Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Picnic at Hanging Rock ( 1975 ) PG | During a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind. Director: a list of 38 titles created 18 Jan 2012 a list of 27 titles created 11 Sep 2013 a list of 42 titles created 03 Jan 2015 a list of 25 titles created 07 Nov 2015 a list of 46 titles created 20 Nov 2015 Title: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) 7.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 11 nominations. See more awards » Videos Edit Storyline Three students and a school teacher disappear on an excursion to Hanging Rock, in Victoria, on Valentine's Day, 1900. Widely (and incorrectly) regarded as being based on a true story, the movie follows those that disappeared, and those that stayed behind, but it delights in the asking of questions, not the answering of them. Written by David Carroll <davidc@atom.ansto.gov.au> A recollection of evil See more » Genres: 2 February 1979 (USA) See more » Also Known As: El enigma en las Rocas Colgantes See more » Filming Locations: $27,492 (USA) (26 June 1998) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia The opening lines spoken by Miranda, "What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream" are a paraphrase of lines from the poem A Dream within a Dream, by Edgar Allan Poe.

The lines appear as the last two lines of each of the two verses of the poem, with a slight rearrangement in the wording. See more » Goofs Miranda cuts the Valentine's Day cake with a clean kitchen knife. However, the next shot shows the cake cut down the middle, and the same knife lying beside it clean and bare, as if it had never been used. See more » Quotes [first lines] Miranda : What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream. See more » Connections (Canada) – See all my reviews Even though this has been described as a film about sexual repression (and Peter Weir may have thought he was making such a film), I don't think it is--rather, it is a celebration of the dreamy, self contained sexuality (or rather pre-sexuality) of young adolescent girls just before they seriously turn their attention to men. Sure, they may be living in a society straitjacketed by Victorian mores, but the girls really don't seem to be the unhappier for this, non withstanding the earthy maid's comments that she feels sorry for them.

Miranda and her friends seem completely content and at ease in their languid, hothousey world of poetry, pink and white bedrooms, and mutual crushes (I was reminded of the similarly dreamy, self contained little universe of the sisters in "The Virgin Suicides--another film that is supposedly about repression). During the noon day nap at Hanging Rock, the girls, heads resting in one another's laps, are in a state very much resembling post coital bliss--far from seeming repressed, they are among the most content women I've ever seen on screen. It is quite arguable that Victorian morality had something to do with their sexuality turning inward like this, but all this does is lend credence to the truism that repression intensifies sexuality--which may explain the lingering fascination the Victorian era has for the modern age, and why one of its most striking symbols of its oppressiveness--the corset--is also very erotically charged.

The girls' disappearance into the eerie black land form (that seems to have faces at times, bringing to mind fairy tales about trolls who steal golden haired children) suggests that at in their present state they are so contented that anything else life might hold for them could only be a letdown, that only whatever dark force (death? nothingness?) is haunting Hanging Rock could possibly be a worthy enough lover for these girls who are already so supremely self fulfilled. There are, unfortunately, aspects of this film that don't work, or rather jar with the elements discussed above, the most prominent of these being the Dickensian subplot of the persecuted orphaned pupil Sarah. The actress herself is affecting in her part and her boyish beauty contrasts well with Miranda's ethereal femininity (she looks like a young Renaissance prince at times), but her story really belongs in another movie because at heart "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is more Gothic than socially conscious. Maybe Weir really was aiming to make a movie about the evils of sexual repression, class inequality or even colonization, but such possible themes are blown away by the languid, ethereal images of the young adolescent girls at the beginning of the film, floating contentedly through their hours like clusters of Monet lilies.

99 of 119 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes ‎Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) directed by Peter Weir • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd 16 Read any review for Peter Weir’s mesmerising masterpiece, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and you will see the words haunting, dream-like and enigmatic appear time and again. They are vague and uncertain descriptions but perfectly apt for a film that is elusive, ambiguous and rich in symbolism, complexity and interpretation. I have watched the film numerous times over the years (this, my first viewing in high-definition) and every time I am surprised by the new things I find, the new interpretations I dream up and the mixed emotions the film manages to evoke. On Valentine’s Day in 1900, a school trip to Victoria’s Hanging Rock turns to disaster when three students and their teacher disappear without trace. Whilst sounding like the… 6 There's something so unique with the Peter Weir directed mystery film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, that just hearing the title makes three adjectives spring to mind. Haunting, eerie and encapsulating.

Peter Weir is the Aussie director who went on to direct Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show and he has based the story on the notoriously famed Joan Lindsay novel by the same name, which together with this film spawned an ongoing urban legend and cemented Hanging Rock's position as an Australian landmark. The story takes place in the year 1900 and is quite simply about three girls from the private boarding school, Appleyard College who wanders of during a field trip to the mountain, Hanging Rock and mysteriously… 9 Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock is a mystical and beautiful film that I failed to connect to completely. Set in Australia in 1900 and centred around a real life mysterious disappearance of three girls and one teacher, it explores the nature of said disappearance and the effect it had on the school and the community. The first act had me glued to the screen. The attention given to creating a convincing depiction of the time period is something I always respect and admire. When the group of young women arrive at the rock for the picnic, Weir manages to create a sense of unease and mystery that transfixes and intrigues.

He almost makes the rock a character, a mystical force… Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (13) challenge. Based upon the 1967 historical novel by Joan Lindsay, this mystery drama from Australian director Peter Weir tells the fictional story of several schoolgirls and a teacher from Appleyard College, who disappeared while picnicking near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria, Australia on Valentine's Day in 1900. At the time of the outing, one of the students, Sara Waybourne (Margaret Nelson), was left behind at the College with the Headmistress, the widow Mrs. Arthur Appleyard (Rachel Roberts), and a jittery teacher named Miss Lumley (Kirsty Child) as a form of punishment. The rest of the faculty and student body made their way by horse-drawn wagon to the picnic… 3 "This we do for pleasure, so that we may shortly be at the mercy of venomous snakes and poisonous ants." The above quote from Picnic At Hanging Rock is the type of device that you see used a lot in mystery and thriller films especially, and it's a device I don't much care for.

It's usually such an unsubtle and clumsy way of setting up some drama to come, usually the antithesis of what is being stated by way of wanting to prove that character and his or her thoughts wrong, quite often as a method as marking them out as an antagonist. In a film like this, such a technique should be maddening as this is quite clearly not… Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (13) challenge. Based upon the 1967 historical novel by Joan Lindsay, this mystery drama from Australian director Peter Weir tells the fictional story of several schoolgirls and a teacher from Appleyard College, who disappeared while picnicking near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria, Australia on Valentine's Day in 1900. At the time of the outing, one of the students, Sara Waybourne (Margaret Nelson), was left behind at the College with the Headmistress, the widow Mrs. Arthur Appleyard (Rachel Roberts), and a jittery teacher named Miss Lumley (Kirsty Child) as a form of punishment.

