(Peter Weir, 1975)
(essay by Troy)
Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock opens with a shot of the 500-foot tall volcanic Hanging Rock, fog slowly lifting from its base, appearing like an alien monolith rising out of the earth. Taking place on Valentine’s Day circa 1900, we are soon introduced to the students of Mrs. Appleyard’s School for Girls in soft-focus golden hues, idealized visions of Victorian age femininity and beauty, shown amidst Zamfir’s ethereal pan flute and whispered poems. One of these girls is the beautiful Miranda, full of gloomy portent and as she ominously tells her roommate Sara that she’ll “not be around long” and that “”everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.” These opening shots contrast the harsh exteriors of the Rock with the glowing innocence of the girls, providing us with the image of Miranda as the perfection of femininity (a teacher of hers likens her to a “Botticelli Angel”), almost otherworldly in the way she carries herself and seems to have an understanding of what lies ahead.
The girls of the school embark on a daytrip to Hanging Rock, it’s presence looming over all of them, bigger than life (as one of the girl’s ominously remarks “It’s been waiting a million years, just for us”). Weir inserts numerous POV shots from the perspective of the rock, giving a feeling that it is peering back at the girls (this is also accomplished via several low-angle shots looking up at the dizzying heights of the rock). Other creatures seem to be fearful of Hanging Rock — birds fly away and the horses rear back as they enter its shadow. Upon arrival four of the girls, Miranda, Marion, Irma, and Edith decide to explore the Rock, almost as if magnetically drawn to it. The music and camera lend a hypnotic airiness that signifies something uncanny is afoot, not necessarily evil, but certainly alien. Primordial sounds seem to emanate from the Rock, attracting the girls to come closer. They peer into each womb-like crevice and ascend its peaks, Weir again filming the rock crags such that they appear to take on human facial characteristics, a stoic entity that cannot be understood.
As they reach the top, spinning around in the sun, DP Russell Boyd’s hazy, gauzy camera achieves its full effect, the music reaches its zenith, and all but Edith remove their stockings and shoes. Then, in a final haunting and slow-motion climb, the three girls disappear without a trace, awash in a trance-like aura of compliance and perhaps even transcendence at whatever lies ahead for them. Edith, hysterical, chooses to not follow them and runs back to the rest of her class, wherein we find out that one of the teachers, Miss McCraw is also missing (later, Edith will profess to having seen her climbing up the rock as she was descending, dressed only in her underwear). The police are called in and a search commences, but no signs of the girls are found.
While of course there is the tragedy inherent in the missing girls, the film spends more time on the devastating aftermath, showing how this disappearance begets obsession, madness, hysteria, and further death. Without diving in to each individual storyline, those who attempt to search out the meaning and reason for the disappearance are driven to extremes by the lack of answers. When Irma, is later found in plain sight at Hanging Rock, with no signs of foul play apparent she is unable to relay any additional information, further frustrating and conflicting the people of the town. It all leads to a finale that sees us left with a man who is haunted by Miranda’s ghost, another man who unknowingly loses his sister, gradual hysteria throughout the school that leads to its eventual shutdown, a homicide, and a probably suicide at the site of the rock (the person is “believed” to have fallen while attempting to climb the Rock). The inability to deal with the loss of these girls effectively drives the town mad.
Weir manages to put a distinctly Australian viewpoint into the standard horror conventions. I particularly like how Peter Hutchings puts it, that the film aims to provide “a peculiarly Australian sense of the apocalypse.” Most of this stems from the location and how it plays towards the distinctly Australian feelings about their natural surroundings. This relationship is perhaps a little more on display in Weir’s next film, The Last Wave, but that underlying sense of mystery, awe, and anguish that comes from nature is located at the core of this film as well.
Not being Australian myself, I point to two native reviewers to help provide some clue as to why this connection with nature is so pivotal to the underlying dread that permeates throughout the film. As Roderick Heath so elegantly puts it in his definitive review of the film, Picnic At Hanging Rock “successfully defined the latent unease that has always rested beneath Australians and their sense of their own nation’s landscape and the world in general, that is, a catastrophic sense of nature and paranoia about a continent that promised so much bounty and proved to be little more than a great desert with relatively small regions of fecund earth.” Author Neil Rattigan goes on to say that “there is also a hidden side to the cultural perception of the bush; a place of primeval terror, implacably hostile to human existence. That is why Picnic at Hanging Rock is so successful. It does not attempt to locate the supernatural malevolence of the bush in comprehensible fears — The how and why are not merely inexplicable; they don’t have to be explained.”
So, what does it all add up to? Theories abound: Is it a deeper look at some sort of conflict, whether that be between man/nature, rich/poor, or colonist/native with the girls acting as a sacrifice? Is this all about the horrors of repressed sexuality with the phallic rocks and the stripping of the garments being symbolic of the girls having some sort of sexual awakening? Have the girls who choose to enter the Rock and disappear transcended this life, achieving some form of angelic enlightenment that escapes those they leave behind? Or is it nothing more than a tragic look at innocence lost? Weir refuses to give a solid explanation, letting any or all of these have some sort of credence.
