder of Pauline’s mother, which they committed, willingly, purely to stay together.
The film then returns to the day they first met in their high school, the Christchurch Girls' High School. While in a drawing class, the girls, who don’t already have partners for the activity, are paired up by the class teacher. At first, the girls don’t really seem to get along. But after they are unable to participate in physical education lessons (due to health issues) and have to sit together in various lessons, their bond deepens.
Juliet invites Pauline over to her home, in Ilam (a suburb in Christchurch) and Pauline agrees to come. Pauline arrives at Juliet’s house, where she becomes amazed by the wealth of Juliet’s family and the amount of items she possesses. A while after they meet, Juliet is sent to a special clinic, dealing with tuberculosis, the illness Juliet has. Pauline becomes increasingly worried and wishes that she could be diagnosed with the same illness, to be with Juliet. After 4 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 many more times in the film.
The girls soon engage in a fantasy world of their own creation. In their bizarre world, they dance with their favourite movie stars from the 50s era, including James Mason and Mario Lanza.
Weeks progress, and the two are clearly growing in love with each other. But eventually after their parents have looked into their relationship, 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. Honora agrees, and the doctor, Mr. Bennett, believes Pauline is a lesbian. Honora becomes worried and decides, along with Juliet’s parents, to let the girls spend two weeks together before they are separated geographically. Pauline will stay in Christchruch and Juliet will move to South Africa to live with her aunt Enna--she needs a warmer climate to lessen the severity of her tuberculosis.
The pair, unable to deal with their separation, plot together the murder of Pauline’s mother in order to stay together. They decide, after a week of planning, to use a brick in a stocking and commit the crime in a park in the Christchurch Hills. Juliet becomes somewhat nervous, but Pauline says she feels extremely excited and on the eve of the murder she records in her diary (which later became evidence that girls had killed the woman) that she feels “sort-of the-night-before-Christmasy” about the whole ordeal. Juliet goes to Pauline's house, where they have lunch together.
Honora, Pauline and Juliet arrive at the park, and instead of taking a track in the park, they have snacks at a kiosk, 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 stone that the girls planted on the track. The film cuts to shots of Juliet on a ship with her parents waving goodbye to Pauline, screaming the words “I’m sorry”. The film closes with Pauline’s distressed face, waving goodbye to Juliet. The screen fades to black, and information on the girls' lives during the trial appears, followed by the end credits.
Overview
Comparing the film and real life
Overall, the film did extraordinarily well at portraying the girls, and their relationship. However, the girls to this day claim that they were not lesbians, which the film portrays them as being. However, several important plot simplifications were made, and some of these resulted in quite serious distortion of important fact. A few characters and situations were made up. Of equal importance, the filmmakers made some significant omissions of fact, inevitable when a story this complicated is brought to the screen.However, their omissions actually have a significant impact on the overall tone of the film, and on the impressions carried away concerning the character of the girls' home lives, the nature of the girls' relationship and of other important relationships, the possible motives for the murder, the chronology of the planning of the murder and even about the murder itself.
Special Effects
The incredible special effects in the film were handled by WETA Limited, the most comprehensive special effects house in the southern hemisphere. The girls fantasy life, and the "Borovinian" extras (the characters the girls made up) were supervised by Richard Taylor while the digital effects were supervised by George Port. Richard and his team constructed over seventy 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 Writting
When Frances Walsh (writer) suggested to Peter Jackson (who was infamous for horror films at the time) that they do a film about the notorious Parker-Hulme affair which has been famous all over New Zealand and many other countries around the globe, he immediately fell in love with the idea. Jackson took it to his long-time collaborator, producer Jim Booth (who died after filming), who also agreed that they had to tell this unusual tale. The three filmmakers unanimously decided that the film should tell the story of the incredible friendship between the two girls rather than focus on the end result. "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," says Peter Jackson. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/2194/Francis 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. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/2194/ 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 uniquenes of the world the two girls had created for themselves."
Jackson and Walsh began researching the story by reading the contemporary newspaper acounts of the trial, since at the time, information on the case was resonably scarse. They quickly realized that the lurid tabloid articles contained little useful information and used. The sensational aspects of the case that so titillated readers in 1954 were far removed from the story that Jackson and Walsh wished to tell. "In the 1950's, 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 achieve a more humane and truthful version of events and bring it to the screen, it was necessary to undertake a nationwide search for people who had close involvement with Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme forty years ago. 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, all of whom were able to shed light on the friendship and family circumstances of the two girls.
More of the pieces of this fascinating story quickly came together when Jackson and Walsh began to explore Pauline's diary in which she made daily entries faithfully documenting her friendship with Juliet Hulme and the events she had throughtout the day. From the diary entries, it became apparent that Pauline and Juliet were two extremely intelligent, imaginative, outcast young women who possessed a wicked and somewhat irreverent sense of humor that wasn't familiar with many other people, qualities which Jackson and Walsh took care to preserve in their on-screen characterizations.
Casting
The role of Pauline was discovered after Francis Walsh scouted schools all over New Zealand to find Pauline look-a-likes. She had trouble finding an actress, who could both act and resembled Pauline. Walsh soon came across Melanie Lynskey, who had absolutely no acting experience at the time. Melanie was cast just two weeks after filming. Kate Winslet auditioned for the part, winning the role over 175 girls. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110005/triviaLocations
The entire film was filmed on location in Christchurch city in the South Island of New Zealand. The city is built on a plain, just north of an outcrop of hills (Banks Peninsula) which jut into the sea, with countless inlets, harbours and estuaries.In Christchurch, main roads radiate from central Cathedral Square, with minor roads forming a web inbetween, in a manner reminiscent of old British market towns such as Oxford. The Avon River cuts the town in half as it meanders eastward to the sea. There are countless streams and rivers in the area. Christchurch is flat, very conducive to biking and biking was a common way to get around at that time. Jackson was quoted saying ""Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story and as such, Jackson felt it important to shoot the movie on location in Christchurch, New Zealand where the actual events took place.", which was done. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/2194/
Critical response and acclaim
Unlike Jackson's later films, Heavenly Creatures was not a huge box office success. However, the film was an independently produced film, and was given a limited release in the United States. At the final takings tally of $3 million, it is still one of the more successful limited-release films. This is especially impressive considering its low budget, the fact that it featured unknown (at the time) 'foreign' actors and was directed by a (then) largely-unknown New Zealand filmmaker it was highly critically and relatively commercially successful in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Despite being considered unsuccessful in terms of box office, "Heavenly Creatures" has garnered critical praise, with very favourable reviews worldwide. It currently has a rating of 93% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heavenly_creatures/Trivia
*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.*Kate Winslet was one of 175 girls who auditioned for the role of Juliet Hulme.
*All of the journal voice-overs are direct from real diary entries made by Pauline Parker. The characters in the stories (if not the stories themselves) and make-believe world are also authentic.
Goofs
*Pauline's diary shows January 1st, 1954 as a Thursday, when it was really a Friday.*The people walking behind/around Pauline and Juliet, after they exit the screening of "The Third Man" change between shots.
*During the Donkey Serenade montage, Pauline is shown pulling off her vest which is still there for the remainder of the scene.
Main cast
*Melanie Lynskey—Pauline Yvonne (Parker) Rieper*Kate Winslet—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")
External links
* FAQ, with historical background
* A detailed site about the film and the actual events, with many pictures