The rest of the faculty and student body made their way by horse-drawn wagon to the picnic… 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' Valentine�s Day Film Screening at Hanging Rock - Melbourne It stemmed from a novel Picnic at Hanging Rock, written by Joan Lindsay (and yes, she had married into that famous Lindsay family .) Facebook Tourism Macedon Ranges large image It was the unresolved story (those girls were never found) which made people gasp. It was a mystery, a gothic Australian bush tale. Funnily few people ever saw it as fiction, which it was. Some even went scouring turn of the century newspapers looking for news reports about the lost girls. The feeling that it actually happened is because anyone visiting Hanging Rock feels its power and treachery. There are so many hidden crevices and secret places. It seems ancient -- pagan. Peter Weir Films Facebook The gigantic rocks seem to harbour secrets. There are unexplored regions and wizened faces which can be made out in the grey boulders that make up The Rock. Craggy precipices pierce the rolling clouds. A shroud of mist can suddenly descend on you like an ominous curtain.

The Rock is also volcanic and weren't maidens once sacrificed to volcanoes to appease the gods? The book inspired director Peter Weir to shoot his film adaptation of Lindsay's novel there in 1975. For over 16 years there have been outdoor screening at Hangiing Rock of his hauntingly beautiful film. This year Valentine's Day falls on Friday 14th February. So you will be seeing the movie on the exact day Lindsay wrote about all those years ago. Bring along a rug and a picnic as you can watch the movie underneath the stars with the ominous presence of Hanging Rock as your backdrop. While this is not a romantic film (far from it, in fact it is quite languorous and creepy) it will soon have you drawing close to your loved one. Facebook Tourism Macedon Ranges Hanging Rock is 80km north of Melbourne via the Calder Hiighway to Woodend and then follow the signs. Other things to do in Woodend include experiencing the delight of one of Victoria's best ever vanilla slices and sitting in your car while it rolls up hill. This happens at Straw's Lane and is known locally as the magical pull of Hanging Rock. No joke! Click here .

You might also want to climb the rock. Tip: Do not wear white. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Review - Photos - Ozmovies Picnic at Hanging Rock sex St. Valentine's Day, Appleyard college near Woodend, Victoria 1900. A party of Appleyard College schoolgirls go on a picnic to the famous Hanging Rock, an ancient volcanic outcrop of rocks, and during the afternoon several members of the party disappear without trace, most notably the swan-like, Botticelli-like angelic Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert). One girl, Irma (Karen Robson) survives the experience but won't or can't speak of what happened ... The school is flung into confusion, from the severe headmistress Mrs Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) to the teacher in charge on the day Mademoiselle de Poitiers (Helen Morse) to a young visiting Englishman also lunching at the rock (Domnic Guard) and his rustic valet Albert (John Jarratt). A search is organised, with Sergeant Bumpher (Wyn Roberts) and his sidekick constable (Garry McDonald) leading the way, but no further trace of the missing girls can be found.

The school begins to disintegrate. After strapping Sara (Margaret Nelson) to an infernal device to improve her posture, Mrs. Appleyard advises the girl that as her tuition fees have not been paid, she must return to the oprhanage. When a provocatively 'dressed in red' Irma returns to her classmates, she's attacked by them for refusing to reveal what happened on the rock. Miss Lumley (Kirsty Child) advises Mrs Appleyard she is resigning, and then Sara's body is found in the greenhouse by the gardener ... Mrs Appleyard dons full mourning gear and packs her bags ... while the final images revert to the girls in that moment of magic at high noon beneath the rock, and Miranda waving farewell ... Key cast: full music credits Production Details Production company: Picnic Productions. A McElroy and McElroy production in association with Pat Lovell, B.E.F. and the SAFC. Budget: A$450,000, with investment from B.E.F.

Distributors, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the South Australian Film Corporation (conditional on the film being substantially shot in South Australia) (Oxford Australian Film); $443,000 (David Stratton). The Oxford Australian Film is probably the closer figure - in an interview in the March-April 1976 Cinema Papers, Lovell puts the final budget at $445,000, but also notes some overages due to additional travel and accommodation expenses arising from the need to film some scenes in South Australia. Remarkably at the time the AFDC - a government body - insisted on a net profit split with producers of 75/25 in its favour, and only later would it get to a 50/50 split. This would be understandable where private investors were involved, but there was only $3,000 private sector script development investment involved, with the bulk of funds coming from the SAFC and AFDC.

In an interview in the December 1974 Cinema Papers, Cliff Green put the AFDC contribution at $125,000, with the rest coming from private sources in a budget of $350,000, but it is likely that the AFDC in the end put in substantially more. Locations: Hanging Rock Victoria; Martindale Hall, Mintaro, near Clare; Strathalbyn; Marbury School in South Australia; SAFC studios in Adelaide, SA (then in Norwood). Filmed: a six week shooting schedule, began February 1975 Australian distributor: B.E.F. Australian release: according to the Oxford Australian Film, the film had its world premiere 8th August 1975 in new Hindley Cinemas complex Adelaide SA (it travelled to the Cannes marketplace for the May 1976 Festival). It opened in Sydney at the Lyceum on October 24th 1975. The film didn't open in New York until February 1979.

Rating: G 35mm Eastmancolor Panavision Running time: 115 mins (Oxford Australian Film); 110 mins (New York Times' review); 120 mins. Cinema Papers' review. Roadshow VHS timing original cut: 1'54"16 (excluding distribution logo and archival credit) UK Second Sight DVD timing original cut: 1'50"58 Criterion US DVD timing director's cut: 1'46"44 (excluding Janus logo) Australian Umbrella 2 disc edition director's cut: 1'42"27 UK Second Sight DVD timing director's cut: 1'42" 38 The director's cut significantly shortened the film. The substantial trims - some eight minutes - include several major scenes, but there were also some minor trims, as, for example, the shortening of the last step motion pan around the schoolgirls at the rock. Box office: According to Film Victoria's report on Australian box office, the film made $5,120,000, equivalent to $30,003,200 in A$ 2009.

The Australian Women's Weekly on 23rd June 1976, doing a story about director Peter Weir, claimed the film was the third highest grossing film of the year in the domestic market, coming behind only Jaws and Towering Inferno. In the July 1984 edition of Cinema Papers, listing the all-time top ten and top twenty-two Australian films, using Variety data, Picnic was placed at number 6, with a gross film rental of A$1,783,000. Using figures adjusted for inflation according to the Australian Consumer Price Index, the film placed at number five in the all time top twenty-two Australian films, with adjusted gross film rental of A$3,801,154. By January 2012 the film had naturally slipped down the list, but still clocked in at a respectable 45th position in the all time top 100 Australian box office money-makers. Opinion Awards The reason the AFI Awards have very little historical credibility may be linked to the treatment of this film.

1976 was the first time the awards were decided by industry vote (members of various guilds, societies and Actors' Equity), and despite seven nominations, the film failed to receive a single award, up against The Devil's Playground, Caddie and Pure Shit. Even End Play was preferred for the best editing award, while the jury award went to The Devil's Playground. While The Devil's Playground was a worthy winner, the same can't be said for Caddie, and for the winners in a number of other categories.

