Heavenly Creatures: The Fourth World and Random Clay creatures

The movie for this week was Heavenly Creatures. Heavenly Creatures is based on the real life story of Pauline and Juliet, two young girls who commit murder.
I have wanted to watch this movie for quiet some time to be perfectly honest, I love Kate Winslet and Peter Jackson is one of my favorite directors, since he directed "Lord of the Rings". Needless to say I was very excited to watch this. This and Party Monster are the only ones I'm excited for. The movie did not disappoint.

Pauline and Juliet are two young girls who don't quite fit in anywhere, Pauline is an introvert and although not necessarily and ugly duckling or outcasted by others she prefers to be a loner. Juliet is also a loner but not by choice, because of her parents endless moving around she can never make any roots and settle down anywhere. She is also exceedingly bright and likes to show of her smartness, especially to her teachers. Pauline likes this quality in Juliet very much. They begin to create this other world where they are royalty and live in it they call it Borovinia. They create a family and have a rotten son named Dario who is a "rotten little blighter" and whom Pauline uses as a sort of coping mechanism.

The relationship is a co-dependent, obsessive relationship that only borderlines sexual "otherness" in the end. Like Loeb and Leopold it is not a homosexual relationship. The girls were innocent and were more like twin sisters than anything else. However when Pauline has sex with the border from the house her view shifts and she and Juliet have a one time sexual encounter. However they use sex as a form to get  to the fourth world.

Dario                      

The fourh world is what Juliet believes heaven to be. She does not believe heaven to be what the bible tells us. Her idea of heaven is a place where she can be creative forever, she can revel in art and all things of that nature. She invites Pauline to be a part of this world. When Juliet's parents tell her that they are leaving New Zeland for a conference and will be away for months it tears Juliet apart. That is when she and Pauline break their mental wall and can now enter the Fourth World. They can only visit the fourth wall in thier deranged state of mind or in Pauline's case whenever she has sex. There fourth wall also sometimes becomes Borovinia where Pauline goes to.

Like everything else we have seen this quarter it was weird. However unlike everything else we have thus far seen this quarter it this movie focuses on a female relationship as opposed to a male one. The dynamics are different because unlike the past two films this one is not dominated or driven by sex.

Mastermind Leopold and Angel Face Loeb

Swoon is a movie about glamorized murderes: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, or as they are known respectively Babe and Dick. The relationship is based on power control.
Backstroy:
Nathan and Dick are friends who engage in a "homosexual" relationship with Richard calling the shots. He gets a thrill out of committing crimes and he uses sex as a method of controlling Nathan to do his bidding. The nature of the crimes escalates every time they complete it. Richard is the one who gets the rush of joy from committing atrocities. Nathan is Richard's willing accomplice as he is always searching for attention and love from Richard. In many ways this is reminiscent of a S and M relationship. In one of the scenes where Nathan is talking to the psychiatrist he says he dreamed of having Dicky in chains. The dream was about how he was a pharaoh in Egypt and that Dicky was his slave and then he continues to reference having Dicky in chains. Nathan loves and hates the relationship and the power that Dicky has over him, He sometimes wishes he could have the power and in the scene where they are burying the child's shoes, Nathan attempts to kiss Dicky but he is still in still in the throes of adrenaline produced by the murder, rebuffs him and Nathan does not move any further. He is stunned and saddened by the rebuff and just watches Dicky. Dicky realizes this and gives him a small peck on the mouth. Nathan's whole face changes. He becomes full of infatuation again and he proceeds to help bury the body.

Nathan "Mastermind" Leopold

The movie does not portray either of them as sympathetic characters; however, I will argue that sometimes you feel sad for Leopold. He is of course equally guilty of the crimes they commited. Yet there is still some feeling of pathetic pity for Leopold from me. He wants to please his psychotic and deranged lover. Its almost like watching Harley Quinn and the Joker. Leopold is Harley and Loeb is the Joker.

