The+Characters

Back to Heavenly Creatures: HEAVENLY CREATURES - YEAR 13 VISUAL TEXT

= What is unattractive about Pauline's life? =  To Pauline, almost everything about her own life is unattractive. The social situation of her parents is a cause for acute embarrassment on more than one occasion//.// She hates the poverty that forces her family to take in boarders. She clearly grows to hold her mother in contempt because Honora had run away from home with her father, because she is 'stupid' and seems to be a dull, plodding kind of a woman and because her mother forces her to contribute financially to the family. Most of Pauline's criticisms of her family and her mother in particular revolve around class, status and money. Juliet shares many of Pauline's attitudes about the Riepers, all the more evident because of her politeness when she is at the Riepers' house. The scene where Juliet first comes over for tea is a splendid study of class distinction, and holds many clues about the girls' attitudes to Pauline's lot in life. = What is attractive about Pauline's life? = About the only attractive thing in Pauline's life, to Juliet, is the aspect of family. Once she gets acclimatized and 'forgets' how she is supposed to think, we see that Juliet actually likes the closeness of the Rieper home in many ways. = = = What is attractive about Juliet's life? =  To Pauline, it looks wonderful, everything she is missing at home. There are the obvious material benefits - beautiful home and gardens, car, the many possessions (cf the way Pauline treats her one precious Mario Lanza recording and Juliet's casual spreading of all of hers on the floor). Then there is the air of intellectualism that permeates the Hulme household. These are cultured, refined people, who respect and encourage scholarship, imagination and things cerebral. Pauline is obviously a very bright girl, and she would have shared instinctively many of the sensibilities and passions of the Hulmes. And the Hulmes, in turn, would have encouraged her because of their social values. Pauline is always a guest in the Hulmes’ home, so would have been treated accordingly, especially in the beginning of the friendship. Juliet takes the material aspects of her life for granted, but that doesn't mean she doesn't value them. Her parents indulge her shamefully; she had a horse, an extensive and lavish 'fantasy' wardrobe, and all the accessories of a well-off teenager. Finally, both girls share an intense devotion to Dr. Hulme, who personifies for them everything that is best about Juliet's world. Pauline, especially, admired him greatly because of his cool intellect, his even temper and his thoroughly British attribute of grace under fire. = = = What is unattractive about Juliet's life? =   The most obviously painful thing for Juliet is the constant threat of separation from her family and their world. She is decidedly hostile to people who threatened to break up the ideal vision of family to which she clung so desperately; this includes Bill Perry, of course, and her mother, eventually, though we see a reconciliation in the end. Juliet seemed to have no particular feelings toward her brother; he is a pesky annoyance, as younger brothers can be. Generally Juliet deals with these things by ignoring them, or by flights of fancy to take her away from ugly reality. Pauline sees nothing unattractive about Juliet's life. Pauline supports and comforts Juliet when she is needed but what she wants more than anything in the world is to be a part of this world. It will never be possible to judge how well they succeeded in this aim. More important, for the artistic success of a film, is whether they are convincing and well portrayed in the film. Characters in literature are created by the writer’s pen and the reader’s imagination. Characterisation in film depends on the script, the casting, the actor’s interpretation, the director’s interpretation, costume and makeup, the use of light, sound, music and camera angle. Any one of these things can affect our response to the character. = Casting: Jackson insisted that the English characters be cast from England; the NZ characters were all local. Finding Pauline was the hardest; Fran Walsh was reduced to visiting schools “looking for sullen, brooding school girls”, and finally found Melanie Lynskey in a classroom in New Plymouth. = = Acting: One of the most difficult things for students (and for voting members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences) to be able to do, is to recognise good acting. This is an excellent film to introduce the ideas of what makes good acting. =  Some discussion about the differences between stage and film acting is probably necessary, especially if there are drama students in the class. Explain/discuss concepts such as understatement, body language, use of gesture.  One advantage with stage acting is that a character is built up throughout a performance, whereas films are almost always filmed out of sequence. (The cast of //American Beauty// attribute part of their success to the unusually long time they spent in rehearsal, before they started filming, as if it were a theatre production.)  Stage actors get instant feedback from their audience; film actors have to wait months.  Repeated takes in film-making may make actors stale, or may allow them to perfect a scene. Stage actors can get stale after months in the same part, also.  Stage actors need to reach everyone in the theatre, including those at the back and in the gods. This means they need to be larger than life. Film is very intimate, with its use of close up; film acting requires a minimalist approach. The great film actors are those who communicate most by doing the least.  Jackson spent two weeks before filming started working with Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, helping them to find the characters they were playing.
 * __ Comparing the Girls' Lives  __**