Picnic received the following nominations: Best Film, sponsored by the Australian Film Commission and The Bulletin (winner, The Devil's Playground, Fred Schepisi) Best Direction, sponsored by Village Theatres (winner, The Devil's Playground, Fred Schepisi) Best Screenplay, sponsored by the Greater Union Organisation (winner, The Devil's Playground, Fred Schepisi) Best Cinematography, sponsored by Kodak (Australasia) (winner, The Devil's Playground, Ian Baker) Best Actress, sponsored by Hoyts Theatres (Helen Morse) (winner, Helen Morse, Caddie) Best Supporting Actor, sponsored by Nissan-Datus Australia (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) (winner, Caddie Drew Forsythe) Best Supporting Actress sponsored by Nissan-Datsun Australia (Ann Lambert (winner, shared between Jackie Weaver and Melissa Jaffer for Caddie) Ironically in 1977, the film was nominated in the BAFTA Awards and at last won one award: Winner, Best Cinematography (Russell Boyd) (nominees included All the President's Men and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Nominated, Best Costume Design (Judith Dorsman) (

winner Moidele Bickel for The Marquise Of O) Nominated, Best Sound Track (Greg Bell, Don Connolly) (winner, Les Wiggins, Clive Winter and Ken Barker for Bugsy Malone) Boyd was also nominated for a Best Cinematography award in the 1976 British Society of Cinematographers awards.

Writer Cliff Green won a 1976 Awgie (Australian Writers' Guild) award for his adaptation of the novel. Director Peter Weir also won the Golden Charybdis, the Grand Prix at the 1976 Taormina International Film Festival. A French poster also credits the film with the Prix d'interprétation Féminine au festival International du Film Fantastique de Paris á l'ensemble des jeunes filles de << Picnic à Hanging Rock>>. Imdb lists the film as winning a Saturn at the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films in 1979 (Best Cinematography, Russell Boyd) and getting a nomination (Best Writing, Cliff Green), but a check of the Academy's official site here , listing past Saturn awards, reveals no mention of Picnic as a prize winner. That's not to say it didn't happen, but it does say something about the capacity of this Academy to keep decent records. Availability Picnic has been made available on DVD in many editions, including its original release as a director's cut edition on Criterion in region one back in November 1998, which was at one time regarded as the definitive edition.

For this site, the definitive DVD edition is now the three disc UK set (with original full length cut), released by Second Sight, displacing the two disc special edition in region four by Umbrella, though featuring many of the same extras. It is the best edition for one main reason - it helps out buffs, enthusiasts and completists anxious to see what director Weir got up to in the editing of the director's cut, by offering a compare and contrast copy of the original 1'50" cut on one disc, alongside the director's 1'42" cut on another. The image for the director's cut is good, and while the visual quality for the original cut is relatively poor, it is better than VHS, and in any case, VHS copies of the original cut are now rare (though it has to be said that there is a richer yellow tinge more in keeping with the yellow tinge of the original print in the region four original cut VHS).

The three disc 'region two' edition includes all of the extras from the Umbrella 2 disc 'region four' edition, including Umbrella's 1'53"16 'making of', A Dream within a Dream, the 25'54" A Recollection - Hanging Rock 1900, a 14'59 interview with Joan Lindsay, a 14'51" audio phone interview with actor Karen Robson who played Irma (now being in the industry her views are interesting to hear), a 5'42" piece on Hanging Rock and Martindale Hall then and now, which is visual fluff, Anthony S. Ingram's 1969 curiousity, the amateurish 3'44" stab at adapting the novel under the title The Day of Saint Valentine, 8'23" of scenes deleted for the director's cut which are visually in good shape, though not the full story on trims and deletions, and a stills and poster galley.

The region four Umbrella two disc edition presents only the director's cut and the extras include the 2004 Umbrella Mark "Not Quite Hollywood" Hartley 1'53"16 documentary, A Dream Within A Dream. There probably should be a law against 'making of' films that run longer than the director's cut, but it does contain an abundance of interesting information. There's also the period 25'54" 'making of' presented by Patricia Lovell, titled A Recollection - Hanging Rock 1900, the 14'59" interview with Joan Lindsay recorded for the Australia Council in 1975, the 'then and now' of the two key locations, various trailers, a stills and poster gallery, and Ingram's curio The Day of Saint Valentine, an amateurish short 3'43" film made in 1969 on the same theme. In terms of visual quality, no doubt some will prefer more recent Blu-ray editions, which have been issued by Umbrella in region four and by Second Sight in the UK. There are detailed reviews of some of the discs at DVD Beaver here , and at Michael D's DVD, here .

Like many early Australian films, Picnic showed off its film grain, and was inclined to a little softness, partly because of the filters deployed in the shoot, and the Blu-ray images show both the delights and the limitations of the film. But cultists and Picnic enthusiasts will want the original version somewhere in their library, as presented in the region 2 three disc edition. It's simply not on for the likes of Weir (complaining that he was forced to release the film in its original form because of pressure from the production company), or Speilberg air-brushing out the guns from E.T. or Lucas doing wholesale make-overs of his Star Wars franchise, to indulge in historical revisionism, without also ensuring the original versions remain available. It's a kind of cultural and aesthetic vandalism roughly akin to what happened when people began to colourise black and white films, and then destroy the originals so that a new period of copyright could begin on the colourised copies without any competition from the originals. Imagine a sculptor heading off to a gallery to hack off an arm or a leg on a sculpture because he'd decided they no longer worked or suited the shape he now had in mind ...

He might have the right to do so, but those who want to remember the work in its original form have a right to sneak off with a copy that preserves their memories intact. The ASO has three clips from the film here , but this almost entirely misses the point for the few Ozmovie enthusiasts, who for reasons of circumstance or youth, have yet to catch up with the show. There's the original version to watch, there's the director's cut, there's the show on Blu-ray, and what point some ten minutes of clips, when there's hours of viewing to be done ... 1. Source: (a) Acquiring the rights: The original novel by Joan Lindsay was published in 1967, and Pat Lovell says she first read the book in 1971. At first she thought making a film from the book a completely insurmountable hurdle, but inspired by Phillip Adams, she secured an option on the rights from the publisher Cheshires in 1973. As Lovell tells it in the 'making of', she saw Weir's contribution Michael to the trilogy 3 to Go , as well as his short horror comedy Homesdale , and decided he was the one to direct the work.

When she gave Weir a copy of the novel, she suspected he was suspicious of her television origins, but on reading the work, Weir said he had a visceral reaction - like electricity running through me. In early 1973, I was inspired by Philip Adams, who said: "Why the hell don't you go ahead and produce it yourself?" So, I took the book around to Peter, who was in the last stages of writing The Cars That Ate Paris , and though he didn't have enough time, he asked me to leave it with him. I suspect he thought I was slightly crazy. Anyway, two months later he rang me and said: "I've got to direct that film. What can you do about it?" So I rang Cheshires and got the holding option. (Cinema Papers March-April 1976) Lovell paid a hundred dollars for three months - I literally said to Cheshires: "All I have in the world is a hundred dollars" - which was quite true - "will you accept it?" And they did. The pair went to Melbourne to see Lady Lindsay, with Weir being briefed by the publisher not to ask Lady Lindsay if the novel was true or not.

