Τα "Ουράνια Πλάσματα" - μία από τις πρώτες δημιουργίες του σκηνοθέτη της τριλογίας "Ο Άρχοντας των Δαχτυλιδιών", Πίτερ Τζάκσον - είναι μια προκλητική ταινία με θέμα μια αληθινή ιστορία που συγκλόνισε μια ολόκληρη χώρα, τη Νέα Ζηλανδία. Όταν οι συνθήκες φέρουν κοντά δύο ονειροπόλες έφηβες, αναπτύσσουν μεταξύ τους ένα δυνατό δεσμό, δημιουργώντας ένα φανταστικό κόσμο που μόνο αυτές μπορούν να μοιράζονται. Σύντομα όμως οι γονείς τους ενοχλούνται από τη σχέση που έχουν αναπτύξει οι δύο κοπέλες και απειλούν να κρατήσουν μακριά τη μία από την άλλη. Σαν απάντηση, τα κορίτσια αποφασίζουν να παραμείνουν ενωμένα, καταστρώνοντας ένα μυστικό σχέδιο που θα οδηγήσει σε σοκαριστικές εξελίξεις...
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Parker and Hulme
By Hugh Young and Alison J. Laurie
Tea-shop proprietor Agnes Ritchie was shocked when two bloodstained teenage girls ran screaming into her kiosk in Victoria Park. Her husband Kenneth was even more shocked when he went where they told him, and found a woman’s body, badly beaten about the head.
It was June 22, 1954, and violent death was rare in conservative Christchurch. The girls’ story, that the mother of one of them, Honora Parker, had fallen and repeatedly banged her head, soon fell apart; her injuries were too horrific. A bloodied half-brick and a lisle stocking were found nearby and quickly established as the murder weapon. Pauline Parker’s diary was found immediately by the police and detailed their plans for the crime: Pauline (16) and later Juliet Hulme (15) were charged with murder.
But what had prompted Pauline and Juliet to kill Pauline’s mother one fine winter afternoon in a popular hillside recreation area? The question has prompted a novel ("Obsession" by Tom Gurr), chapters, usually lurid, in several anthologies of murder cases, a lesbian analysis, and a popular feature film (Heavenly Creatures directed by Peter Jackson).
The case brought together several disturbing elements - females who stepped outside the expected gender role by becoming perpetrators rather than victims of a violent crime, and the frightening prospect of young girl delinquents as killers.
Other entries in Pauline’s diary suggested a sexual relationship between the girls, and this helped to establish the crime as one linking the twin spectres of lesbianism and murder.
The class-difference between the girls was an important element of the trial, though not referred to in modern terms. Juliet was the elder child of Hilda Hulme, a vice-president of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Dr Henry Hulme, rector of Canterbury University College, while Pauline’s father, Herbert Rieper, ran a fish-shop, and was legally married to another woman. (Honora and Herbert had lived together for 23 years and the whole family including Pauline were known as Rieper until the trial.). Pauline was the second of three daughters. (A firstborn son had died as a baby, and the third daughter had Down’s Syndrome.)
The two elements of Pauline’s diary on which attention has focussed since selected entries were presented at the trial are the gangster-movie tone in which they planned the killing ("moider") and the sexual relations between the girls. A passage about the girls re-enacting lovemaking between famous (heterosexual) couples was a particular favourite of the tabloids. (It reappeared in a New Zealand women’s magazine in 1997.)
There is no doubt the girls found solace in each being an outsider. (Juliet’s family was atypical for its day, Hilda’s lover Walter Perry - a former marriage guidance client - living in the house with them while they preserved a mask of respectability. Pauline’s household was crowded with family and boarders; privacy was an issue.) Their friendship was correspondingly passionate and mutual, but whether it can be called lesbian as we now understand the term is a matter of opinion. It was certainly depicted as lesbian in the courtroom by both the prosecution and the defence, and entered New Zealand mythology on homosexuality as a cautionary tale with which to warn women, and especially young girls, of the possible consequences of such "unnatural" relationships.