Questions to Consider
Ä There are many scenes that are rewarding for a close examination of the acting. Look particularly at the seaside scene, where Pauline is having her hair brushed by Hilda Hulme, and the scene where Juliet’s parents leave her in the sanatorium. The scene upstairs, before lunch on the day of the murder, is also rewarding. Ä Sarah Peirse gives a particularly impressive performance as the doomed Honora Rieper. Look particularly at her scenes with Juliet and with the Hulmes – her portrayal of Honora’s awareness of class distinctions is finely judged. Ä If there is a villain in this film it is Henry Hulme. How does Clive Merrison portray Henry? Ä There is one actor playing a (fortunately) small part who stands out – to me anyway – as an “actor” – particularly noticeable in this film where everyone is so right and so convincing. Who do you think it is – and do you agree?  ** Character Study - notes ** =__ The Riepers __= = Pauline = At the chronological start of //Heavenly Creatures//, Pauline is shown to be an intelligent, imaginative, rebellious and often sulky girl. She doesn't appear to be irreversibly anti-social – several girls speak to her on her way to class - but does appear to prefer her own company. She draws horses and dreams of escaping from the dreary day-to-day life of her mother's boarding house. Pauline seems to question authority but she keeps her questions to herself. She suffered from a degenerative bone disease as a young child but seems to have recovered and adapted. She is the more subservient of the two girls to begin with – Juliet’s sophistication and apparent confidence make her easily dominant. It is Juliet who introduces Pauline to her imaginary world. But as Juliet’s world crashes – her TB, her abandonment by her parents – and Pauline develops independence (e.g. John), Pauline becomes comforter and gradually the two switch positions (not unlike the change between the Macbeths). Ä Look at the way Melanie Lynskey shows the growth from a quiet introvert into a more dominant and manipulative girl. = Honora Rieper = Pauline's mother manages their boarding house. According to Nana Parker, she "ran away with" Mr. Rieper when she was 17. Honora (Nora) is portrayed very sympathetically in the film as a frugal, hard-working, weary woman who loves her family and who is genuinely concerned about their well-being and welfare. She is kind, caring and tries to do her best for her difficult daughter. Honora is the no-nonsense, practical partner in her relationship. She is also the worrier. Like most working poor of her generation, Honora seems to be determined that her children will fare better than her, and she sees education as the essential key to their better life. She pushes Pauline to excel at school and is proud of her achievements. Honora is bitterly disappointed when Pauline's marks fall. She seems to have focussed on Pauline's relationship with Juliet as being the cause of Pauline's changing moods, behaviour and the slide in her grades. Her challenge to Pauline to quit school and get a job is really bluff - she had probably done just that and lived to regret it. Honora is not a sophisticated woman but she is proud, and Pauline hurts her deeply when she tells her, "You're the most stupid person I have ever met." Honora does not deal well with life's complexities. She shows a working-class deference to her social, professional and intellectual superiors, with tragic consequences in the film. She is portrayed sympathetically by both the screenplay and by the superb performance of Sarah Peirse.

= Herbert (Bert) Rieper = Pauline's father is the manager of a fish shop. He is portrayed in the film as a jocular, good-natured and caring man. Bert Rieper obviously loves his family and dotes on Pauline. If anything, Bert is even less sophisticated and worldly than Honora. He is a little slow off the mark when it comes to worrying about Pauline's relationship with Juliet. True to his times, Bert blames Pauline for John-the-lodger's amorous advances. “You have broken my heart.” Mother of Honora, grandmother of Pauline. She is a silent presence in //Heavenly Creatures.//  **Wendy Rieper**: Pauline's pretty, blonde older sister. She sells women's lingerie in a local department store, where Sir Edmund Hillary is one of her customers. She does not appear to like Juliet. [She resolutely refuses to speak to the press about these events, but did send a message to Peter Jackson that the film had managed to capture the atmosphere of her home at that time, though the family was "better" than that - that the film had portrayed them in too shabby a light. She thought that the portrayal of the tension between Pauline and her mother was very accurate.]
 * 'Nana' Parker **

**__ The Hulmes __**
= Juliet = Juliet is a bright, outgoing, precocious girl; arrogant, smug and disrespectful. We come to see that this confident and brash exterior disguises considerable loneliness, insecurity and a crippling fear of rejection and abandonment. Juliet had suffered recurring poor health as a child and her health plays an important part in the film. She is imaginative and seeks solace and sanctuary in her private worlds, to which she introduces Pauline. She is portrayed as being anti-Christianity – an attitude suggested to have come from her father. Her dominance gradually seeps away and Pauline becomes the dominant one. (This may not be accurate historically; one of the police officers that investigated the murder has gone on record as saying that Juliet was the mastermind.) = Dr Henry Hulme = Dr Henry Hulme was Rector of Canterbury University College, husband of Hilda and father to Juliet and Jonathon. He is introduced as a likeable, slightly absent-minded academic, but his character develops a harder, more manipulative and cunning edge as the film progresses and his personal problems mount. He is idolised by Juliet and Pauline, and cuckolded very publicly by Hilda.

