The+Opening+Scene+in+heaps+of+detail

Back to Heavenly CreatureHEAVENLY CREATURES - YEAR 13 VISUAL TEXT

** Opening and Closing Scenes - notes ** = = = 1. What is included in the archival travelogue footage? Why has Jackson chosen top open his film this way? What do we learn? = = = Jackson uses archival film footage to present necessary background information about Christchurch and its values and traditions. Here, when spring comes to Canterbury, daffodils bloom gay and golden in the woodland of Hagley Park. Nearby are tall buildings, busy streets and the heart of the city, Cathedral Square. Canterbury University College: weathered greystone buildings, shadowed cloisters. It was here Lord Rutherford began a great career. The Girls' High School stands in Cranmer Square. And not far away are the broad acres of Hagley Park, with playing fields for many sports. In spring, summer and autumn, Christchurch gardens are gay and colourful. Yes, Christchurch: New Zealand's 'City of the Plains. . . || The opening shot is a Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) flying over neat, suburban Christchurch. CUT to beds of daffodils in Hagley Park, Spring, with an artist and easel. C.U. of daffodils. Couple strolling through daffodil beds of Hagley Park. Street, with trams, pedestrians, many cyclists, people driving slowly and courteously. The impressive cathedral, with trams, cars and pedestrians [this is interspersed with new footage, aged to look archival]. Canterbury University College - the old buildings downtown. Christchurch Girls' High School - the old buildings facing Cranmer Square with peaked brick gables, girls in school uniforms strolling outside the school. Hagley Park playing fields: cricket, cricket again, 8-man crew on the River Avon. A garden in an affluent suburb, with a man mowing the lawn and a toddler crawling happily over the lush lawn. An overview of Christchurch from the foothills of Cashmere. ||  We learn that the events of //Heavenly Creatures// take place in a very small area near the centre of town. The girls' school was near Canterbury University College, where Dr Hulme was Rector, and both were near the cathedral and Hagley Park.  The impression we get of Christchurch is of small provincial town, despite the voiceover's reference to busy streets and tall buildings - gentle humour on Jackson's part, since nothing shown is more than 5 storeys high.  The narrator has a BBC-Queen's English accent; the sports and activities shown tie Christchurch firmly to the apron strings of Mother England.  The Anglican Church figures prominently in the newsreel footage and, it turns out, in the real-life story. There is a famous photograph of a very young and innocent Juliet Hulme, much reprinted at the time of the trial and in true crime books since, where she is posing and smiling a little self-consciously in a bed of daffodils. A copy of the photograph shows up later in //Heavenly Creatures// on Pauline's bedroom wall.
 * Christchurch: New Zealand's 'City of the Plains.'
 * __ Allusions and Foreshadowing __**
 * Daffodils **

A bit of a cruel joke - this is how the public would have described Juliet at the time of the trial, had they been kind enough to use modern euphemisms. = = = Lord Rutherford = Lord Rutherford was a brilliant and famous NZ physicist who, among other things, proved that the nucleus of an atom existed, that it was positively charged and it contained most of an atom's mass, but it was extremely small compared to the size of an atom. Rutherford was, by definition, the first true, modern nuclear physicist. So, to begin with, the reference to Rutherford is an allusion to Dr Henry Hulme, who was a mathematical physicist, though his academic discipline is not mentioned in //Heavenly Creatures//. However, Jackson is being somewhat ironic in this reference. Lord Rutherford is one of the two famous New Zealanders we are most proud of - the other being Sir Edmund Hillary, of course, who is discussed at the final lunch. However, Lord Rutherford left New Zealand to pursue his career. His greatest triumphs came after he had gone elsewhere - to England and Cambridge University, in fact. The word "began" in the voiceover may be a subtle jab at Christchurch provincialism. Cambridge was also where Dr Hulme studied. Rutherford died in 1937 and Hulme received his Ph.D. in 1932, so the two, no doubt, had met. It is perfectly conceivable that Lord Rutherford was an inspiration or even a mentor to the young Henry Hulme. Lady Rutherford was