Women Murder Women: Case Studies in Theatre and Film
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WOMEN MURDER WOMEN: CASE STUDIES IN THEATRE AND FILM ___________________________________ A thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment Of the requirements for the Degree Of MASTER OF ARTS IN THEATRE AND FILM STUDIES in the UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY by MARIAN LEA MCCURDY ___________ UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY 2007 Thankyou Peter, for holding up the mirror. And Liz, for your ivy scorn that let me see in it. CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………...…..…..1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................2 CHAPTER ONE Papin Sisters: Case Studies..............................................................................33 and Representations: The Maids (1947) Jean Genet.......................................................................48 My Sister in this House (1980) Wendy Kesselman.......................................79 Les Abysses (1963) Nico Papatakis ..............................................................88 The Maids (1974) Christopher Miles............................................................92 Sister My Sister (1994) Nancy Meckler........................................................95 The Ceremony (1995) Claude Chabrol.......................................................104 Murderous Maids (2000) Jean-Pierre Denis...............................................112 CHAPTER TWO Parker-Hulme: Case Studies .........................................................................119 and Representations: The Verdict (1995) Bruce Mason ............................................................... 149 Minor Murder (1967) Reginald Denham and Mary Orr.............................. 153 Daughters of Heaven (1991) Micelanne Forster.........................................158 Matricide – The Musical (1998) Kathleen Fallon and Elana Kats-Chernin . 170 Don't Deliver us from Evil (1970) Joel Seria.............................................. 174 The Christchurch Murder (1988) Angela Carter ........................................ 181 Heavenly Creatures (1994) Peter Jackson.................................................. 187 CHAPTER THREE Remake: Parker-Hulme and The Maids........................................................ 210 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................... 259 APPENDIX............................................................................................................ 264 WORKS CITED....................................................................................................270 1 ABSTRACT This thesis looks at two cases of women who murdered women – the Papin sisters (Le Mans, 1933) and Parker-Hulme (Christchurch, 1954) – and considers their diverse representations in theatre and film, paying particular attention to Jean Genet’s play The Maids (1947), Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures (1994) and Peter Falkenberg’s film Remake (2007), in which I played a part. What happens when two women (sisters, girl friends) commit violent acts together – not against a man, or a child, but against another woman, a mother or (as in the case of the Papin sisters) against women symbolically standing in place of the mother? How are these two cases – the Papin sisters and Parker-Hulme – presented in historical documents, reinterpreted in political, psychoanalytic and feminist theories, and represented in theatre and film? How might these works of theatre and film, in particular, be seen to explain – or exploit – these cases for an audience? How is the relationship between prurience – the peeping at women doing something bad – and the use of these cases to produce social commentary and/or art, better understood by looking at these objects of fascination ourselves? My thesis explores how these cases continue to interest and inspire artists and intellectuals, as well as the general public – both because they can be seen to violate fundamental social taboos against mother-murder and incest, and because of the challenge they pose for representation in theatre or film. 2 INTRODUCTION In Le Mans, France, in 1933, twenty-seven year old Christine Papin and her twenty-one year old sister Lea murdered their female employer and her daughter by hitting them over the head with a pewter pitcher, carving their flesh with a knife and gouging out their eyes with their fingers. Just over twenty years later, in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1954, sixteen year old Pauline Parker and fifteen year old Juliet Hulme carried out a plan to murder Pauline’s mother, Honora Parker, by hitting her repeatedly over the head with a brick in a stocking. These two murder cases not only received avid press coverage in their time; they inspired the speculation and studies of political, psychoanalytic and feminist writers, and they have provoked a range of theatrical and filmic representations, perhaps most notably in Jean Genet’s play The Maids (1947) and Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures (1994). They have also come together to serve as material for a recent film, Remake (2007), by Peter Falkenberg, in which I played a part. This thesis looks at two cases of women who murdered women and their representations in theatre and film. What happens when two women (sisters, girl friends) commit violent acts together – not against a man, or a child, but against another woman, a mother or (as in the case of the Papin sisters) against women symbolically standing in place of the mother? How are these two cases – the Papin sisters and Parker-Hulme – presented in historical documents, reinterpreted in political, psychoanalytic and feminist theories, and represented in theatre and film? How might these works of theatre and film, in particular, be seen to explain – or exploit – these cases for an audience? How is the relationship between prurience – the peeping at women doing something bad – and the use of these cases to produce 3 social commentary and/or art, better understood by looking at these objects of fascination ourselves? My thesis explores how these cases continue to interest and inspire artists and intellectuals, as well as the general public – both because they can be seen to violate fundamental social taboos against mother-murder and incest, and because of the challenge they pose for representation in theatre or film. The basic facts of the cases, including the guilt of the Papin sisters and Parker and Hulme, are not in question, and can be summarised as follows. For six years, sisters Christine and Lea Papin lived and worked as maids in the household of Monsieur Lancelin, a retired solicitor, Madame Lancelin and their daughter Genevieve, in the town of Le Mans, France.1 On February 2nd 1933, while the family was out, a fuse blew as the sisters were ironing. This fuse had already blown and had been fixed the previous day. The cost had been deducted from the maids’ wages. Madame Lancelin and her daughter returned home to discover the lights out. They confronted the maids on the stairs, where they were murdered. After the murder, the maids bolted the doors to the house. They then bolted the door to their own room and lay together in bed. Monsieur Lancelin, on returning home from a game of bridge and finding himself locked out, eventually broke in with the help of a locksmith and three policemen and discovered the scene. The maids were tried and found guilty of murder, despite a defence of insanity. Christine was sentenced to the guillotine; however, she actually died in an asylum, four years after the trial, of a lung infection as a result of starving herself. Lea was sentenced to ten years of hard labour, after which she returned to her former occupation as a maid and to live with her mother. 1 My information on the Papin case has come from the research by Rachel Edwards and Keith Reader in their book The Papin Sisters published in 2001. 4 Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme met at Christchurch Girls High School in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.2 Juliet’s family had just moved from England, because her father, Henry Hulme, had taken up the position of Rector at Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury). Pauline’s family lived in the central city, ran a boarding house and managed a fish shop. Despite the class difference, the girls were close friends, spending a lot of time together writing poems, novels and operas; they played in the gardens of Juliet’s home at night, shared a passion for cinema and music, went on holidays at Port Levy together with Juliet’s family, talked frequently on the telephone, went for midnight swims at New Brighton on their bicycles, and rode horses. As the Hulme family prepared to shift back to England, the girls consolidated a plan to move together to America in order to pursue their dreams of getting published and starring in films. Because they were about to be separated, the girls made a plan to murder Pauline’s mother, Honora Parker, and on June 22nd 1954, they enacted their plan during a walk in Victoria Park. As with the Papin sisters, despite a plea of insanity, they were found guilty of murder. Too young for the death penalty, they received prison sentences of five years. After serving their sentences, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme moved away from New Zealand and took up new identities, which were only recently exposed as a result of the revival of interest provoked by the film Heavenly Creatures.3 The public interest in both these cases, fuelled initially by the press coverage of the trials, has been extraordinary. It is possible that the