What do we learn of the Riepers cultural sophistication?
The set dressing in the Riepers’ home was brilliant and it communicated an enormous amount of information about the Riepers’ station in life and about the extent of their cultural awareness (or not) and sophistication (or not). The set decoration at the Riepers’ was one of my favourite ‘details’ in “Heavenly Creatures.” First, look at the wallpaper–busy, dark and hideous and fashionable, perhaps, when the home was last decorated, maybe thirty or more years prior. The whole home was overdecorated with sad, small, cheap, kitsch treasures. At least the ‘paintings’ weren’t on velvet, but they were cheap reproductions in cheap frames. The next time you see “Heavenly Creatures” look around in the Riepers’ home to get a good picture of Pauline’s chagrin and, eventually, what she came to hold in sneering contempt.