actually a celebrated guest at Ilam while Henry Hulme was Rector of Canterbury College. Dr Hulme came to New Zealand from England, reversing Rutherford's journey in a kind of academic pilgrimage back to the source. By late 1954, however, he must have thought that his hopeful pilgrimage had ended in humiliating failure, shocking betrayal, and an incomprehensible murder. His bitterness was, by all accounts, unfathomably deep and all-consuming and it must have seemed to him that his life and, more importantly, his career had been utterly destroyed by his wife, by his daughter and by "that... Rieper girl." In fact, this was not to be the case, though he couldn't possibly have known of his coming good fortune in June 1954. As it happens, is career was to rise spectacularly from the ashes of his life in Christchurch; he was a key part of the team that developed the H-bomb – which is, of course, the final, supremely ironic connection with Rutherford in the real Dr Hulme's later scientific triumphs. Key events take place in the gardens of Ilam and in the bush of Victoria Park. = The Cashmere Foothills = The perspective of the newsreel gradually moves from downtown Christchurch, through the suburbs, to the Cashmere foothills. At this point, the film cuts abruptly and ominously from the newsreel footage to the shocking and disturbing shots of the girls running, just a short distance farther up in the hills, in Victoria Park. We see the two girls running up a winding bush-lined path, emerging at the top to find Mrs Agnes Ritchie, proprietor of the Victoria Park teashop. This sequence is actually an accurate depiction of part of Mrs Ritchie's courtroom testimony. ** screen titles ** During 1953 and 1954 Pauline Yvonne Parker kept diaries recording her friendship with Juliet Marion Hulme. This is their story. All diary entries are in Pauline's own words.  The first and last are paired and interwoven with scenes of the murder of Honora Rieper and its immediate aftermath, though the significance of this is not apparent until the end. The second one is inserted immediately after Juliet’s aria and is the fullest realisation of Pauline’s fantasy/hope/dream of being a part of the Hulme family. Since air travel was in its infancy, Juliet would have travelled to South Africa by ship (as Dr Hulme and Jonathan do in real life – before Juliet’s trial!) Pauline dreams of going with her. They would have travelled to Hollywood by ship. The ship thus symbolises the start of a new life, the escape from dreary reality. In all three scenes, the ship is shown just before departure from the harbour, a time when it was traditional to be noisy and throw streamers. The scenes superficially repeat the same events, but with significant and dramatic differences. In the first one, Pauline and Juliet are shown running happily along the upper deck of the ship, together, toward the waiting Hulmes. Both call “Mummy” – and at that stage, since we do not know who they are, the assumption is that the waiting woman, whom we later learn is Hilda Hulme, is mother to both girls. The scene stops before the girls reach the adults. (A couple of seconds later, Pauline, covered in blood, screams that “Mummy is terribly hurt.” Potentially confusing and deeply unsettling.) In the second, they are both enfolded and hugged as one family. Both call Hilda Hulme “Mummy”; Dr Hulme kisses Pauline, and since by now we know what he really thinks of her, this is both tragically ironic and disturbing. In the final one, Juliet is shown running, screaming and crying, on the deck of the ship; a sobbing Pauline cries to Juliet from the wharf. The film ends with an emotionally devastating, slow fade-to-black shot of Pauline crying out desperately on the quayside, looking up at the departing Juliet, who is crying out to Pauline. They are images from Pauline’s perspective. = 4. What makes the 'ship scenes’ technically different from the rest of the film? Why are they different? = Ø the monochrome sepia tones, like old photographs, make them stand apart. Ø the action occurs in various slow-motion speeds. Ø continuity is not strictly followed - there is some overlap of shots and missing segments and the frame of reference moves discontinuously. Ø the sound switches back and forth between silence, selective background sounds, and specific foreground sounds and voices, always with a muffled tone and noticeable reverb. Ø there is no music accompanying these scenes. Ø all this combines to create a haunting and unsettling effect.