Both girls did a good deal of creative writing both separately and together, which the defence tried to use as a proof of their insanity. In particular, defence psychiatrist Dr Reginald Medlicott fastened on an unusual entry where Pauline wrote that they had had a visionary experience together on Good Friday, 1953, at Port Levy, in which they found "the key to the fourth world" where they would go when they died. Their dreams of writing novels and going together to Hollywood to become stars were all portrayed as madness by Dr Medlicott - ironically so in the light of Juliet’s later career as a famous crime novelist.
Soon after Juliet found her mother in bed with Perry, the Hulme household collapsed. Dr Hulme was asked to resign as rector and the Hulmes decided to divorce. Juliet was to be sent to South Africa to stay with an aunt while her brother Jonathan went with his father to England. The Reipers were relieved that the girls were to be separated, but Pauline wrote in her diary that Hilda Hulme encouraged her to believe that she could go with them to England. The impending separation was presented by both defence and prosecution as the motive for the killing. The book "Parker & Hulme: a Lesbian View" explores other possibilities.
The trial was a cause celebre, crowds packing every session. The defence conceded the fact of the killing, but attempted to prove the girls "mad"; the prosecution that they were just "bad". Dr Medlicott diagnosed chronic delusional insanity - paranoia. Local psychiatrist Dr Maurice Bevan-Brown was to publish a paper (without ever having seen the girls) diagnosing "Pathological Character Trait". ("Homosexuality in late adolescence is always a sign of emotional immaturity," he wrote.) Dr Kenneth Stallworthy for the prosecution disputed that homosexuality and paranoia were closely related.
In the event, both prosecution and defence agreed that the girls failed the 19th century M’Naghten test for legal insanity - they knew the nature and quality of their act: "they knew what they were doing and they knew that it was wrong."
It took the jury less than three hours to find both girls guilty of murder. Since they were under 18, they could not be sentenced to death, so they were imprisoned "during Her Majesty’s pleasure." Juliet served her time in the women’s section at the nineteenth century Auckland prison of Mt Eden, Pauline mainly at Arohata Women’s prison near Wellington. Juliet’s physical conditions were the more uncomfortable, and she was the only child in Mt Eden. Pauline had the company of other young offenders. Because of the high profile of the case and partly because of Juliet’s social class, both girls were given excellent educational opportunities in prison.
They were released separately after five years, and apparently never saw each other again. Juliet immediately went overseas, converting to Mormonism and eventually settling in Scotland, where she made a new identity (which she has recently disclosed) as a successful author of Victorian murder mysteries, Anne Perry. Pauline remained on probation in New Zealand, not leaving the country until 1965. She attended Auckland University, mixed in the Auckland lesbian community and told at least one lover about her past. (According to a "shock horror" article in a NZ women’s magazine, she now lives as a recluse in a small English village.)
The real significance of the case in New Zealand is the negative attitudes it created about lesbians, especially for teenage girls, for many years afterward (closely parallel to the effect of the Wilde trials on men). Throughout New Zealand, but especially in Christchurch, the mythic link between "lesbian" and "killer" had been re-affirmed. This affected not only heterosexuals but also young lesbians’ attitude toward themselves, creating the fear that any hostility they might feel towards their mothers was their own share of the Parker-Hulme "pathology". Any girl who seemed more than usually attracted to a friend was likely to fill her parents with fear. Others, however, were beneficially alerted by the case to the existence of other lesbians. (gaynz.net.nz)
Parker and Hulme
By Hugh Young and Alison J. Laurie
Tea-shop proprietor Agnes Ritchie was shocked when two bloodstained teenage girls ran screaming into her kiosk in Victoria Park. Her husband Kenneth was even more shocked when he went where they told him, and found a woman’s body, badly beaten about the head.
It was June 22, 1954, and violent death was rare in conservative Christchurch. The girls’ story, that the mother of one of them, Honora Parker, had fallen and repeatedly banged her head, soon fell apart; her injuries were too horrific. A bloodied half-brick and a lisle stocking were found nearby and quickly established as the murder weapon. Pauline Parker’s diary was found immediately by the police and detailed their plans for the crime: Pauline (16) and later Juliet Hulme (15) were charged with murder.