On the other hand we have Loeb. Loeb is not a character who anyone can sympathize with. He is way to full of himself, vain, narcissistic and selfish. Let me count the ways that he got under my skin. The first time was when he told Leopold that he would not continue to have sex with him unless he helped to commit the crimes. I know that Leopold could have said no and found someone else to help him commit crimes but using sex as power was such a femme fatale move, so unimaginative. Secondly he wants to commit a murder, not only a murder but his first thought is to commit kinslaying. He wants to murder his 10 year old brother! Thirdly he is so proud of himself that he shakes the hand of the guy on the road saying "Congratulations sir, you have just shaken the hand of a murderer." his cockiness knows no bounds. And lastly he throws Leopold under the bus, not even wanting to take credit for the crime he committed which he bragged about.  Then in the face of real circumstance he turns into a coward.

Flowers and Convicts: Jean Genet and Poison

The author that we are currently reading in class is Genet, who is relative to class as he has been the subject of both films indirectly. In the first film "Poison" the director Todd Hayes takes three of Genet's works and fuses them together to form a trifecta of cinema. Hero, Horror and Homo. The main portion of the film based mostly on Genet's work "The Miracle of the Rose". In all three of these stories there is the ever present trope of  being the other. However it is not demonstrated in the contemporary view that we have it today. The first story "Hero" deals with a little boy who seemingly enjoys the abuse that others thrust upon him because they can sense his otherness. He manages to build for himself in an in-penetrable bubble of happiness as he comes to accept his situation and then transform into a sort of pleasure. He becomes a hero when he shoots his father and saves his mother, the only one who accepts/tolerates him in his true form. This could be interpreted as a version of Genet and what he considered himself to be in society. Born into poverty, he became a ward of the state but was later recovered by his mother who was a prostitute/waitress. He was essentially a product of the French penal systems, being in and out of the system for being a thief. Like the little boy in Poison who is given a position in society, instead of being in constant loathe he comes to embrace this notion of himself. He comes to love the degenerate world that he is in and feels more comfortable in this penal world than in the actual world where he does not fit into its normative standards.

The Mad Scientist

        The film Poison features a science experiment gone wrong, turning the scientist, Dr. Graves, into a leper. The scientist then uses his condition to his advantage and starts infecting people, resulting in their death. This concept of science experiment gone wrong is still seen in today's pop-culture. Some use their new-found abilities for good, and some for bad. Since Dr. Graves used his condition for bad, we'll take a look at some Super Villains who also acquired their powers through science and used their powers for evil.

Reverse Flash: Eobard Thawne aka Reverse Flash, was born in the future and grew up being the Flash's number one fan. As an adult he goes on to replicate the electrochemical bath that gave Barry Allen (The Flash) his super speed as well as undergoing surgery to make himself look like the Flash. Thawne then becomes mentally unstable upon discovering that he is destined to become the Flash's villain. Upon realizing this, Thawne travels back in time with the sole purpose of tormenting the Flash at different points throughout his history. Though he is unable to kill the Flash (because without the Flash having existed, he too wouldn't exist as the Reverse Flash) he still manages to torture him mercilessly; for example, attempting to kill his wife.

The Lizard: Curt Connors aka The Lizard, whom famously appears in the Spider-Man comics,  was a genetic biologist who researched the ability of certain reptiles to regrow missing limbs, partially to find a way to regenerate his right arm that he lost during a blast in a war in which he was a doctor helping the wounded G.I's. He successfully regenerated the missing limb of a rabbit and then chose to test it on himself. It resulted in him transforming into a violent lizard monster. Although he is still able to revert to his human form, he suffers occasional fits of his alter ego breaking free, due to stress or chemical reactions (situations vary).  When the Lizard takes hold of the body, one of his objectives is to kill Curt Connors' son. 

       The theme of science gone wrong has been a popular theme for centuries, and these three characters whose present states were altered by a science experiment all went out and intentionally sought to kill people. They are all outsiders in society, making all three of them Queers that Kill.