Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Starring – Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent
Director – Peter Jackson
Genre – Biopic/Crime/Drama/Fantasy
Certificate – 18 (violence/sexual content)
Running time – 98 minutes
Price – Video £8.99 (DVD not available in UK)
Long before ... Read review
A starkly original film-going experience based on a true-life story, this film from New ... more
Zealand director Peter Jackson (Braindead,The Frighteners) is a stirring drama that offers up the unexpected. The story concerns two girls, outcasts who become best friends, whose bizarre fantasy life becomes more intense as their bond becomes increasingly more obsessive. When the mother of one of the girls tries to intervene and split the girls apart, they kill her and stand trial for murder in what is still to this day a celebrated and controversial case. Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey create two sympathetic and yet uncomfortably eerie characters, in riveting portrayals. Featuring some startling and unique moments of visual brilliance as well as a disturbing love story between the two girls,Heavenly Creaturesis at once both unsettling and beautiful to behold.--Robert Lane
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A starkly original film-going experience based on a true-life story, this film from New ... more
Zealand director Peter Jackson (Braindead,The Frighteners) is a stirring drama that offers up the unexpected. The story concerns two girls, outcasts who become best friends, whose bizarre fantasy life becomes more intense as their bond becomes increasingly more obsessive. When the mother of one of the girls tries to intervene and split the girls apart, they kill her and stand trial for murder in what is still to this day a celebrated and controversial case. Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey create two sympathetic and yet uncomfortably eerie characters, in riveting portrayals. Featuring some startling and unique moments of visual brilliance as well as a disturbing love story between the two girls,Heavenly Creaturesis at once both unsettling and beautiful to behold.--Robert Lane
Postage & Packaging:£1.24 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A starkly original film-going experience based on a true-life story, this film from New ... more
Zealand director Peter Jackson (Braindead,The Frighteners) is a stirring drama that offers up the unexpected. The story concerns two girls, outcasts who become best friends, whose bizarre fantasy life becomes more intense as their bond becomes increasingly more obsessive. When the mother of one of the girls tries to intervene and split the girls apart, they kill her and stand trial for murder in what is still to this day a celebrated and controversial case. Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey create two sympathetic and yet uncomfortably eerie characters, in riveting portrayals. Featuring some startling and unique moments of visual brilliance as well as a disturbing love story between the two girls,Heavenly Creaturesis at once both unsettling and beautiful to behold.--Robert Lane
Postage & Packaging:£2.69 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A starkly original film-going experience based on a true-life story, this film from New ... more
Zealand director Peter Jackson (Braindead,The Frighteners) is a stirring drama that offers up the unexpected. The story concerns two girls, outcasts who become best friends, whose bizarre fantasy life becomes more intense as their bond becomes increasingly more obsessive. When the mother of one of the girls tries to intervene and split the girls apart, they kill her and stand trial for murder in what is still to this day a celebrated and controversial case. Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey create two sympathetic and yet uncomfortably eerie characters, in riveting portrayals. Featuring some startling and unique moments of visual brilliance as well as a disturbing love story between the two girls,Heavenly Creaturesis at once both unsettling and beautiful to behold.--Robert Lane
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Advantages: Excellent director, Inspired casting, Great acting Disadvantages: When are we going to get a decent DVD package of it?
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Starring – Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent
Director – Peter Jackson
Genre – Biopic/Crime/Drama/Fantasy
Certificate – 18 (violence/sexual content)
Running time – 98 minutes
Price – Video £8.99 (DVD not available in UK)
Long before he delved in the world of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson proved to the world that he was more than just a goremeister, ... ...film has ended. Watching Heavenly Creatures is a highly memorable experience; I have not yet known anybody to watch this film without it having an impact on them. It certainly left a very lasting impression on me the first time I saw it, and indeed continues to do so with each subsequent viewing.
The plot revolves around the lives of two New Zealand teenagers living in Christchurch in 1953/54. Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) is an ... more
Heavenly Creatures (1994) Starring – Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent Director – Peter Jackson Genre – Biopic/Crime/Drama/Fantasy Certificate – 18 (violence/sexual content) Running time – 98 minutes Price – Video £8.99 (DVD not available in UK)
Long before he delved in the world of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson proved to the world that he was more than just a goremeister, good with special effects but lacking in substance, with the release of “Heavenly Creatures” in 1994. This is a film that almost defies categorisation; it is so unusual, so outstanding, so complex and so powerful that it is almost revelatory. Based on the true story of Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker that shocked New Zealand in 1954, Jackson succeeded in producing a film that takes the viewer deep into the human psyche, instilling a sense of fear, anger, tragedy and regret that stay with you long after the film has ended. Watching Heavenly Creatures is a highly memorable experience; I have not yet known anybody to watch this film without it having an impact on them. It certainly left a very lasting impression on me the first time I saw it, and indeed continues to do so with each subsequent viewing.