He asked the question, and Weir says she responded Young man, I hope you do not ask me that question again. Lindsay hinted that the work was based on fact, but when Weir asked her if the fate of the girls was wide open - did they fall down a hole, were they abducted by aliens? - she replied any of the above. There had been competition for the rights, though Lovell was unaware of it at the time, with another company after the work since 1972. (b) The script: Patricia Lovell: ... part of the option agreement was that I talk to David Williamson, whom Joan had met and adored. But David became over-committed in 1973 and said that he couldn't do it. However, he suggested Cliff Green, and a meeting was arranged between Cliff and Joan. She then agreed that he could write it. You see, I had to have her permission on that. Cliff then completed a first draft which was absolutely spot on. Green said he thought his main job in doing the adaptation was to decide what to leave out.

He thought the book very visual which made it very filmic and easy for him, and he took as its theme the natural environment rejecting the foreign interlopers, almost a refinement of the story, the history of Australia. The book introduces a group of Anglo-Saxons into this utterly alien and timeless environment and makes of the situation a strange combination of horror story, suspense, detective fiction and in some ways even a tender love story. Quite a unique book, and certainly not written to any formula or pattern; it's a novel but at the same time it's a kind of historical-biographical-literary experiment. Green didn't go beyond the book except to visit locations, and resisted the very strong temptation to research the basic story: I really did try to write a literate script and in doing so I've attempted to get some echo of the style of the book. But this, of necessity, is confined mainly to the directions. The dialogue has to be sharp and dramatic; it's impossible to use literary dialogue in this sort of situation and it would be very false to try.

The audience won't read the direction of course, but I would like to think that retaining something of the original style in the script will influence the people involved in the film to work to some extent in this style. (c) The work: Lindsay, who had started out with ambitions as a painter, but then had married a painter and decided to turn to writing, always made much of the mystery of the book and the events, and always proposed that some of it was true and some of it wasn't, that some of it happened, and some of it didn't and that readers had to work out what was true for them. She claimed to have dreamed the contents of her next day's writing the night before ... In the 'making of' Weir contends that Lindsay was possessed in some way when she wrote it - he told the Australian Women's Weekly the same thing back on June 23rd 1976: Joan, Peter believes, was "possessed" when she wrote her haunting tale. "And the story gripped me in the same way, possessed me in the same way." Lindsay herself said that she just sat down and wrote it, seeing it all pass before her eyes.

Helen Morse contends she "dreamt" the book over an intense period of four weeks. Weir maintained the Lindsay line when it came to the truth of the novel. He answered the Weekly's question this way: "Is the story based on fact? I would say it's not literally true. But it is a truth, because people do disappear. My films are very much concerned with this - that what people think is fantasy is fact and the facts so often fantasies - it's all a matter of points of view." In the 'making of' interview, he said much the same thing: It's always been true for me. Perhaps I view things a little differently but the line between truth and fiction is a very blurred line for me. It feels real, it feels true. I know certain aspects are true, quite true, but I've never doubted it for a minute If it didn't happen exactly that way, it might next week (d) Truth or fiction? In actual fact, while Weir is entitled to the creative conceit that truth is arbitrary, there is very little evidence that the film is based on actual events.

There was a rumour that developed that Lindsay had attended a private school in the region, and the story was based on events in the school which had been suppressed, but Lindsay disavows this in the DVD extras, noting that Penguin had published a reference to the private school on their cover, and that this was false. The best the original 'making of' can come up with is a reference to a lost children cairn on the Midland Highway near Daylesford in Victoria, erected in 1967 to mark the disapperance (and death) of three children who went missing 30th June 1867. This story bears almost no resemblance to the story in Picnic at Hanging Rock (details of the cairn here ). If anything, that story bears much more resemblance to another 'lost children' story which in 1972 was turned into a feature film by the Victorian Department of Education titled Lost in the Bush , and telling of the three Duff children who survived for nine days and were eventually found by an Aboriginal black tracker. (Details of the Duff children memorial cairn here ).

This is but one of many accounts of children getting lost in the bush in Australia (the motif also turns up in Heyer's 1954 dramadoc The Back of Beyond ), revealing a European horror at the mysterious 'otherness' of the bush. It suited the film-makers to hint with an opening credit that the story might be true, long before Fargo revived the trick, and to maintain the sense of mystery. With the publishing of many Australian newspapers of the period by Trove , the search for a real inspiration for the story has been made much easier, but as in the past, the hunt has only produced fool's gold. A search of The Age, The Argus and the Woodend Star for February 1900 fails to disclose any reference to people disappearing at Hanging Rock, or anywhere else. Subsequent examination of newspapers covering the period 1897 - 1905 report no lost or missing people at or near Hanging Rock.

(more here ) But maintaining the mystery worked for the film as it had worked for the book, at least until after Lindsay's death in 1984, when the book's publishers unveiled plans to reveal her 'secret ending' to the novel (a chapter 18). By 1988, the book was Penguin's top selling Australian paperback, with sales over 356,000 (it had also sold well internationally). Fortunately for the maintenance of the mystery, the additional chapter revealing The Secret of Hanging Rock did little to destroy the mystique, mainly because little attention was paid to it. The extra chapter was released on St. Valentine's Day in 1987. It turned out that the solution involved a disappointing and garbled mix of time warp, hole in space and Aboriginal dreamtime (there is a wiki for The Secret of Hanging Rock) . Most readers and viewers of the film would probably prefer to remain back with Lindsay and her mystery and her fascination with clocks, especially ones that stop for no reason at a certain time, and with a story that hints at reality but ultimately is without a solution. Penguin published a film tie-in edition for the film's release.

For more details of the many editions of the book, see Trove, here . (Below: film tie-in) Cliff Green's screenplay was published by Cheshire, Melbourne, 1975 as a 112 page large-format book, with large and numerous black and white photographs throughout, provided by David Kynoch, who had been the set photographer for the film. While now rare, it can still be found on the second-hand market. It shouldn't be confused with a later 1987 illustrated edition of the novel which owes nothing to the film. For more details on this edition, see Trove, here . (Below: cover for Cliff Green screenplay release) (e) financing After optioning and script development, it took several years to gather together the production funding. Weir proposed to Lovell that Hal and Jim McElroy join the production to assist Lovell in raising the finance (before The Cars that Ate Paris they'd tried to get finance for a show called Johnny and the Vampires, starring pop singer Johnny Farnham, with Weir directing, and then had formed a good working relationship with Weir during the making of Cars).

Green had already written two or three drafts by the time the McElroys joined the production. They raised several issues, including the level of sensuality within the film, and the fact that the story didn't have an ending (the lack of an ending had also bedevilled Cars, and some would argue that it remains the chief weakness of Picnic, with a slow mo set of step printed images no substitute for either a dramatic resolution or even a properly developed open ending. Weir has said he recognised that the lack of an ending made it an extremely dangerous commercial enterprise). In the meantime, Lovell had an early experience of the catch-22 of dealing with film bureaucrats. The film wasn't knocked back when the application with McElroys' budget was sent to the Australian Film Development Corporation, it was deferred, but in the meantime she had a writer who'd done a draft for $1,500 with the rest on deferral, and no money to pay for the $2,000 deferral. She wanted another $2,000 for another draft, but this was held back until she brought the budget down.

