Picnic at Hanging Rock

This is a very pretty movie--both the cinematography and music are well done (though the frequent use of pan pipes was an unusual choice and seemed a bit odd for an Australian film). And, the way the story was portrayed, it really did a good job of making you believe this was a true story and not fictional (which it is). So why isn't my score quite as high as other reviews? Well, there just isn't a whole lot of story here and the pacing, at times, is a little too slow and drawn out for my taste. It seems that since it isn't based on a true story, they could have interjected a little more suspense or mystery--especially in hashing out what occurred to Sara at the end of the picture. Still, it is very well made and quite unusual. All in all, a very good film--particularly the haunting score played by Zamfir.

The unknown is always a bit mystifying and even terrifying, but in a fictional story we do like to have satisfying endings to any riddle or any story mixing the supernatural with reason. Here we have a dreamlike exercise that weaves a tale of Victorian schoolgirls, circa 1900, who disappear after a school picnic on a sunny day near Hanging Rock. That's the story in a nutshell. Before they disappear without explanation, we see the girls leading rather repressed lives without really getting to know any of them. The disappearance is something the whole story seems to be building toward, because there's an air of dread and mystery about Hanging Rock that makes the viewer feel the conclusion will reveal something--but it never does. The ambiguity remains right up until the final moment. Summing up: Moody, atmospheric, but rather hollow at the core and some will simply find it a pretentious bore.

This Peter Weir drama is so languid and low-keyed, art-house lovers are always tempted to pass it on as an automatic masterpiece (witness the 1,000+ people on this board who gave it a 10). Plot concerns three turn-of-the-century schoolgirls who disappear along with their teacher while on a field trip with their class in the Australian Outback. Film takes a very odd approach: it wants the mystery to be unexplainable, yet all the while drops little clues along the way. It has a sinister atmosphere that eventually gives way to irritation because nothing is ever done with the trappings of the premise. It's a striking film visually but not verbally, as the line-readings of the young girls are rather monotonous (possibly on purpose). Weir shows a great gift for visual communication, however his narrative suffers in the process. As a result, that beautiful, haunting final shot ends up not meaning much and "Picnic At Hanging Rock" leaves its audience swatting at red herrings. **1/2 from ****

In Peter Weir's film, "Picnic at Hanging Rock", a party of upper class schoolgirls and their teacher go missing. Among the vanished is Miranda, an artistic, angelic, sapphic and telepathic young woman. The film offers no explanations but concentrates on the psychological effect of Miranda's departure on her erstwhile companions. But this is not a strictly realistic film either: with a stylised, dream-like aesthetic, one imagines it as the sort of film Miranda herself would have enjoyed. In form it resembles Antonioni's L'Avventurra, though less subtle and (thankfully) also less boring. But when everything about the missing girls (not just their disappearance) is left beautiful and mysterious, a hole inevitably opens up in the middle of the film. A little more humanity, and a little less divinity, in their portrayal might have made it possible to care about their loss.