Pauline Yvonne Parker (aka Pauline Rieper) and Juliet Hulme met around the age of 12 or 13 when they attended a New Zealand girls’ high school in Christchurch. There they established such a strong relationship that it was difficult to call it ordinary friendship. Although their parents feared at one stage that they were even in love with each other (and homosexuality was treated as a serious mental illness in those days), the girls had something much more complicated in common. Together, they invented their own religion, moral code, pantheon of saints, or the concept of a parallel dimension they called the Fourth World – this was their version of heaven. As they claimed, they could move to it during moments of spiritual enlightenment, which they managed to achieve thanks to their friendship. They also wrote plays, books and stories together that took place in this world of their invention – in the future they wanted to create together in Hollywood.
Heavenly Beings was inspired by a true story
Pauline was born on May 26, 1938, and as it turned out only during a high-profile murder trial, she was the illegitimate child of Herbert Rieper and Honorah Parker. Although her parents never married, they lived with their daughter and gave the impression of an ordinary working-class family. They both worked for a local university and dealt, among other things, with gardening or housework. Juliet was born in London and moved with her family to New Zealand in 1948. Her father, Henry Hulme, was a physicist and got the job of Chancellor of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.
The girls developed such a strong bond at school, partly due to the fact that both were very seriously ill as small children. Pauline struggled with osteomyelitis, and Juliet contracted tuberculosis. As their relationship progressed, their fantasy world grew bigger and bigger, and they became more and more obsessed with each other. Despite growing fears, the parents nevertheless allowed Pauline and Juliet to spend time together. Parker often stayed with a friend and spent holidays with her family. Apparently, their relationship was so intense that Juliet became withdrawn and even sick when Pauline returned to herself.
In 1954, changes began that disrupted the order of their world. Juliet’s parents announced their separation: problems with the board forced Henry Hulme to resign, and his wife began to cheat on him. The Hulmas decided to return to England, but Juliet was due to move to relatives in South Africa due to health problems.
The girls were devastated by the vision of parting and decided that Pauline would also go to Africa. They were sure that Juliet’s parents would agree to this plan, but in reality it was unlikely. Pauline, however, had no doubt that her own mother would not let her go with her friend – in their opinion, she was the only obstacle standing in the way of their plan. In the future, they wanted to move from Africa to Hollywood or New York, publish their texts and work in the film industry.
‘Celestial Beings’, dir. P. Jackson (1994) photo: Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection
So Pauline and Juliet planned the murder. On June 22, 1954, they arranged an appointment with Honorah Rieper for a walk through Victoria Park in Christchurch. In a heavily wooded section of the park near a small wooden bridge, the teenagers attacked Pauline’s unsuspecting mother – bludgeoned her to death with half a brick stuck in an old stocking. Covered with blood, they ran to the cafe where they had been drinking tea with their victim a moment earlier and began to tell that Honorah had accidentally fallen and hit her head.
When the police arrived at the crime scene, officers noticed numerous injuries to the head, neck, face and her fingers. Soon after, the murder weapon was found abandoned among the trees, and the story of the accidental death was quickly undermined.
The trial of the murder of Pauline’s mother was very public – the press speculated about the insanity of teenagers and their alleged sexual orientation. There was even more uproar when it came to light that the victim’s daughter was an illegitimate child. Since the perpetrators were minors, the penal code did not allow them to be sentenced to death. In the end, each of them was sentenced to five years in prison. There were rumors that they had been released on the condition that they would never have contact with each other again, but this was denied by Justice Department Secretary Sam Barnett.
When Juliet Hulme was released from prison, she went straight to her father in Italy, while Pauline had six more months of parole and was not allowed to leave New Zealand during that time. She also received a new surname – she took the name of Hilary Nathan. Later she went to England, where she settled in a small town of Hoo – there she ran a riding school for children for years and devoted herself to helping disabled people. As an adult, she became a devout Catholic and avoided the press. It was only two years after the premiere of Peter Jackson’s film that she issued a statement through her sister to the media, in which she expressed her great remorse for the crime she had committed. By her own admission, it took five years to understand what she had done.