The plot revolves around the lives of two New Zealand teenagers living in Christchurch in 1953/54. Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) is an inmate of a repressive girl’s school where Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) is the new girl, having recently arrived in the country from England. The pair are instantly drawn to one another, the submissive and lonely Pauline attracted by Juliet’s exuberant confidence, whilst Juliet finds an empathy with someone who, like her, has spent a lot of their childhood in hospital. Seeing Pauline’s scar from her operation for osteomyelitis, Juliet exclaims “all the best people have had chest and bone disease! It's frightfully romantic!". In the early part of the film, the friendship is simply out of a need for one another, as each fills a gap in the other’s life that neither classmates nor parents seem to notice. The friendship is carefree and whimsical, and the girls take pleasure in creating a fantasyland for themselves, about which they write detailed stories and paint pictures that reveal an intelligence and creativity about both girls.
As the bond between Pauline and Juliet thickens, their relationship becomes increasingly intense, as unbeknown even to themselves they begin to fall in love with each other. The fantasyland – which by now they have named The Fourth World – becomes their retreat from a dull and restrictive reality, and from lives that hold no attraction or love except from that of each other. This private world is filled with rich characters, colourful histories and grand castles, with romance and happiness, and above all can be controlled by the girls, something they cannot do in their external lives. The Fourth World holds such a strong influence that even when Juliet has to return to hospital and split the girls up for several months, they write to each other in character rather than as themselves. The girls’ parents meanwhile do come to realise the extreme and obsessive nature of their relationship and eventually decide to act on it, leaving Pauline and Juliet terrified of being parted, and with what they feel is the only one option.
Kate Winslet (in what I am convinced is her best ever performance) and Melanie Lynskey work together very well to create a believable relationship that conveys the lesbian undercurrents that are clearly present in the film, without using them for shock value. Yes, such a relationship was thought shocking in their society – even to the extent that Pauline is taken to a child psychologist by her worried mother – but this issue is not the in-your-face grandstand that some directors might have made it. The counter theme running through the film demonstrating the unease with which the outside world view Pauline and Juliet, and the unstable psychology at the heart of their bond is actually the most important influence on their actions, and it is this that quite rightly overrides the element of homosexuality. From inside their relationship, the girls see themselves as normal in perspective to those around them, and they are completely dependent on each other; it is this dependence more than their love that drives them to want to stay together. It is quite a remarkable feat that two men could have written a script centred on the relationship between two adolescent girls and kept it quite so convincing.
Fantasy plays a crucial role in Heavenly Creatures. The film is to a large extent carried on the imagery provided in the fantasy sequences, as it is these scenes that give us the real insights into the psychology of Pauline and Juliet. Fortunately for Jackson, he had a rich source material for creating The Fourth World in the shape of the diaries of the real Pauline Parker, whose detailed entries abundantly illustrate the world that she and Juliet inhabited. Working in collaboration with the WETA workshop (who were later to provide the special effects for the LOTR trilogy), Jackson produced a world of over-the-top scenery inhabited by life-size versions of the clay characters the girls model to accompany their stories.
Given this material, it would have been terribly easy for the writers to end up with a film in which the two girls are seen as little more than being “stark raving mad” as Pauline so neatly puts it. It would also have been tempting to exploit the story by including sweeping moral platitudes about Pauline and Juliet’s actions or putting it in a package clearly labelled “wholesale condemnation”. However, Heavenly Creatures does none of these things, and this is perhaps where the brilliance of the film lies. The film focuses not on the end result of their actions, not on their viciousness and possible psychopathy, but rather on the events that lead up to their crime, trying to provide an explanation for what happened and create an understanding of, a connection to and possibly even a sympathy for Pauline and Juliet. That is not to say Heavenly Creatures attempts to condone their actions, it simply wants to provide a reason – and it does so superbly.
The end result is a film that is nothing short of a must see; Heavenly Creatures easily makes it into my top five films list and has done so ever since I first saw it several years ago. A subject that could have been a dour, depressing film filled with inevitability is instead exhilarating, compelling and deepens with every viewing. The casting of two young actresses both appearing in their first films was quite a gamble, but has paid off handsomely; the pairing of Winslet and Lynskey was inspired and the performances they deliver are very nearly flawless. This combined with a small but solid supporting cast, an atmospheric soundtrack by Peter Dasent and top notch directing by Peter Jackson produce a thoroughly memorable piece of viewing. My only complaint is that the (eventual) release of Heavenly Creatures onto DVD has so far only happened in the US – and from what I gather it is rather a disappointing package with no extras. Still, I am hopeful of there one day being a properly done special edition release that will make it across to this side of the Atlantic as well.
A very highly recommended film.