The budget was $442,000, and the AFDC wanted it taken down to $380,000. The eventual budget was $445,000. The difficulties led to a brief parting of the ways between Lovell and the McElroys, and Lovell was forced to raise $3,000 to cover another draft of the script (in the form of a private investment). The McElroys returned, and Picnic Productions was formed in January 1975, with Lovell holding two votes, and the McElroys one each, and Lovell deciding to take an EP credit rather than a producer credit (her solicitor held a non-creative balance of power vote in the company). With these matters settled, the team went to the SAFC and secured an investment, on the basis that there would be shooting in South Australia, with John Graves (brother of American actor Peter) as the executive producer for the SAFC, with a "watching vote". B.E.F. was confirmed as distributor for Australian and New Zealand theatrical. 2.

Production (a) Casting: Peter Weir and Jim McElroy went to London to interview Dominic Guard and the proposed headmistress, Vivien Merchant, Harold Pinter's wife. She accepted and was in Hong Kong in a play when - within about ten days of joining the shoot - she became ill and withdrew. The creative team immediately decided on Rachel Roberts - Weir thinks she might have been on their original short list but unavailable - and luckily she was now free. Lovell described the process in her March-April 1976 Cinema Papers interview: ... there ensued an incredible - and it would have been very funny had it not been so deadly serious - business of trying to ring Rachel's agency in New York from Mintaro, in South Australia on a little wind-up phone with sheep walking past the window. It was organized extremely smoothly and that is entirely due to the McElroys. When she arrived, Roberts immediately refused to wear the wig designed for Merchant - advising that it was considered bad luck in the theatre to wear another actor's wig - and produced her own.

Jim McElroy contends in the 'making of' that she really was the headmistress of Appleyard 24 hours a day, alienating the school girls on and off the screen at the few social events they attended together, and drinking off the screen in the way her character does on it (such that on one occasion she ended up screaming stark naked in the courtyard of an Adelaide motel). So far as casting the girls for the movie, Weir believed that the girls available in Sydney and Melbourne were too sophisticated and knowing, and that girls from Adelaide, where the production eventually located, were more suitable, giving the impression - whether through interests such as craft and music, or through family and community life - as having more in commmon with an earlier era. The casting of Anne Lambert was an odd, on and off affair, with Lambert - who had been recommended by Martin Sharp - at first being offered the role, then being told that the creative team believed they'd made a mistake and were withdrawing the offer, only then to offer her the role again.

The role was briefly offered to Ingrid Mason, who ended up playing Rosamund, but after several weeks of rehearsals, Weir rang up Lambert and asked her to consider returning to the film. Mason was offered the consolation prize of a lesser role, and Pat Lovell persuaded her to accept it. In comparison, the casting of Dominic Guard - who had appeared as a younger actor in Losey's The Go-Between, was a more straightforward matter. Jim McElroy had known the actor after working with him on The Hands of Cormack Joyce, a British picture shot in Australia with Crawfords, and it was generally agreed it was important to have an English actor for the role, and that he was entirely suitable. (b) Filming: DOP Russell Boyd went into David Jones to purchase bridal veil material as a scrim for use in giving the image a soft period feel. The material had something of the grading of a mosquito net. Boyd acknowledges the work of still photographer David Hamilton as an inspiration, and as a way of handling the pubescent soft focus girl stuff. The look that Boyd devised became at first iconic and then cliched with every second television commercial and stills photographer pinching it for their own purposes.

it was Martin Sharp, who had an intimate knowledge of the book, who assisted Weir with the mystical sub-text, the Botticelli angel theme that runs through the story and the visuals, the swan and so on. Sharp, who was billed as a creative consultant, aided with the preparation of Victorian scrap books, and helped fill the backgrounds with period- and character-evoctive details. He was also active in the casting phase, suggesting Robson audition for her role. Weir went so far as to film Anne Lambert semi-nude in a grotto, but the image didn't make the cut. According to Karen Robson (Irma) it was Sharp who found the quote from Edgar Allan Poe - which starts the show - on the piano stool at Martindale Hall one evening. He took it to Weir, suggested it be used, and in due course it was incorporated into the cut. This added to the generally superstitious air which seems to have run through the shoot, with every little odd quirky event adding to the sense of atmosphere and mood.

It was Weir's wife Wendy who put the character Irma in a red dress for her almost horror film "Lord of the Flies" scene, her sexually provocative confrontation with the other girls after her return from the rock, played out in the Temple of Callisthenics (where Sara is sadistically tortured by a posture machine). Robson found doing the scene quite stressful, though the sight of camera operator John Seale donning her clothes to do a roaming POV shot of the other girls released some of the tension. Apparently in rehearsal, the girls recited the nursery rhyme about Oranges and Lemons, the bells of St. Clement's, and forcefully hit the line about "chopping off your head". In the 'making of', Hal McElroy says that the schedule for the production prioritised scenes into A, B and C. The team would spend time and money shooting A scenes, less time on money on B scenes, and get through C scenes as quickly as possible. The picnic scene, for example, was treated as an A scene.

Based on the script, it was originally scheduled for only about a day's filming, but in the actual shoot, it took longer because perfect light on rock only fell, according to Boyd, between 12 and 1.30, with filming taking a week, doing an hour a day, and filling in the rest of the day with other scenes on the rock. Weir used slowed down sound of earthquake rumble to help create eerie atmsophere on the rock. He also used slow motion from the almost imperceptible to the obvious in the visuals to enhance the other worldly mood. The original ending was of Miss Appleyard leaving school in disarray and climbing up the rock, and then being carried away in a stretcher. This was shot, but Weir decided to end on her dressed in her funeral garb with her bags packed, looking off into a spiritual emptiness, with her fate outlined in voice over, as the last shots return, in slow motion, to the girls in their lazy summer moment beneath the rock. This decision led to a certain ambivalence as to the meaning of the end.

A French film critic, for example, made much of one of the girls making a religious gesture at the end, and it had to be explained to him that no, she was just brushing away the flies. Composer Bruce Smeaton still thinks the ending is just a bit too emphemeral, and wanted a little bit more meat. Weir himself admits that certainly I've never made another film without an ending. I got lucky once but I don't think I'd push that luck. Readers will have to chose between claims that actor Christine Schuler's voice was entirely re-voiced by Australian actress Barbara Ann Llewellyn, including the famous scream, a claim made on Llewellyn's website in an article by John Godl, Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Unseen Voices, and Christine Schuler's ongoing insistence, repeated in the 'making of' that it is her voice and that she made the famous scream.

The story of is one of furtive secrecy in post-synching on the part of Peter Weir and hush hush mysterious activity worthy of the rock: “I must admit to being somewhat dumbfounded to hear that the woman who was the visual part of Edith took full credit for the character,” she (Llewellyn) continued, “but maybe Peter never told her the truth and she has somehow convinced herself that my voice was actually her own. I truly thought that Peter would, at some stage, do the honourable thing and let the world know that he had dubbed certain characters in the film but he has continued to conceal the truth, goodness knows why. Considering the amount of time gone by since that secret was created and that Peter did not give credit to the actresses who helped make his film a success, I believe myself relieved of any need to continue the illusion.” Without corroboration from a second source - say Weir or someone involved in the alleged post-synch - the claim can only be treated as a claim.

