Rent Picnic at Hanging Rock on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Joan Lindsay (novel), Cliff Green (screenplay)
Directed by: Peter Weir
Starring: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
During a rural summer picnic, three students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
Verdict
This is similar to a horror movie, but it relies completely on mood. It's a feat few others movies do this well. I wouldn't have imagined a horror movie without an antagonist could work so well. We don't know what happened and neither do the characters. Without explanations, the viewer has to supply an answer. This has to be a metaphor. There's plenty that would support that, and the atmosphere of this movie creates such a great foundation.
Watch it.
Review
As advertised, a girls' school has a picnic at a geological marvel, Hanging Rock. This is the catalyst to the plot, and there's something different about this place. When they enter the area, we hear the ominous birds. One of the girls muses, "we're the only living creatures here." I could only wonder, what is this? They spout ambiguous philosophy, talk of beginnings and ends and purposes. This is so strange, it's like they're in a trance.
This is a horror movie with such low stakes. We haven't seen an antagonist. It's just this mountain that seems to mesmerize people. It's the lack of explanation that makes this so curious. The girls disappear and we never find out what happened. They seemingly just vanish.
The obvious question becomes, is this a metaphor? These girls attend a strict school. We see the headmaster, Appleyard dressed in dark clothes in contrast with students dressed in white.
Appleyard is strict, going beyond discipline with Sarah, who is barred from attending the picnic. The sub-theme of this movie is control.The girls at the picnic finally have a bit of
freedom, granted permission to explore Hanging Rock and they vanish completely. An obvious metaphor is them ascending the mountain. That could mean they're growing up and no longer have the need for school, becoming women.
We don't know what happens, but we see the effects on the
people left behind. Appleyard's discipline with Sarah becomes abuse. Is Appleyard exploiting her control over Sarah as a way to regain losing four students? Appleyard's world is crumbling because of this event. To combat that she takes our her frustration on Sarah. Since the movie provides no information as to what happened, it's easy to come up with many theories. With the final scenes it's difficult not to wonder what it all means, but it's clear it's a literal and figurative death. In the case of the girls that vanished and Sarah, they no longer need Appleyard and she knows that.
The community searches for the girls to no avail. The rocks do look kind of like faces. I wondered if there was an answer in that thought, but there's not. The cops don't go up the mountain. I wasn't sure if that was intentional or to provide for a big reveal later.
Two boys search for the girls, and again we see this mountain have an affect on people. It only seems to affect younger people, which again lends this to a metaphor of growing up. This is a dreamlike movie that asks the viewer to come up with theories while creating a rich atmosphere. It's one of those movies you don't just watch, but experience.
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