**Postscript** When Heavenly Creatures was released in New Zealand, it inevitably caused quite a stir and re-awakened interest in the story of Pauline and Juliet. A media frenzy broke out as journalists tried to locate either of the two women. While Pauline Parker has never been tracked down, Juliet Hulme was found to be living in Scotland and making a successful career as a crime novelist under the pen name of Anne Perry; a rather ironically appropriate postscript to the story.
Advantages: Disturbing Disadvantages: Slow paced for some
...my videos and came across Heavenly Creatures, taped from ages ago whilst it was on BBC2, I sat down and watched it and I'm glad I did. This movie is dark and disturbing, thanks not only because it is a true-life story but to the brilliant acting that is in the film. Heavenly Creatures tells the tale of two girls living in New Zealand in the 1940s. Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) is a bit of a loner in school with no close friends until a high spirited, ... ...mates but one that demands attention and by doing so you are highly rewarded. HEAVENLY CREATURES IS Dark Disturbing True HEAVENLY CREATURES IS NOT A film your going to forget Fast paced A film with a happy ending ...
3rdRockSatan 14.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heavenly Creatures (NEVER RELEASED) (DVD) (DVD)
Advantages: Weird, Offensive, Truly extraordinary, Great Story and Acting Disadvantages: None
Heavenly Creatures
Perhaps I wouldn't have watched this movie if it hadn't been for the current Lord of the Rings franchise, as before this Peter Jackson was jut another director to add to the list of directors who I haven't heard of. Thankfully though, through this franchise much of Peter Jackson's earlier work is coming into the eyes of film enthusiasts like myself who might otherwise have never noticed he existed.
This is what I would describe ... ...this is just the kind of movie that really gets my juices flowing and causes me to think a lot more about the story, plot, characters etc. These sorts of movies are more than just your average movie, because you can't appreciate it necessarily the first time you watch it (although you may) but after scrutiny, careful thought, and many more viewings you can begin to appreciate the intricacy of the work, and the effort and talent that has been put ...
BanjoBear 27.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heavenly Creatures (NEVER RELEASED) (DVD) (DVD)
Advantages: Cast, production Disadvantages: Weird and twisted
...around the world and seeing Heavenly Creatures, it's easy to see why. Strap yourselves in, we're about to enter weirdville...
Based on a true story, this is a decidedly strange tale of the friendship between two girls and just how far friendship should go. English schoolgirl Juliet becomes best friend with Pauline, with the two sharing a common love of Mario Lanza and mythical worlds. Together they invent and explore a strange new world of their ... ...disturbing film that lulls you into a false sense of security, Heavenly Creatures will shock and offend many due to it's handling of many potentially delicate issues (lesbianism, teenage sex etc.) but a mature viewer may get a lot out of it...and you'll certainly have something to think about afterwards ...
TheNeil 12.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heavenly Creatures (NEVER RELEASED) (DVD) (DVD)
Advantages: Brilliant, captivating story, with some terrific acting. Disadvantages: Verry surreal story, also violent, and unfortunately a true crime.
Heavenly Creatures
1994
directed by Peter Jackson
writing credits - Frances Walsh (screenplay) & Peter Jackson (screenplay)
I really enjoyed this film, despite it's obvious shocking nature being based on a true crime. I thought the acting was excellent, and that the material was covered in a sensitive way, considering the adversity of the crime commintted.
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Plot Outline
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Heavenly ... ...point of his career.
Heavenly Creatures paints a vivid and disturbing potrait of two teenage schoolgirls whose obbsessive friendship leads to an unspeakable crime.
The story is told through the view points of the two girls, which twists very finely between fantasy and reality.
Heavenly Creatures chronicles the story of Julliet Hume, played by Kate Winslet, and Pauline Parker, played by Melaine Lynskey. It tells a dark tale starting from the moment ...
MissSpaceGirl 19.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Heavenly Creatures (NEVER RELEASED) (DVD) (DVD)
Advantages: Great performances, story, atmosphere Disadvantages: Confusing for some
...obvious victim.
CRITIQUE : Heavenly Creatures is a joy to watch despite it's extremely horrific end - the fact that the two characters are so blatantly barmy but in turn extremely likeable makes the sequence in which they kill Mrs Rieper all the more harowing. After all these are characters who have been making us laugh for the past hour or so and then the film ends on the brutal attack. The film though is just sublime. Kate Winslet's plummy English-ness ...
DanClegg 18.01.2001 (30.01.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Heavenly Creatures (NEVER RELEASED) (DVD) (DVD)
Based on a true story of two teenage girls whose very close friendship gradually becomes much more sinister as they act out their fantasies in real life to include murder.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
Buena Vista Home Entertainment; Technicolor Distribution Services
Release date
08/03/2004
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
D 881135
Barcode
5017188811354
Languages
Main Language
English
DVD Description
Based on a true story of two teenage girls whose very close friendship gradually becomes much more sinister as they act out their fantasies in real life to include murder.
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