Lewellyn claims several other actors were involved in revoicing several other cast members, without being certain of the names of the actors or the cast involved, with the article mentioning only Rosalie Fletcher as one possibility as re-voicer and Margaret Nelson as one possible re-voicee (thereby allegedly explaining her refusal to attend reunions or discuss the film). Again without any evidence beyond an allegation, Llewellyn's claims need to be treated with caution, and it should at least be noted that it is disputed by other parties. 3. Release: (a) Period v. Ocker: The film quickly became caught up in what became the great seventies Australian feature film debate, between period films and the need to get real and do gritty urban dramas, the industry at that stage being so small, it seemed necessary to do one or the other, rather than have room for both, and a lot of other styles and genres as well. It became fashionable, as Weir and others in the 'making of' note, for critics, academics and film-makers to line up on either side and hurl mud, either at Ocker sex fests or at pretty chocolate box period design, costumes and scenery.

As Weir notes, the pressure not to do period films was absurd - film-makers should be able to choose whatever colour from the palette they were inclined to - but it's a measure of the immaturity and newness of the Australian revival that the debate took place at all. Proponents of hearty Ocker sex fare mocked the period shows - the likes of Phillip Adams particularly resented Picnic and its success, even though he moved from the first Bazza McKenzie film to making The Getting of Wisdom - and it's a measure of this silliness that the critics either failed to notice or understand the subtle element of eroticism that ran through Picnic, and which still rewards viewing, since the repressed Victorian approach to sex had lingered in Australia long into the 1950s. (b) The lack of an ending: For composer Smeaton, it was the right film at right time, but just as the lack of resolution in the ending didn't work for him, it also posed a serious threat for the film in terms of a release in the United States.

Weir recalls a distributor throwing coffee at screen and complaining about having wasted my time sitting here watching a goddam mystery and there's no goddam solution, I'm not going to buy that ... it's half a film. As noted by Hal McElroy, Americans at the time were generally thought to hate films without closure and their film with Weird, The Last Wave , sold sooner and easier in the United States than Picnic. One distributor told them, We're going to have to revoice all of this, but after their dismal experience with the revoicing of The Cars That Ate Paris they refused to play this game. In the end, the film eventually played the college campus and arthouse circuit very successfully, and it was a success d'estime, and the film still lingers in the American imagination as an image of a certain kind of Australia. (c) The AFI Awards controversy: Amazingly the film didn't win a single award at the 1976 AFI awards, which were dominated by Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground.

While that was a fine and ground-breaking film, in previous years, some arrangement had usually been made to provide a sop to other films worthy of note, but this was the first year when voting was passed over to industry guilds and members. This result generated considerable controversy. Erwin Rado, then director of the Melbourne Film Festival, alleged in a letter to The Age on July 28th 1976 that "Picnic at Hanging Rock … was not given a prize because it was already successfully launched, as one man who should know told me." Whatever the explanation as to how guilds and members voted, there's every likelihood that there was lingering resentment, a touch of tall poppy syndrome, and the sense that Picnic was already a success, so the awards should help out other films still waiting a release. (d) The Garry McDonald Factor: As a piece of trivia, those who recall watching the film at the AFI awards or on its initial release will recall a moment where the audience often burst into unrelated laughter.

In an interview in Cinema Papers, discussing the impact of the film on the way he went about making Mad Max , director George Miller reminded those who saw the original in the cinema in Australia of a curious phenomenon, which didn't harm the film's success but which did make him determined to avoid familiar TV faces on the big screen. Miller: A classic example of this was in Picnic at Hanging Rock, with Gary McDonald. He was cast before Norman Gunston became known, but by the time the film came out he was Norman Gunston. I will never forget sitting in Picnic with a big audience. Everyone was into the film, but the moment that he came on, they jumped up and down and shouted "Norman!", which took the whole audience out of the film for those few moments. McDonald wasn't on the screen long enough to establish himself as anyone other than Norman Gunston. In Mad Max, we were dealing with a futuristic film. So, as a conscious principle, if it was a choice between an unknown and one who was known from a television series or a television commercial, the part would go to the unknown. 4.

The Director's Cut: Response to Weir's decision to issue a director's cut which deleted a substantial amount of the original cut has not been uniformly favourable. Critics such as Roger Ebert weren't particularly fussed, as in Ebert's August 1998 welcoming of the new cut, here , though Ebert seems to think that the reason Weir made the deletions was to discourage notions of a solution to the mystery, when Weir himself said he made the cuts to get more quickly to the climax without distracting side-plots, most notably the distractions involved in the relationship between Dominic Guard's character and Irma (Karen Robson). In the 'making of' EP Pat Lovell and writer Cliff Green line up to approve Weir's actions, and the resulting cut - Lovell claimed it got her to the ending much more quickly and for the first time watching the film she cried - but several of Weir's collaborators weren't so forgiving. Composer Bruce Smeaton provided a contrasting view of the Weir exercise, thinking it a bit odd, and he undercut the excuses Weir deployed - that he'd gone along with the production company and the producers in releasing the original cut.

According to Smeaton: Peter did exactly as he pleased (on the original cut) so presumably it wasn't the film that needed changing, it was that Peter had evolved, and I'm not sure whether you should do that or not. Sometimes it's best to say that, well back then I did this for this reason, I wouldn't do it this way now... ... it depends on the mood you're in. You could say the original version was pretty slow, but it was slow in a way that we liked. Anne Lambert - who had her own issues with the way Weir treated her on set, as an actress who needed to be the role rather than act the role - she clearly fancied herself as an actress, having been the face of Fanta and appeared in several TV soaps - took an even stronger stand: I think when you put something out into the world and somebody buys it or watches it or listens to it or whatever, it becomes theirs and particularly when a long, long time has passed and that's happened over and over and over again.

Somebody might have watched that film, particularly if they loved it, you know, hundreds of times and every scene or moment they have a response to, and in a funny kind of way it wasn't his any more to fiddle about with and certainly not to take things away from people ... One of the special moments that I used to love has gone, I loved Irma's run along the shore of that lake. It used to be for me a very releasing moment and I needed it and it's not there any more... I've spoken to a lot of people who are bitterly upset by the loss of certain moments - the scene where the girls sing Rock of Ages in the chapel and Ingrid in fact cries at the end of the hymn. I think some people needed that, some people wanted that as part of their release from all that kind of turgid building up of stuff, and then they finally get to let down a little in that moment and that's not there. In fact he seems to have taken out two moments of … (exhaling )… release which perhaps has a purpose, I don't know but I just don't know whether it was up to him anymore, you know, it didn't really belong to him anymore.

