3.1.16.14 The pink gemstone
Was the pink gemstone real or a fantasy?
[jp] It was both a fantasy image seen in Borovnian visions, and it was a real object.
Where did the pink gemstone first appear?
[jp] The pink gemstone was in Diello's ring. Diello removed it during a vision of Borovnia (it isn't clear whose vision) and threw it down on the drawbridge of Borovnia. Nicholas, who had recently assaulted Gina in Borovnia, saw the ring and bent down to pick it up after saying "Oooh, pretty!" Diello, lurking in the shadows, released the castle gates and crushed Nicholas to death; Diello was avenging all wrongs done to Gina. Nicholas dropped the ring at the moment of his death and the pink stone was dislodged. It rolled over the drawbridge away from Borovnia ... and into the real world.
Where did the pink gemstone appear in the real world?
[jp] Juliet bent down and picked up the pink stone. It was at her feet, on a wooden bridge, in the real world. She had just been released from the sanatorium.
Later, the pink stone was sitting on Juliet's bedside table when the two girls made love on "The Loveliest Night of the Year."
Finally, the pink stone was taken by Juliet along to the murder of Honora. Juliet kept it in her coat pocket.
What role did the pink gemstone play in the murder?
[jp] Juliet threw down the pink gemstone on the path in Victoria Park. Honora bent to examine the gemstone, and Pauline took the opportunity to murder her. Honora did not die as neatly or as quickly as Nicholas, however.
What was the meaning of the pink gemstone?
[jp] The murder of Honora was staged as a parallel to the imaginary murder of Nicholas, seen previously. So, through the pink gemstone, Juliet was acting as Pauline's avenger, as Diello had been Gina's avenger.
Also, significantly, the gemstone was a real object to be seen and touched. It was a real, physical link between the Fourth World and the real world; it leant legitimacy to the Fourth World, and it transformed the Fourth World from fantasy into something that was real. In the film, we first see the pink stone in the Fourth World, and then there it is in the real world. To the girls, the pink gemstone was viewed almost as a matter-of- fact sign that the Fourth World and the real world were becoming connected. To the audience, it is a sign that the girls were having a hard time telling the difference between fantasy and reality.
Where did the idea for the pink gemstone come from?
[jp,sb,mk] At first sight, the pink gemstone seems such an obviously- theatrical and slightly crude touch on the part of the filmmakers. But realistically adolescent, in a way. The gemstone was something beautiful and valuable, symbolic of everything Pauline wanted in her new, free life. And it lured Honora to her death in such an obvious, ironic way.
However, the pink gemstone, and the strategy of dropping it to distract Honora--in fact, the exact choreography of the murder--were all taken directly from Juliet Hulme's testimony read out in court (see 7.5.7 and below). She seemed obsessed by the stone, in fact. And, incredibly, Juliet Hulme picked up the stone and carried it off with her after the murder. Walter Perry retrieved the pink stone from Juliet Hulme's coat pocket later that day, and the small pink stone was turned over to police and entered into evidence at the trial.
Truth really is, sometimes, more unbelievable than fiction.