= Hilda Hulme = Hilda Hulme is portrayed as an intelligent, sensitive woman who is a little bored with her life and also distracted by the escalating turmoil in her personal life. Hilda obviously loves her daughter and is concerned about her daughter's happiness, but her own concerns take precedence. She certainly has no appreciation of the devastating effect on Juliet of leaving her behind. Her feelings toward Henry are less obvious, but she clearly worries about the health of her marriage. She has a progressive, liberal outlook on life and sexuality. But she falls in love with a married man and brings scandal, public scrutiny and disgrace into Henry Hulme's home [0nly touched on] and a severe setback to Henry's career [implied]. Hilda is the unwitting catalyst of many tragic events in //Heavenly Creatures.// = Jonathon Hulme = The lively younger brother of Juliet, who claims, at Port Levy in April '53, to be "almost 10," to which Juliet replies: "No you're not! You're eight, and incredibly stupid!" Juliet calls him 'Jonty.'  __** Accents and Social Status **__ In the 1950s, many New Zealanders at that time felt themselves to be British rather than NZ; they talked of “Home”, even those who had never even been to Britain. The sense of betrayal in this country when Britain joined the EEC in the late 60s reverberated up and down NZ. Christchurch considered itself to be more English than the English, and thus its residents were very aware of socio-economic differences, and the indicators of them. One of the strongest indicators of social class was accent. The headmistress of the school has an exaggerated English accent – “gels” – and clearly values Juliet’s arrival at the school, that her parents have chosen CGHS over a private school. Peter Jackson insisted on casting the central British characters with British actors, and the central New Zealand characters with local actors. 

**__ Juliet/Kate Winslet __**
Her accent clearly identifies her as being genuinely English, not simply of British stock (an important distinction in a colonial society that looks longingly back to the motherland). Juliet herself emphasizes that point because it confers extra social status. Her language and accent are consistent with a background that is intellectually rich, even scholarly, and permissive - the upper-middle class intelligentsia. 

**__ Pauline/Melanie Lynskey __**
Her accent identifies her as a lower middle-class New Zealander, a label she is unlikely to easily escape from; she would have been reminded, every time she talked to Juliet, of the gap between the worlds they came from, and make her ever more determined to join it. At the same time, she would have been equally conscious of how unlikely that would be. The accents of the teachers at school – apart from the art teacher – would reinforce this, and maybe make her despair of even becoming a teacher, the one good job a bright girl in those days could aspire to.

__ Honora Rieper/Sarah Peirse __
Honora's accent is softer than those of Bert and Pauline, which implies that Honora sacrificed some social status when she ran away with Bert, that she had grown up in a socially better environment. 'Nana' Parker's bitter comments would tend to support this history. She will be particularly sensitive to class and status, and this makes her both sympathetic to Pauline and hurt by her rejection. Honora speaks in a slightly more sophisticate way when she speaks to Dr Hulme, and when she is showing the new lodger around; angry with Pauline, her accent is more likely to slip. Her accent is a very important indicator of her attitude towards Juliet. To begin with, she is intimidated by the 13 year old; as she becomes more comfortable with her, especially when she has gained what she sees as an ascendancy over Juliet, she is as kind and solicitous as she is to Pauline. Pauline’s father **Bert** is a working man, comfortable with himself and his position in life.  **__ Hilda Hulme/Diana Kent __** Hilda Hulme's accent classes her in an upper middle-class background or gentry; she has been well educated at 'good' schools. She is never condescending in her dealings with her “social inferiors”, which speaks of a liberal attitude to class and social status, also consistent with a landed gentry upbringing. <span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: Comic Sans MS; mso-spacerun: yes; msobidifontsize: 12.0pt; msospacerun: yes;"> =__ Dr Hulme/Clive Merrison __= Henry's accent and manner of speaking are those of an academic, shaped by his education, at Oxbridge and beyond. Unlike his wife, Henry modified his accent and tone noticeably according to the social situation, most noticeably when addressing his social inferiors. This paints a picture of a man who is not only highly attuned to social distinctions, but who actively seeks to maintain them in their status quo. Given the lack of vocal evidence which would support a long history of social privilege for Henry, this implies that Henry is a successful social climber who has scaled to his present status through his own achievements and, perhaps, by marrying slightly above his station. <span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">