“…queer work with spectatorship has suggested that viewers, no matter what their stated gender and sexuality identities, often position themselves `queerly,’ – that is, position themselves within gender and sexuality spaces other than those with which they publicly identify. Most radically, this ever-shifting gender and sexuality positioning in relation to film and popular culture would obliterate for the spectator the sense of functioning within any particular gender and sexuality categories.”
- Alexander Doty, Queer Theory
In order to identify with characters we observe in films, it is necessary to put aside the constructed selves we use in everyday life. Films (and other forms of art and entertainment) generally operate off a “suspension of disbelief” wherein the viewer feels enticed to step outside of the normal self in order to relate to what an onscreen character is thinking, feeling, and doing, as illustrated and guided by the narrative. Stories often depict characters and situations very unlike the selves that we have come to be in real life; so a viewer naturally must step outside of the self, “suspend disbelief,” and engage fluidly with the depiction. Doty explains that this process encourages the exploration of “other” selves; and being other is essentially queer.
Context of the “Auto Accident” Scene
In Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (1994), Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker have become fast friends through their shared passion for the arts and common dissatisfaction with the ordinariness of other people. They have incredibly active imaginations which begin to be their sole refuge once their relationship becomes too close for their parents’ and community’s homophobic moral standards.
In one early scene Juliet and Pauline narrowly avoid an auto accident, and become delirious with excitement in the aftermath. They run through the forest by the road, tearing their clothes off, imagining that their friendship is stronger than fate and the earthly forces which command other people.
Analysis of Elements
Tracking Shots: the quick, gliding movement of the camera as the girls run through the forest accentuates the imaginative velocity that separates them from the real. The audience is encouraged to run with them by seeing their movement in such a way, which emphasizes the connection between the girls’ imaginative space and the audience’s use of imagination through narrative spectatorship. They are taking the audience along with them on their journey from being ordinary friends to impassioned lovers.
Sound Design: there is a fast-paced, lighthearted song by Mario Lanza that is played during much of the clip; Mario Lanza was a popular operatic singer from the 1950s that also sung many popular songs and was considered a heartthrob. He is the girls’ idol because of his Renaissance Man persona (besides singing music that crossed or combined many genres, he also received praise for his film acting); here, his music is used extra-diegetically to heighten the scene’s elation and whimsy. When the girls begin to dance and laugh in the forest, the song fades to a similar-sounding orchestral arrangement which allows their laughter to come to the sonic foreground; this interweaving of the “essence” of the song with their laughter emphasizes the fluidity of the real and the imagined. Through this easy interweaving of reality and fantasy, the audience is enticed to imagine along with the girls, and share in their experience.
Acting: when Pauline is lying on the ground after swerving off the road, Juliet thinks she is seriously hurt. Pauline plays into her impression, and pretends to die. The audience is encouraged to believe the ruse as well, and the actress playing Pauline gives a low-key “death” that might be mistaken for the real thing because it is so understated; the understatement could also be perceived as realistically fake upon repeat viewings. This believable, textured ambiguity substitutes the “reality” of the situation with a fantasy that is equally possible.
Costume: after Pauline reveals her ruse to Juliet, they run screaming with laughter through the woods, stripping off their 1950s period clothes to reveal modest white under garments also appropriate for young girls of the time. The suddenness of this action, coupled with the wild abandon with which it is portrayed, is comical and exuberant. The white color suggests purity and the style of underwear is unfamiliar to the modern day; these elements remove any sense of sexual excitement in their disrobing. It is done out of spontaneous glee, and the juxtaposition of their underwear with the green forest places them in a fantastical context. Yet the girls have been made familiar through the story thus far, so their impromptu act builds on the momentum of the accident and elevates them gracefully out of the familiar.
Casting: these are the first roles for the actors playing Juliet and Pauline, so an audience could likely see them as more believable than actors that are recognizable. However, the performances and tone of the movie do not cater much to realism, instead mixing realistic elements with fantastical ones. The two main actors both give their characters a dramatic edge that often suggests they are “acting” or “imagining” their way through events and situations; this serves actually to underscore their believability as imaginative 14-year-olds. Kate Winslet, who plays Juliet, has gone on to become an international star and household name, so seeing her in this role now has the additional effect of blurring reality; she is very young in the movie, and the effect of her recognized image with this altered one distorts reality in line with the narrative.
Conclusion
Heavenly Creatures affects a distortion of reality in its camera movement, sound design, acting, costuming, casting, and overall narrative to illustrate Pauline and Juliet’s evolution into queerness and otherness through their imaginative opposition to the constructs of the real world. Similarly, in line with Doty’s observation, the audience watching Pauline and Juliet are, through these elements, invited to be a part of the fantasy world; the “other” is illustrated in more glowing schemes than the supposedly “real world,” and to suspend disbelief one must believe what is actively portrayed as fiction. The narrative blends it all seamlessly, however, so one believes both. The budding sexual identities of the characters are entwined in the fantastical, and are thusly more accessible to the audience.