In a phone interview on the 3 disc DVD, Robson - who went on to a career in the film industry in the United States - proposed that the reasons for the new cut should be taken with a grain of salt, though Weir had phoned her to explain that he had deleted some of her scenes because they were a part of a distracting sub-plot, not because of her performance. She acknowledged she was rather fond of the punt boat scene, which has disappeared completely in the cut-down version. Weir himself in the 'making of' acknowledges the force of these remarks: I do think it's wrong for a director to second guess themselves in directors' cuts, it's not fair to those who liked the picture as it was ... He immediately ignores himself by arguing that the revised cut produced greater emotion and tragedy and clarity without distractions, in the way it should have been and the way I wanted it, and in that sense the result is truly a director's cut. It's also an act of cultural vandalism and hubris, a desire to make his second thoughts the only remaining version of the film, and cast his first thoughts and first release cut to the wind.

Nor is it just a matter of the big scenes listed as deleted in the Second Sight edition. The final step-printed slow motion shots of the schoolgirls at the rock run a good thirty seconds shorter, achieved by the simple expedient of dropping out the first two pairs of girls in the main step motion shot. Now it's understandable why Weir did this - the shot originally attracted criticism from some for being too slow-moving and ponderous. But what of those who liked it? If Weir had genuinely been interested in being fair to the film's followers and to his new vision, he would have presented the original cut fully restored, and alongside it his revised cut, as a point of comparison. Instead he attempted to banish the original cut to the wilderness, which is why viewers who remember the original work will be pleased that it is now available on DVD, albeit in a version which lacks visual polish compared to the mastering provided to Weir's revised cut. 5. After the landmark: Picnic at Hanging Rock was a watershed moment for the industry, to the chagrin of Ocker lovers with a dislike of period films. It's easy to sneer at period chocolate boxes, but what to say when the public enthusiastically pays for the chocolate box?

Once the film's initial impact had faded, the key players in the creative team faced different career paths. EP Lovell had originally worked as a compere on the children's program Mr. Squiggle, as a reporter on the current affairs show Today for the Seven network, and as an actress in shows such as Skippy and Homicide. She never managed to produce another film of the substance and impact of Picnic, and expressed concern that her role as initiating producer was sometimes over-looked, especially as the film is now usually attributed to Peter Weir, who went on to a very successful career as a director in Australia and the United States. She would do Break of Day and Summerfield with Cliff Green, but it was another venture with Weir, Gallipoli , that would see a return to form, followed by Monkey Grip in 1982 and the relatively disappointing telemovie The Perfectionist in 1987. She experienced many difficulties, but perhaps none greater than the dissolution of her company with Mel Gibson, Lovell Gibson, in 1988 before a single picture was made. She once wrote: Quite ironic, really, Lovell Gibson began and ended with weapons lethal.

She worked as the head of production at the Australian Film TV and Radio School between 1996 and 2003. She died in January 2013, has a wiki here , and an obituary on the 4th February 2013 at the Sydney Morning Herald can be found here . The McElroys went over to television, and eventually a fierce dispute between them would see a parting of the ways. Writer Cliff Green, who adapted the book, had previously attracted attention for a quartet of plays titled Marion, and broadcast on the ABC in 1974, which featured a young schoolteacher played by Helen Morse working in a small country town. Green had been a staff writer for Crawfords on shows such as Homicide and Matlock Police, and later worked as a freelance writer on many ABC series, such as Rush and the Norman Lindsay Festival, but he never managed to be involved with neither Break of Day , nor Summerfield attracting significant critical praise of the kind given to Picnic. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Film) - TV Tropes Picnic at Hanging Rock You need to login to do this.

Get Known if you don't have an account Share Film / Picnic at Hanging Rock × WMG A classic Australian mystery/drama film, released in 1975 and directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1900 and based on the novel by Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock tells the story of an ill-fated outing undertaken by Australian schoolgirls enrolled at an exclusive finishing school. Students of Appleyard College are permitted to spend Valentine's Day at Hanging Rock, collecting information for an essay to be written upon their return. After being granted permission by their French mistress, Miranda, Marion, Irma and Edith set off to explore the upper slopes of the rock. Wandering through the maze-like tunnels, Edith discovers that the others appear to have fallen into a trance; the trio have, as one, removed their shoes and stockings, and proceed to drift into another narrow passage. Fearful, Edith runs back to fetch help, Mathematics mistress Miss McCraw heading up to fetch them. However, teacher and students disappear without a trace. The film features visually hypnotic photography by Oscar winner Russel Boyd and a haunting score by Bruce Smeaton, and established Weir as a major international talent.

This film provides examples of: In the deleted scenes from the ending the ghost of Sara appears - she could be a vengeful spirit or Mrs Appleyard's hallucination. Not to mention the central mystery, which is never solved: what the hell happened to the missing girls and their teacher? Ambiguously Jewish : Irma, who's also far the richest of her peers, is a Rothschild on her mother's side and described as a dark-haired beauty - in a school of blondes - with dark eyes and typical black curly hair. Animal Motifs : In Michael's dreams Miranda is represented by a swan. Insects also appear at several key points, from the ants devouring the leftover Valentine's cake to the praying mantis seen after Sara's suicide. Based on a Great Big Lie : It's almost guaranteed that anytime the film/book is brought up/read/watched, someone's going to claim it actually happened. It didn't. Being Watched : The narration in the book suggests the picnickers are being watched by Hanging Rock itself. The film replicates this idea with looming shots of the rock. Parts of the rock actually seem to resemble faces.

Blade-of-Grass Cut : Close-ups of the ants and other bugs crawling all over the food that the girls have brought to the picnic. Boarding School : Appleyard College, a girls' finishing school. Bury Your Gays : Sara, who clearly was in love with beautiful Miranda, flings herself out a window of the college. Class Trip : The titular picnic at Hanging Rock. Clock King : Mrs. Appleyard is associated with clocks and watches throughout. Note also that at Hanging Rock, everyone's watches stop. Covert Pervert : When Albert is making comments about the girls: Michael: I'd rather you didn't say crude things like that, Albert. Albert: I say the crude things; you just think them. Cultural Cringe : The whole point of the boarding school is to train the girls to behave like proper English ladies. Dan Browned : Supposed quotations from the "actual" police reports of the time are referenced in the novel, which went unquestioned by many readers. Don't Go in the Woods : A teacher and group of students venture into the Australian wilderness on a picnic. Something out there claims the girls one by one, and they're never seen again. Fat Girl : Edith.

Of the four girls that go climbing, the three pretty ones are somehow absorbed by Hanging Rock, while Edith is immune. Michael and Irma on their Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date : Irma: The summer will soon be over. Michael: Just as well, probably. I don't think this punt will be safe enough to take out again. Irma: It's sad, really. Like someone died. Late in the movie Mrs. Appleyard realizes, to her own annoyance, how much she had come to rely on Ms. McCraw and her "masculine intellect". Michael and Albert. They go to Queensland together at the end of the book. I Need a Freaking Drink : Mrs. Appleyard throws one back after Miss Lumley hands in her resignation. I Will Find You : Michael is obsessed with finding the girls, particularly Miranda. Jerkass : Mrs. Appleyard, who cares little for the children. Miss Lumley, who ties Sara against a wall to correct her posture (although on Mrs. Appleyard's orders, and she seems to feel bad about it). Karmic Death : Mrs. Appleyard and, in the novel, Miss Lumley.

