Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
A Film by Peter Jackson
DVD5 | ISO | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:48:41 | 3,86 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: Spanish
Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy | Nominated for Oscar + 15 wins | New Zealand, West Germany
A Film by Peter Jackson
DVD5 | ISO | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:48:41 | 3,86 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: Spanish
Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy | Nominated for Oscar + 15 wins | New Zealand, West Germany
After winning a cult following for several offbeat and darkly witty gore films, New Zealand director Peter Jackson abruptly shifted gears with this stylish, compelling, and ultimately disturbing tale of two teenage girls whose friendship begins to fuel an ultimately fatal obsession. Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) is a student in New Zealand who doesn't much care for her family or her classmates; she's a bit overweight and not especially gracious, but she quickly makes friends with Juliet (Kate Winslet), a pretty girl whose wealthy parents have relocated from England. Pauline and Juliet find they share the same tastes in art, literature, and music (especially the vocal stylings of Mario Lanza), and together they begin to construct an elaborate fantasy world named Borovnia, which exists first in stories and then in models made of clay. The more Pauline and Juliet dream of Borovnia, the more the two find themselves retreating into this fantastical world of art, adventure, and Gothic romance as they slowly drift away from reality. The girls' parents decide that perhaps they're spending too much time together, and try to bring them back into the real world, but this only feeds their continued obsession with Borovnia (and each other) and leads to a desperate and violent bid for freedom. Featuring excellent performances (especially by Kate Winslet) and imaginative production design and special effects, Heavenly Creatures skillfully allows the audience to see Pauline and Juliet both from their own fantastic perspective and how they seem to the rest of the world. Remarkably enough, Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story; in real life, Juliet grew up to become mystery novelist Anne Perry.
IMDB 7.6/10 (29,020 votes)
Brimming with both feral energy and surprising humanity, Heavenly Creatures was best defined by its director Peter Jackson, who called it "a murder story about love, a murder story with no villains." This idea is reflected in the film's treatment of its "heavenly creatures," two schoolgirls whose consuming fantasy world is much more fulfilling than what the real world offers them: reality, in the end, is the film's true villain, as its intrusion on the girls' fantasy world ultimately brings everything crashing down.
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
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As seen by Jackson, a director previously known for such gory gross-out films as Bad Taste and Dead Alive, the girls are intelligent, creative creatures hurtling along on a weird trajectory towards madness; as played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, they are vibrant characters undone as much by their vulnerability as by their destructiveness. Winslet and Lynskey are the film's strongest assets, playing off each other in perfectly nuanced harmony. Where Winslet's Juliet is cocky and brash, Lynskey's Pauline is subdued and glowering; together, they glow with a righteous fire bordering on lunacy. Jackson refuses to condemn or apologize for them, leaving viewers to elicit their own conclusions from the story's parade of horror and beauty.Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
I understand why teenage girls would like this movie–the thrilling rush of new found deep friendship tied together with nascent sexuality and all that comes with it…the defying of the confines of the world around them…the incredible power of unfettered creativity and self-delusional belief…
What's amazing is that a jaded thirty-something man like myself would consider it to be his favorite film of all time. Peter Jackson shows a deftness in handling interpersonal characterizations and blending in amazing special effects in a way that seems so natural…so fluid…that you while you're awed by what you see, you're not so aware of the process that you're distracted. The oh-so-1993 effect of "morphing" is used better here than any other film (save, perhaps, Terminator 2–but in that movie, the morphing WAS the film…when here, it is merely one element.)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
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The direction is exemplary. The cinematography is awe inspiring. The script is sharp. The acting…down the line…is superb. Melanie Lynskey delivers a brave performance–giddy, childish, frightening, sexual, clouded… She's everything Christina Ricci pretends to be. Kate Winslet–hyper-bright and wonderful…her performance here reminds you that her "Titanic" performance was "sunk" (sorry!) by the extremely poor dialogue she was given. Her character's overly cheerful demeanor is a mask that covers her disappointment in her parents–but it's extended so far that it no longer seems like a mask…it seems to be a force of nature that drags Lynskey's Pauline along for a dangerous ride…a ride that Winslet's Juliet is in no position to control. There are crisp performances from all of the supporting cast as well.
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
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Jackson should be listed with Gilliam and even Lynch when it comes to directors who can achieve a glorious, if dark, vision. The fact that Jackson's movies (save for "Meet the Feebles") are mainstream accessible–in ways that Lynch, especially, could barely consider (although "The Frighteners" was painfully overlooked by the US market)–makes me wish that he'd try his hand at more mainstream material.
Imagine what a Peter Jackson "Titanic" would have been like…and compare that to what a James Cameron "Heavenly Creatures" would have been like and you get my point.IMDB Reviewer
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
The insight of "Heavenly Creatures" is that sometimes people are capable of committing acts together that they could not commit by themselves. A mob can be as small as two persons. Reading in the paper recently about a crowd of teenage boys who beat an innocent youth to death, I was reminded of this film. Sometimes tragedies happen because each person is waiting for someone else to say "no!" In the case of Pauline and Juliet, that truth is complicated by their own emotional maladjustments. What makes Jackson's film enthralling and frightening is the way it shows these two unhappy girls, creating an alternative world so safe and attractive they thought it was worth killing for.Excerpt from Rober Ebert's Review
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Jackson opens the film, with tongue in cheek, showing an early- '50s newsreel that describes Christchurch as a peaceful, well-ordered place. He cuts rapidly to a brief glimpse of the murder scene and then flashes back to 1952, the year that Juliet, a British transplant, enrolled in the strait-laced Christchurch Girls High School.
Smug, precocious, smarter than her teachers, Juliet instantly connects with Pauline, an overweight misfit who draws horses and keeps to herself. Bonded by their love for writing, by a passion for singer Mario Lanza and by the fact that both suffered long-term childhood illnesses, Pauline and Juliet form an exclusive, intensely imaginative society of their own.
"We have such extraordinary telepathy", Pauline writes. "We are both stark, raving mad".
Jackson has called "Creatures" a "murder story about love, a murder story with no villains". His generous approach makes it an unforgettable experience.Excerpt from Edward Guthmann's Review on SFGate
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
DVD Features: Filmography, Synopsis (in Spanish), Trailer
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