Picnic at Hanging Rock

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Film Description

On Saturday 14th February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College took a trip to Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the idyllic sun-drenched afternoon some of the party set off alone and having climbed higher stopped to rest and fell asleep. They awoke as though still in a dream and silently ventured further through a passage in the imposing rock face. Some of the girls were never seen again.

The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker is a critically acclaimed classic of Australian cinema. With BAFTA-winning photography and a memorably haunting score, Picnic at Hanging Rock remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.

Film Information

DVD Extras

Enhanced for WideScreen TVBonus footage; Deleted scenes; Interviews (Joan Lindsay (Author)); Other documentaries (Director's Cut and Original Version; 'A Dream Within a Dream'; 'A Recollection: Hanging Rock 1900'; 'Hanging Rock and Martindale Hall: Then and Now'; 'The Day of St Valentine'); Image gallery

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Reviews & Articles

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Review by Julian Upton on 3rd June 2008

On a day trip from their austere private academy to a local beauty spot in the summer of 1900, three schoolgirls and a teacher vanish without trace amidst the dark alcoves of Hanging Rock. After a week, one girl reappears unexpectedly, but has no recollection of the event; attempts to find the others lead to nothing.

Picnic... stays true to the overriding theme that dominated Australian new wave films: the collision of prim, white society with the unfathomable, unforgiving force of the land, and here Weir effectively channels the strength and mysticism of the natural world through the girls’ burgeoning sexuality. Haunting and sensual, the puzzle of Hanging Rock remains as enigmatic as ever. This definitive package features both the director's cut and the original, longer theatrical version of this masterful film.

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Review by Howard Schuman on 27th May 2003

According to Loraine Mafi Williams, an Aboriginal shaman, "There are places all over Australia to avoid. These we call "Sacred Sites and they are sacred in the hope that white people will leave them alone…." One of these places to avoid may be Hanging Rock, an imposing natural rock formation about 75 kilometers north of Melbourne. This is the setting for the beautiful 1975 film by Peter Weir, Picnic at Hanging Rock voted No 1 of the Top 10 Australian films of all time in a 1995 centenary of Australian cinema. Using Gheorghe Zamfir’s pan flute and Bruce Smeaton's original score as a background, the film resonates with a sense of the mystical and timeless.

Three girls and a teacher at a rigid Victorian boarding school for teenage girls vanish without a trace during a school excursion to Hanging Rock National Park on St. Valentine's Day in 1900. The film does not concentrate on the investigation into the disappearance but on the psychological ramifications for the survivors. As the girls visit the hidden passages and odd formations, Weir and cinematographer Russell Boyd create an otherworldly atmosphere and a strange sense of foreboding. As they walk, they shed parts of their clothing and, inexplicably move in single file toward the top of the rock as if being controlled by an external force. The mystery remains but the effect of the girl's disappearance is to disrupt the equilibrium of the school and hasten the crumbling of the existing social order. Beyond that it's anyone's guess and this haunting film will definitely keep you guessing long into the night.

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This film is part of the following Film Collections

Best World Cinema Horror Films

Including: A Tale of Two Sisters, Audition, Brotherhood Of The Wolf, Cronos, Cube, Dans Ma Peau, Dark Water, Funny Games (1997), Hour Of The Wolf, Into The Mirror.

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