Kick Them While They Are Down : Sara is badly depressed after Miranda's disappearance, so Mrs. Appleyard decides that now would be a good time to send her back to the orphanage. Lady in Red : Irma when she last visits the school. Whatever happens at Hanging Rock seems to have something to do with the girls' blooming sexuality. Irma, the only one of the four to be found, wears a scarlet dress upon her return, in contrast to the drab outfits of the girls that study there. Long Lost Sibling : Sara and Albert. They both come from the Ballarat orphanage, but Albert aged out of the system and Sara (almost 10 years younger than yer brother) was eventually adopted by a rich man. Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane : In the book, odd things happen with time during the picnic. No one's watch works correctly. Things take longer than they should or happen much more quickly than seems possible. None of it is so far out there that it is unrealistic, but it is just weird enough for the audience to consider the possibility that the supernatural may have been involved in the girls' disappearance. This is pushed firmly into supernatural territory by The Secret of Hanging Rock, as summarized here .

Never Found the Body : The two girls and the teacher who disappeared at the rock are never found. Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date : Michael and Irma have one; it doesn't go well. The scene was deleted in the Re Cut . One Degree of Separation : Sara and Albert are long-lost siblings, but never learn of each other's presence in Woodend. If Sara had been allowed to go to the picnic, they probably would have been reunited. One-Gender School : Mrs Appleyard's College for Young Ladies. Justified in that it's 1900 and upper-class schools were almost always single-gender. One Name Only : All other major characters have surnames, but Miranda's is noticeably avoided in the book. The film uses "Miranda St Clare" on her MISSING poster . Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping : In-universe. When Sara talks about her time in the orphanage, her posh, cultivated accent slips into something more distinctly Australian. Out-of-Character Alert : In the book, Mlle de Poitiers realises Sara is in danger because she never would have left Miranda's portrait behind.

Police Are Useless : While Sergeant Bumpher and his deputies provide a very thorough investigation, ultimately they're as baffled as anyone about the disappearances. Re Cut : Weir's director's cut removes a few scenes. (Sadly, only the director's cut is available in America, one of the few times The Criterion Collection has really dropped the ball. Many viewers find the original theatrical cut to be superior. There is a UK DVD available with both versions of the film.) Revised Ending : The novel's final chapter was deleted, then published separately in 1987 as The Secret of Hanging Rock. Rescue Romance : Most of people in town assume that is what's going on between Michael and Irma, but since he was really looking for Miranda instead, it doesn't pan out. Romantic Two-Girl Friendship : The film opens with the schoolgirls exchanging passionate valentines. Sara has a very obvious crush on Miranda. Same Language Dub : The girl visually portraying Edith was not a professional actress but she looked exactly as the director wanted the character of Edith to look. Her lines were dubbed in post.

Scare Chord : When Albert finds Michael catatonic after staying overnight on the rock, we get a scare chord which sounds like a bird call. Secret Relationship : Minnie and Tom are carrying on an affair and are married in the epilogue. Sibling Yin-Yang : Sarah is sensitive and cultured while Albert is hot blooded and barely manages to write. Justified because Sarah become the ward of a richman who paid for her education while Albert spent his childhood as a Street Urchin until being old enough to get a job. "If the bloody cop and the bloody abo tracker and the bloody dog can't find 'em, well, no one bloody can." Situational Sexuality : The girls don't have any outlet for their burgeoning feelings except each other. Sole Survivor : Irma is found, but has no memory of what happened on the rock. Thousand-Yard Stare : Michael is in shock when Albert finds him after he stayed overnight at the rock. Trail of Bread Crumbs : Michael leaves paper tags in the bushes as he climbs the rock.

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975) December 5th, 2006 · 5 Comments “On Saturday 14th February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College picnicked at Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the afternoon several members of the party disappeared without a trace.” After this mesmerizing title card, we’re introduced to several teenage girls who live a pastoral, 19th century existence in the Australian bush. Miranda (Anne Lambert) is the class beauty, so beguiling that the school’s young teacher of deportment (Helen Morse) compares her to a Botticelli angel. Orphaned Sara (Margaret Nelson) has developed an attachment to Miranda, but the school’s dry headmistress Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) has decided to keep Sara from participating in a class field trip to the mysterious Hanging Rock. Though warned that the area is dangerous – with its snakes and biting ants – it doesn’t seem that way at first. An English family, their teenage nephew and their young valet enjoy the afternoon lazing nearby.

The schoolgirls nap on the rocks, read poetry and the only thing out of the ordinary is the watch of their chaperone, which has stopped. Sara and her friends Edith, Irma and Marion set off to explore Hanging Rock. They wind higher and move through tight passages, and the rock seems to breathe as a living thing. Marion complains that she’s tired, but the others remove their shoes and without saying a word, disappear deeper into the rock. Marion starts screaming and takes off running. This is the last anyone sees of the three girls, as well as their chaperone. Police and citizens of the nearby town mount a search, but no trace of the missing girls is found. Marion later remembers their chaperone passing her on the trail without her dress on, but everyone at Hanging Rock appears at a loss to remember or clearly explain what happened. Police suspect the Englishman after he gives contradictory statements to authorities about when he last saw the girls. Haunted by the disappearance, he and the valet go back up onto the rock to look for them. Back at the school, Mrs. Appleyard and Sara also spiral into depression after the disappearances.

Directed by Peter Weir and adapted by Cliff Green from the 1970 novel by Joan Lindsay, Picnic At Hanging Rock is entirely fictional, though many readers and viewers have assumed the disappearances actually happened. Neither Lindsay nor the filmmakers did much to dispel the myth, and the movie version became the first Australian film to reach an international audience. This reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Both are extremely uneasy films that defy categorization or patience. Anyone who hated the Cruise-Kidman film will not stand for this either, although the 103 minute running time makes it much easier to sit through. After I thought about this later, I liked it, as opposed to when I had to sit down and actually watch it. The movie starts off with Miranda quoting Edgar Allan Poe, and with a strange Alice In Wonderland feel, the film drifts further and further away from reality. Director of photography Russell Boyd – who later won an Academy Award for Weir’s Master and Commander – is architect of the film’s ethereal look, which is so superlative, it looks like it could have been shot last year.

The problem is that by going down the road of art film, Picnic At Hanging Rock didn’t have characters I cared about. There is no clear point of view here. Weir seems to want us to be vested in Miranda, Sara and Mrs. Appleby at various points, but since this is all a dream, I never cared. I spent the time admiring the lighting and trying to figure out what was going on. Weir went on to direct Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society, Green Card and The Truman Show, films about outcasts venturing to places where they are not welcomed. This one shares that theme and could spearhead a thick term paper on the subject. I also recommend it for fans of Peter Weir, or people who don’t mind the absence of a coherent narrative.

Question: What is the title of the 1975 film in which a party of schoolgirls are on a day  out on St Valentine’s Day in 1900 where three girls and their teacher go missing?
Answer: Picnic at Hanging Rock