There have been two thinly-veiled pulp fiction accounts of the case, "Obsession" by Gurr and Cox, who also wrote up the case as a chapter in a 'true crime' book, and "The Evil Friendship" by Marijane Meeker writing under the pseudonym Vin Packer. See 7.7 for complete references. [jp]
Several other people were writing scripts concurrent to "Heavenly Creatures," including Fiona Samuel, an English writer working out of Wellington. [mf]
Angela Carter also wrote a script based on the story for South Pacific Pictures in the 70s. It was never made because the script was too dark and unrelentingly grim. Or so I heard. [mf]
Punch Productions, Dustin Hoffman's production company, was interested in getting Peter Jackson to direct a film on the "Parker Hulme" case based on a script they had developed from an American writer. This was in early 1992. [Jackson, in "Cinema Papers" interview April 1994. sb]
As the 40th anniversary approached there were: a book [G?], a play [DofH], and five or six other prospective films, according to Jackson. Jane Campion and Dustin Hoffman's production company were two filmmakers who showed interest. [Gristwood, Aust. Women's Weekly, March 1995. sb]
Walsh commented that there were at least three other proposals for films on the case, including: a script by the English writer Angela Carter, another by the Australian playwright Louis Nowra, and a script being developed by Punch Productions. [O'Brien, NY Times, Nov. 13, 1994. jp]
A 1967 Australian play, "Minor Murder," by Denham and Orr, was loosely based on the Parker-Hulme case. [G?] [note: unfortunately, G? don't give any more details. I have found:
"Dead Giveaway," Denham, Reginald and Orr, Mary. Dramatists Play Service, NY (440 Park Ave. S. NY NY 10016), Garden City NY, 1979.
which sounds like it could be the same authors but I don't know what this play is about. The only reference I could find to the title "Minor Murder" was:
"Minor Murder," Hensley, Joe L. Doubleday (for the Crime Club), Garden City, NY. 1979. jp]
Here are a few epigrams and short quotes. These have either been used by authors who have written about the film or about the case or they have just struck my fancy as being somehow appropriate or, in some cases, ironically apt. It has been left to the reader to discover the ironic references, if any, elsewhere in the "Heavenly Creatures" FAQ. Contributions to this section are welcomed. [jp]
What is done out of love always occurs beyond good and evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Beyond Good and Evil" (1886) [jp]
The weak will never enter the kingdom of love
for it is a harsh ungenerous kingdom...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"Love in the Time of Cholera" (1988) [mf]
In revenge and in love
woman is more barbarous than man.
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Beyond Good and Evil" (1886) [jp]
In best understandings, sin began,
Angels sinned first,
then devils, then man.
John Donne
"Letters to Several Personages" (1651) [lfr]
God is indeed a jealous God---
He cannot bear to see
That we had rather not with Him
But with each other play.
Emily Dickinson
"Poems" (c. 1862) [lfr]
Science is a cemetery of dead ideas, even though life may issue from them. Miguel de Unamuno
"The Tragic Sense of Life" (1913) [jp]
The Princess was a pretty child,
Thirteen years old, or thereabout.
She was as joyous and as wild
As spring flowers when the sun is out.
The Princess gave a little scream,
Carrousel's cut was sharp and deep;
He left her softly as a dream
That leaves a sleeper to his sleep.
Aubrey Beardsley
"The Ballad of a Barber" (1896) [jp]
Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine--
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Edgar Allan Poe
"To One In Paradise" (1834) [jp]
Graceful, noble, with a statue's form.
And I drank, trembling as a madman thrills,
From her eyes, ashen sky where brooded storm,
The softness that fascinates, the pleasure that kills.
Charles Baudelaire
"A une Passante" (1861)
tr. CF MacIntyre [jp]
Children begin by loving their parents;
as they grow older they judge them;
sometimes they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890) [jp]
And your arm felt nice
Wrapped 'round my shoulder.
And I,
Had a feeling I belonged.