 * Gay and Golden**:
 * Christchurch Gardens **
 *  2.  **** What is the significance of the three scenes of the ship? **
 *  3.  **** Are the three 'ship sequences’ the same? **

//Heavenly Creatures// is full of fantasy and imagined scenes and characters, yet the 'ship' scenes are set apart stylistically even from the other fantasy scenes. Ø they form symmetric 'bookends' near the start and finish of //Heavenly Creatures.// <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø the monochrome stresses their significance; in some ways they sum up the thematic issues of the film. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">Ø they are qualitatively different from the other fantasies; this is not a fantastic paradise, but the real people shown in the film. <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> As the film progresses, Pauline’s wish to be a member of the Hulme family strengthens. This must have been a frequent and powerful fantasy, of an order entirely different from the fantasies of Borovnia. She must have imagined this scene so many times that it takes on the qualities of memory – tied in perhaps with her actual memories of the Easter holiday (presented in a montage of b&w stills) when Hilda brushed her hair. In the final version, the “memory” is shattered forever by the reality of the murder that Pauline thought could make the fantasy come true. =<span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Comic Sans MS'; msobidifontfamily: 'Comic Sans MS'; msolist: Ignore;"> 6. What do we learn about Pauline from the 'ship' scenes? =   Pauline's most treasured dream is to be a part of the Hulme family and to live their life. Coming before the characters are properly introduced, the scene can be confusing; it paints a convincing portrait of the girls as loving sisters and devoted daughters of the kindly Hulmes. There is no room in Pauline's dream for any of the unpleasantness in her life - her family, for example, is completely absent; they are not even shown waving goodbye - and she discards Juliet's brother from the scene. Juliet's parents are shown to be a loving, devoted couple, so there is no place for Bill Perry, either. And significantly, Pauline and Juliet are **not** shown to be lovers setting off together into the world, free of the interfering adults in their lives, but as close and loving **sisters,** part of a family. This is the film’s most explicit statement about Pauline, about what may have motivated her to murder her mother and about her relationship with Juliet. Pauline is looking for an escape from her dreary life, and the lifestyle represented by the Hulmes - both their material wealth, and also the intellectually stimulating and encouraging environment their house provided – seems to offer her what she feels she is missing. It matters so much that she becomes quite single-minded and indeed ruthless in pursuit of this dream. She is willing to jettison all of her family and anyone else who interferes, and is so blinded by it that she is unable to see that it is not her own loving and caring mother who stands between it and her but the cold and manipulative Henry Hulme, who does not like her at all. This scene says quite clearly, that in Pauline's eyes, Juliet is not her lover but her close and loving sister. When the dream dies for Pauline, in the third ship scene, it is her loss of that family that is so powerfully and effectively shown in the final moments of the film. Pauline cries out "Julie," her 'sisterly' name for Juliet, not "Deborah," her Borovnian fantasy name. Juliet cries out "Gina" in return, but it has been clearly established by this time that Pauline wants to be called Gina in her real life, especially by Juliet. Juliet cries out, "I'm sorry! Gina, I'm so sorry!" over and over, and Pauline is reduced to screaming and crying "No!" during that agonising fade-to-black. Juliet is still Pauline's sister, now overwrought at being separated from Gina, and she is comforted by their loving parents. And Pauline is left alone in the world: Juliet's greatest fear, come true for Pauline. No Riepers are brought back to comfort the despairing Pauline on the quayside, her rejection of them is complete, and what she has done will presumably cut her off from them for ever. This wrenching, sad image is consistent with the first ship scene.
 * <span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Comic Sans MS'; msobidifontfamily: 'Comic Sans MS'; msolist: Ignore;"> 5.  **** The other black and white images in the film are all photographs – and thus records of real events. So why the b&w here – these scenes are surely fantasies, dreams? **