But what had prompted Pauline and Juliet to kill Pauline’s mother one fine winter afternoon in a popular hillside recreation area? The question has prompted a novel ("Obsession" by Tom Gurr), chapters, usually lurid, in several anthologies of murder cases, a lesbian analysis, and a popular feature film (Heavenly Creatures directed by Peter Jackson).
The case brought together several disturbing elements - females who stepped outside the expected gender role by becoming perpetrators rather than victims of a violent crime, and the frightening prospect of young girl delinquents as killers.
Other entries in Pauline’s diary suggested a sexual relationship between the girls, and this helped to establish the crime as one linking the twin spectres of lesbianism and murder.
The class-difference between the girls was an important element of the trial, though not referred to in modern terms. Juliet was the elder child of Hilda Hulme, a vice-president of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Dr Henry Hulme, rector of Canterbury University College, while Pauline’s father, Herbert Rieper, ran a fish-shop, and was legally married to another woman. (Honora and Herbert had lived together for 23 years and the whole family including Pauline were known as Rieper until the trial.). Pauline was the second of three daughters. (A firstborn son had died as a baby, and the third daughter had Down’s Syndrome.)
The two elements of Pauline’s diary on which attention has focussed since selected entries were presented at the trial are the gangster-movie tone in which they planned the killing ("moider") and the sexual relations between the girls. A passage about the girls re-enacting lovemaking between famous (heterosexual) couples was a particular favourite of the tabloids. (It reappeared in a New Zealand women’s magazine in 1997.)
There is no doubt the girls found solace in each being an outsider. (Juliet’s family was atypical for its day, Hilda’s lover Walter Perry - a former marriage guidance client - living in the house with them while they preserved a mask of respectability. Pauline’s household was crowded with family and boarders; privacy was an issue.) Their friendship was correspondingly passionate and mutual, but whether it can be called lesbian as we now understand the term is a matter of opinion. It was certainly depicted as lesbian in the courtroom by both the prosecution and the defence, and entered New Zealand mythology on homosexuality as a cautionary tale with which to warn women, and especially young girls, of the possible consequences of such "unnatural" relationships.
Both girls did a good deal of creative writing both separately and together, which the defence tried to use as a proof of their insanity. In particular, defence psychiatrist Dr Reginald Medlicott fastened on an unusual entry where Pauline wrote that they had had a visionary experience together on Good Friday, 1953, at Port Levy, in which they found "the key to the fourth world" where they would go when they died. Their dreams of writing novels and going together to Hollywood to become stars were all portrayed as madness by Dr Medlicott - ironically so in the light of Juliet’s later career as a famous crime novelist.
Soon after Juliet found her mother in bed with Perry, the Hulme household collapsed. Dr Hulme was asked to resign as rector and the Hulmes decided to divorce. Juliet was to be sent to South Africa to stay with an aunt while her brother Jonathan went with his father to England. The Reipers were relieved that the girls were to be separated, but Pauline wrote in her diary that Hilda Hulme encouraged her to believe that she could go with them to England. The impending separation was presented by both defence and prosecution as the motive for the killing. The book "Parker & Hulme: a Lesbian View" explores other possibilities.
The trial was a cause celebre, crowds packing every session. The defence conceded the fact of the killing, but attempted to prove the girls "mad"; the prosecution that they were just "bad". Dr Medlicott diagnosed chronic delusional insanity - paranoia. Local psychiatrist Dr Maurice Bevan-Brown was to publish a paper (without ever having seen the girls) diagnosing "Pathological Character Trait". ("Homosexuality in late adolescence is always a sign of emotional immaturity," he wrote.) Dr Kenneth Stallworthy for the prosecution disputed that homosexuality and paranoia were closely related.
In the event, both prosecution and defence agreed that the girls failed the 19th century M’Naghten test for legal insanity - they knew the nature and quality of their act: "they knew what they were doing and they knew that it was wrong."
It took the jury less than three hours to find both girls guilty of murder. Since they were under 18, they could not be sentenced to death, so they were imprisoned "during Her Majesty’s pleasure." Juliet served her time in the women’s section at the nineteenth century Auckland prison of Mt Eden, Pauline mainly at Arohata Women’s prison near Wellington. Juliet’s physical conditions were the more uncomfortable, and she was the only child in Mt Eden. Pauline had the company of other young offenders. Because of the high profile of the case and partly because of Juliet’s social class, both girls were given excellent educational opportunities in prison.