Meanwhile, Juliet shared her life between England and the USA, eventually settling in the country where she was born. She also changed her name. Already as Anne Perry, she managed to develop the desired literary career – she successfully began writing historical detective novels. She also turned to religion and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Until 1994, her true identity was widely unknown – although Anne maintained that she never particularly hid her, this information surfaced and resounded loudly in connection with the Peter Jackson film.
A movie without which pop culture wouldn’t be the same
before “Heavenly Beings”, he was known mainly as the creator of entertainment productions, e.g. comedy horror “Brain Dead” and was rather not taken seriously. The production of “Heavenly Creatures” was undertaken with his partner Fran Walsh – it was she who suggested that they should make a film about the friendship and murder committed by Juliet and Pauline. Fran has been interested in their case since she was a child, and was deeply impressed by an article she read when she was 10 years old. Her attention was especially drawn to the description of their dark and secret friendship, and how separate they created a world for each other.
‘Celestial Beings’, dir. P. Jackson (1994) – Melanie Lynskey photo: Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection via EastNews
Walsh and Jackson scoured nearly all the 1950s newspaper reports about the crime and the trial. They decided that what can be read in old newspapers does not reflect the true essence of the matter, it is full of speculations, simplifications and conjectures. So they searched across the country for people who knew Pauline and Juliet, including the 17 girls they went to school with, their teachers, neighbors, family friends, involved police officers, lawyers and psychologists. In addition, they carefully read Pauline’s diary, in which she described her friendship with Juliet and the games they played together – after reading this, they came to the conclusion that they were very intelligent, extremely creative and extremely alienated people who developed a very twisted and abstract sense of humor. The filmmakers decided that the best solution for the story would be to use quotes from the real diary of the heroine they want to tell about in the script.
In the main roles, they really wanted to cast actors and actresses as close as possible to the real characters they would play. While after auditioning 175 young actresses, the decision was made that Juliet Hulme would play the debutante, finding the right actress for Pauline was a big problem. Walsh searched schools in New Zealand for a long time for the right actress. Melanie Lynskey discovered almost at the last minute, as there were only two weeks left before the start of filming. Reportedly, Melanie got a tape of Kate’s audition from the creators and was told to be as good as she is. The choice turned out to be the right one, and both actresses got so into their characters that even between shots they talked to each other as if they were Juliet and Pauline.
Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in ‘Heavenly Creatures’ Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection via EastNews
The nature of Julie and Pauline’s true relationship has never been confirmed. It is true that in 2006 Anne Perry reported that although they were obsessed with each other, they were definitely not lesbians. Pauline’s diary, however, gave a different impression, so, somewhat speculatively, Peter Jackson instructed his actors to play love scenes as if they were two devoted friends playing their favorite fictional characters. Pictures for the greatest possible realism were also shot in Christchurch in 1993.
What’s even more important, for the purposes of “Heavenly Beings”, Peter Jackson established Weta Workshop with two friends, which took care of the special effects for the film. “The people from Weta were considered magicians, able to conjure something out of nothing with minimal funds at their disposal” – wrote Magda Walma in the text on the anniversary of the premiere of “The Lord of the Rings”.
The film “Heavenly Creatures” was a significant success. He opened e.g. 51st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion. The drama was critically acclaimed and was one of the best-received titles of that year. Reviewers particularly praised the performances of the then-unknown young actresses, as well as Jackson’s direction. The American Film Academy nominated the authors of the screenplay for an Oscar, which – as it turned out later – had a long-term impact on the director’s career and, in fact, on the history of the entire film industry. “Without
Because thanks to such a loud and appreciated film, doors opened in Hollywood for Peter Jackson and his associates that had previously been closed. By a strange coincidence, both Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey later gained the greatest recognition thanks to the heroines bearing the same name – “Rose”. For Winslet, it was a character in “u”, and for Lynskey, it was Rose from the comedy series “Two and a Half Men”.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
