3.1.14 Foreshadowing and allusion

Does Jackson use these devices in "Heavenly Creatures?"

The Prologue.

Archival footage: daffodils, gay and golden, Rutherford, Christchurch gardens.

Flight Scene: smashing through the wooded underbrush, screaming, legs and shoes and stockings and feet and running, mud, overcoats, "Mummy," "Help us!", spattered blood and gore.

First Ship Scene: legs and running, wooden decking, bright print summer dresses, "Mummy," streamers, an elegant woman in white, a man in an overcoat and hat, the sound of the wind.

The title sequence at school.

What is the significance of Pauline's stockings?

At the end of the film, Pauline constructs the murder weapon from one of her stockings. So, apart from telling us a lot about Pauline, and having her flash her thigh gratuitously in an allusion to the scandalous and salacious reputation of the case, this little scene is also a wonderful, almost throwaway, foreshadowing of the murder. It is just one example of an object or theme that appears in two forms in the film, first as something innocent and every-day, and second as its dark and sinister doppelganger.

Others, in no particular order:

• Horses, first drawn in Pauline's French notebook, are in practically every scene and somewhere on every set. Horses figured very prominently in the real case (see 3.1.16.9).
• The girls are thrown together by Art. They never abandon their singleminded pursuit of the Arts from that moment on.
• Running and crashing through foliage appears in the Prologue, repeatedly in the role-playing games at Ilam, in the "Donkey Serenade" scene, but before the murder... there is a gentle walk through the woodland. There is running and screaming in the Prologue and in the flight from 'It.' There is running and laughing, running for joy, running, running, running. The girls even run past a poster for "Jamaica Run." See 3.1.16.1.
• Juliet reaches out to shake Honora's hand when she "meets the Riepers" and Honora hesitates. Later, as Honora collapses, dying, in Victoria Park, she reaches out for Juliet's hand and Juliet reaches out... and takes the brick from Pauline. Inbetween, disembodied hands reach out for many things in "Heavenly Creatures." See 3.1.16.2.
• Juliet and Pauline stand side by side, hand in hand, for the first time at Port Levy and for the last time in the quiet sunset on the grounds of Ilam as unicorns graze peacefully nearby. And many times inbetween. See 3.1.16.2.
• The shrine at Ilam is made of bricks, and a half-brick reappears at the end, of course (see 3.1.16.3).
• We learn of Juliet's contracting TB when she coughs up and spatters blood onto her schoolbook. There is blood in the Prologue, of course, and blood in the final scene. Somehow, there is a terrifying difference between this blood, real blood, and the buckets of blood featured in paintings and Borovnian fantasies.
• Pauline hears of Juliet's diagnosis over the phone. There will be many more phone calls, sad and upsetting and even treacherous, before the end of the film. There were some extraordinary phone calls in real life, too. See 3.1.16.7 and 7.3.
• Pauline wears a silver bracelet at Port Levy, when she first experiences the Fourth World, and she wears it again on the "Loveliest Night of the Year" and on the day of the murder.
• "I got meself a pair of socks." Twice. And Wendy got a pair of stockings for Christmas 1953. Pauline wears 'sockettes', not stockings, on the day of the murder. That's from trial testimony.
• Honora brings Juliet fruit in the sanatorium and on the morning of the murder Juliet brings Honora... "Fruit."
• The first time we see Honora and Pauline hanging up the wash, Pauline declares "We are so brilliantly clever!" The second time, she says "...Mother will be dead. How odd, yet how pleasing." Pauline does a lot of laundry in the film.
• Juliet appears in a gold-lame gown on "The Loveliest Night of the Year" and obvious reference to 'gay and golden' in the Prologue.
• Juliet's coat with the prominent V-shaped lapels is mirrored by Diello's dramatic costume, with its prominent V- shape. Gradually, as the film progresses, Pauline comes to see Juliet as her real-life saviour as Diello had been Gina's saviour on so many occasions. Charles has a flying-V lapel design, too. The whole final day of the murder is bursting with references to the foreshadowing that came throughout the film and with ironic allusions to the real case. Some of my personal highlights:
• Birds in the soundtrack. See 3.1.16.10 for more on birds.
• The reverential tone of "I am about to rise."
• Henry Hulme in Ilam's drive: "Thought I'd lost you." This one is particularly cruel if you know the real-life story.
• Juliet sits on Pauline's bed in exactly the same pose as the real Juliet's portrait on the wall behind her head.
• Juliet's hand reaches out and grasps the branch during the long walk through Victoria Park, and the sound breaks through for a moment and is lost. See 3.1.16.2 for more on hands.
• Juliet is scrubbing her hands as if she were washing away the blood, all through Victoria Park. See 3.1.15 and 3.1.16.12.
• Honora reaches out for the pink stone in an exact copy of Nicholas' motion. Both are near wooden bridges. See 3.1.16.6 for more on bridges and planking.
• Honora was wearing her 'good' clothes--the same outfit she wore to visit Juliet in the sanatorium and to see Dr Bennett.