They were released separately after five years, and apparently never saw each other again. Juliet immediately went overseas, converting to Mormonism and eventually settling in Scotland, where she made a new identity (which she has recently disclosed) as a successful author of Victorian murder mysteries, Anne Perry. Pauline remained on probation in New Zealand, not leaving the country until 1965. She attended Auckland University, mixed in the Auckland lesbian community and told at least one lover about her past. (According to a "shock horror" article in a NZ women’s magazine, she now lives as a recluse in a small English village.)
The real significance of the case in New Zealand is the negative attitudes it created about lesbians, especially for teenage girls, for many years afterward (closely parallel to the effect of the Wilde trials on men). Throughout New Zealand, but especially in Christchurch, the mythic link between "lesbian" and "killer" had been re-affirmed. This affected not only heterosexuals but also young lesbians’ attitude toward themselves, creating the fear that any hostility they might feel towards their mothers was their own share of the Parker-Hulme "pathology". Any girl who seemed more than usually attracted to a friend was likely to fill her parents with fear. Others, however, were beneficially alerted by the case to the existence of other lesbians. (gaynz.net.nz)
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Heavenly Creatures
Heavenly Creatures is an acclaimed 1994 drama directed by Peter Jackson and written with his partner Fran Walsh. It is based on the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme murder, committed by two teenage girls in Christchurch, New Zealand. The film features Melanie Lynskey as Pauline Parker, Kate Winslet as Juliet Hulme and Sarah Peirse as Honora Reiper and deals with the obsessive relationship between Pauline and Juliet, who vow to murder Pauline’s mother in order to avoid a potential separation when the mother fears their relationship is bordering on lesbianism. The original 1994 American release was rated R for a chilling murder and some sexuality, while the 2002 Director's Cut was rated R for violence and sexual content.
The film departs strongly, stylistically and dramatically from Jackson’s former films, which were mostly graphic horror/comedy ("splatstick") productions. However it retains his elaborate fantasy sequences, used in the film to show the imaginary world of Pauline and Juliet. Heavenly Creatures opened to critical acclaim in 1994 at the Venice Film Festival, celebrated for its visual effects and acting from the then-newcomers and the directing achieved by Jackson. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, a Silver Lion for Best Director and the Jury Grand Prize for Best Film. Due to the film's success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before internationally, rather than just New Zealand and the United States. It launched the career of Winslet, who went on to become a major star. Melanie Lynskey, however, had to wait a full four years before getting another significant role.
Plot
In 1950s Christchurch, New Zealand fifteen year old Pauline Parker (Lynskey) befriends fifteen year old Juliet Hulme (Winslet) when Juliet transfers to Pauline's school. Together they create fantasy worlds and close friends. Over the course of two years their friendship grows more and more intense.
Juliet invites Pauline to her home in Ilam, a suburb of 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 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 sleeps in one of the small rooms that are a part of the motel her parents run, is courted unromantically by John, one of the boarders who is in love with her, and she loses the small amount of privacy she has when the man is discovered in bed with her by her father. 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.
By now, the girls' relationship 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 be homosexual - regarded as a mental illness and illegal in 1950's New Zealand. 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 about the murder. 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 Pauline's mother in the head while she is examining a pink stone that the girls planted on the track.
Cast
Melanie Lynskey — Pauline 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")
Peter Elliott - Bill Percy
Gilbert Goldie - Dr. Bennett
Discovery of real-life Juliet Hulme
The film's international release coincided with members of the New Zealand media tracking down the real-life Juliet Hulme, who now wrote murder mysteries in Scotland under the name Anne Perry. Up 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, about the film's fidelity to what had occurred (although Hulme admitted she had not seen the film, and had no desire to.)
Production and writing
Fran Walsh suggested to Peter Jackson (who was infamous for horror-comedy 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.
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 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. 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 making of the film had an impact on them as the viewing of the film has to some viewers. When Kate Winslet was back in England after the filming, it took her a few weeks to get over it.
Locations
A scene right before the murder at Victoria Park, which was filmed in almost the exact location the murder actually occurredThe 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."
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.
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.
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, 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.
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