I,
Had a feeling I
Could be someone, be someone.
Be someone.
You can make a decision--
You can leave tonight,
Or live and die this way.
Tracy Chapman
"Fast Car" (c. 1990) [jp]
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
Edgar Allan Poe
"Annabel Lee" (1849) [jp]
She...
"We gave her most of our lives."
...is leaving...
"Sacrificed most of our lives."
...home.
"We gave her everything
Money could buy."
She's leaving home, after
Living alone for so
Many years.
She's leaving home...
"Bye, bye."
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
"She's Leaving Home" (1967) [jp]
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Matthew Arnold
"Dover Beach" (1867) [jp]
Partir, c'est mourir un peu.
French proverb [jp]
You take my hand, I'll take your hand.
Together we may get away.
This much madness, it's too much sorrow.
It's impossible to make it, today.
She could drag me over the rainbow,
Send me away.
Down by the river
I shot my baby.
Down by the river,
Today.
Neil Young
"Down by the River" (c. 1970) [jp]
Kill then, and bliss me,
But first come kiss me.
Anon.
from "Thomas Morley, The First Book of Ballets to Five Voices" (1595) [jp]
One night -- a night of mystic blue, of rose,
A look will pass supreme from me, from you,
Like a long sob, laden with long adieux.
And, later on, an angel will unclose
The door, and, entering joyously, re-light
The tarnished mirrors and the flames blown to the night.
Charles Baudelaire
"La Mort des Amants" (1857)
tr. "Michael Field," pseudonym of
Edith Cooper and Katharine Bradley. [jp]
First of all, I wept to God
-- when the world is wet & shy, under
the bridge I hold her
head down under
water & I feel her thrash
against me, just this once, I murder
her,
it's a once in a lifetime thing you
know?
You have no idea
how much I love her, I am she.
Lucie Brock-Broido [mf]
--It is death: Here lie the police. -- Up there, love
Siestas, sucking the meat of a heavy arm
Where the quenched kiss leaves its red mark ...
The hour is alone -- Listen ... not a dream is moving.
Tristan Corbi?re
"Paris Nocturne" (1890)
tr. Kenneth Koch and Georges Guy [jp]
I know, I dream you,
A sin and a lie.
I have my freedom,
But I don't have much time.
Faith has been broken,
Tears must be dried.
Let's do something, babe.
After, we'll die.
Wild horses
Couldn't drag me away.
Wild, wild horses--
We'll ride them, some day.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger
"Wild Horses" (1972) [jp]
You stand by the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who
Bit my pretty red heart in two.
Sylvia Plath
"Daddy" (1963) [jp]
It may well be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
"Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink"
(1931) [jp]
And how will your night dances
Lose themselves. In mathematics?
Sylvia Plath
"The Night Dances" (1963) [jp]
Momma, you had me
but I didn't have you.
So I,
I just want to tell you--
Good-bye. Good-bye.
Momma don't go!...
Daddy come home!...
John Lennon
"Momma" (c 1970)
Each time I am leaving home
I run back to my Mother's arms
One last hold and then it's over.
Watching me, you know I cry
You wave a kiss and say good-bye
Feel the sky fall down upon me.
All I am
A child with promises.
All I have
are miles full of promises of home.
If only I could stay with you
My train moves on, you're gone from view
Now I must wait until it's over.
All I am
A child with promises.
All I have
are miles full of promises of home.
Days will pass your words to me,
It seems so long; eternity,
but I must wait until it's over.
Nicky and Enya Ryan
"Evacuee" [lfr]
One last voice is calling you,
And I guess it's time you go.
Just one thing I ask of you,
There's just one thing for me--
Please forget you knew my name,
My darling, Sugaree.
Jerry Garcia
"Sugaree" (c 1976) [jp]
There's not time for us
There is no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams
Yet slips away from us?
"There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment
Set aside for us.
Queen
""Who Wants to Live Forever" [js]
