Picnic at Hanging Rock
Genre: mystery drama
With: the Appleyard College staff: Rachel Roberts
(Mrs. Appleyard), Vivean Gray (Miss Greta McCraw), Helen Morse (Mlle. de
Poitiers), Kirsty Child (Miss Lumley); the schoolgirls: Anne-Louise Lambert (Miranda St Clare), Karen Robson (Irma), Jane Vallis
(Marion Quade), Christine Schuler (Edith), Margaret
Nelson (Sara Waybourne); other important characters: Wyn Roberts (Sgt. Bumpher), Dominic Guard (Michael
Fitzhubert), John Jarratt (Albert Crundall)
Director: Peter
Weir
Screenplay:
Cliff Green (based on Joan Lindsay’s novel)
Release: 1975
Studio: British Empire Films Australia, South
Australian Film Corporation, Australian Film Commission et al.
Rating: PG
MBiS score: 8.3/10
‟You must learn to
love someone else, apart from me, Sara.”
QuickView
Story-line: we
find ourselves in the state of Victoria (Australia) on February 14, 1900. It’s
a glorious day outside and the white-clad schoolgirls of Appleyard College are
looking forward to their Valentine’s Day picnic at Hanging Rock. Once at the
site, the girls are joyful, most of them feel pleasantly indolent but Marion is
eager to take measurements at the base of the rock. With permission from one of
the College chaperones, she wanders off with Irma, Miranda the poet and a
reluctant Edith but none of them – and no one in the Appleyard party – really knows
how this will all turn out.
Pluses: fine
acting by an evenly able cast (especially an austere Rachel Roberts), flawless
direction, a strange, dramatic yet delicate screenplay strong on atmosphere,
effective dialogues and tension-building, splendid cinematography,
aesthetically-inclined production values (almost obsessively so at first), a varied,
mood-inducing musical score and a moment-of-truth ending that wisely leaves a
few loose ends untied.
Minuses: the movie’s beginning is slow and a bit
annoying but all of this is part of the set-up… be patient!
Comments: PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a two-sided movie. At first, it feels dreamlike, sensuous and excessively mannered – reflecting the schoolgirls’ expectations as they leave stuffy old Appleyard College – but this changes radically at the 35-minute mark when the film’s true intent and the rock’s almost blinding attraction become apparent. From then on, a chain reaction is unleashed, a series of events to which people respond in sometimes appalling ways. A strong sense of mystery floats over this skilful and original exercise in style, Peter Weir’s second try at direction. Not everything is revealed… but no explanations are necessary. This movie is spooky enough as it is.
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