In the end though, searching for a meaning here is akin to searching for the lost girls. Perhaps nothing is more haunting and horrifying than that unnerving lack of a satisfying resolution to a mysterious occurrence. We crave closure to something that we can’t understand and not getting that closure is a doorway to hysteria and madness. Our senses are scarred with the haunting feeling of seeing the girls for that final time, wordlessly turning their backs to us and walking to somewhere unknown. They are gone without a trace, an empty feeling that gets at the elemental basis of horror. The unsettling truth is that the disappearance of the four women is always going to be left unresolved, vague, and enigmatic. Fear arises from not knowing and in having no one to blame for the loss of the girls. Weir’s film provides no answers and nothing for us to align our outrage against, just the terror of the unknown and images of ghosts that linger in our minds.
(See more screencaps at Troy’s blog, here)
(this film appeared on Troy’s list at #13, Jamie’s at #16, and Kevin’s at #44)
“So, what does it all add up to? Theories abound: Is it a deeper look at some sort of conflict, whether that be between man/nature, rich/poor, or colonist/native with the girls acting as a sacrifice? Is this all about the horrors of repressed sexuality with the phallic rocks and the stripping of the garments being symbolic of the girls having some sort of sexual awakening? Have the girls who choose to enter the Rock and disappear transcended this life, achieving some form of angelic enlightenment that escapes those they leave behind? Or is it nothing more than a tragic look at innocence lost? Weir refuses to give a solid explanation, letting any or all of these have some sort of credence.”
Superb.
It’s all these things of course and so much more, which is what makes the film so fantastic. I’ve always loved that it courts a supernatural underpinning, but then presents some of the girls returning, and a guy going to save then and also returning leading us to believe that whatever happen could be explained and a phony ‘hocus pocus’ explanation could be avoided. Of course, the era in question is also just taking its initial baby steps out of these explanations as well due to science’s growing influence, adding even more weight to the proceedings.
Then there’s a man who’s willing to risk death, just to follow an image of a girl he caught in a glimpse as she turned her shoulder jumping over a creek. Isn’t that the power of art? (sometimes unhealthy) Obsession towards the short glimpses of beauty (that are both rear and sometimes just imagined) we encounter during our short lives.
I saw it for the first time for this countdown… and I wonder if Troy and Kevin always considered this Horror. I recall in one of the earliest emails when I asked them to take part in this, I said something like ‘I want the countdown to be mainstream, obscure, extreme, art and trash all sitting side by side. I want some creepy films that many don’t consider Horror to be included like FACE OF ANOTHER and PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK’. I wonder if my planting the seed got it included, or if you guys always considered it Horror. Either way, it’s cool that it’s here, I’m just curious about how you guys initially came across this glorious film.
I always want my favorite film makers to take a stab at Horror, and since I’m such a large Malick fan I’ve always wanted him to try Horror… I suppose if he never does this would do.
Thanks, Jamie.
I have actually always considered this a horror movie, mostly because I was told it was before I had ever seen it (by Kevin and by the Criterion description of the film), and thus in my first viewing, in preparation for this countdown, I viewed it from that perspective.
Now, on my first viewing I loved the first 40 minutes and the haunting sensation there, but found myself lost in that latter hour, likely because my expectations told me that there would be more exploration into the whys and hows of what happened on the Rock. Anyways, a day went by and that lack of explanation continued to bother me, so I rewatched and it hit me at how that lack of explanations IS the horror and that completely drives the last hour and this became a simply perfect film for me.
Your comment points out a couple of things that I cut from my review simply because I couldn’t find a clean way to get them in there without adding another 1000 words 🙂
Miss McCraw’s reading of the geometry book and fascination with the geological aspects of the Rock, along with the stopping of the clocks all add a certain mystical scientific element to things. I’m not quite sure how this adds to the atmosphere…but it does. There’s just an underlying mysticism to that subtle connection between the use of science in trying to understand and control the unknown.
“Isn’t that the power of art? (sometimes unhealthy) Obsession towards the short glimpses of beauty (that are both rear and sometimes just imagined) we encounter during our short lives.”
I love, love, love that reading of the film — Weir certainly points to that with Miranda and how she is portrayed. Great stuff Jamie.
“(that are both rear and sometimes just imagined)”
should obviously be “(that are both Near and sometimes just imagined)”
of course that dude probably liked her posterior too…
This appears to be yet another Troy Olson masterpiece of writing, but as I’m occupied at school at the moment I won’t be able to return till after 3:00 or so.
I would have never fathomed this film as being considered for the horror poll, but it makes sense.
What do I think of the film?
It’s quite simply the greatest Australian film of all-time. I adore it.
The one recent film that came to mind while watching this was THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, which strikes a similarly ambient tone (though much more Americanized and modern) in looking at the mysteries of youthful innocence, love, and death. It’s not on the level of Weir’s film, nor would I consider it a horror film (the reason for the girls’ suicides is haunting, but not in the realm of the mystical), but I wonder if Sophia Coppola is a fan of PICNIC.
Yeah, I agree with this. And I’ve read that Sophia had this film in mind when she made ‘Virgin Suicides’ (that’s actually how I first discovered the film). Sophia clearly also sees the lesbian subtext that you briefly touch on.
Another film that works on these level(s) is THE PIANO, which I feel somewhat scared while I watch too, especially those moments that bookend that films start and conclusion. Holly Hunter’s character speaks in poem like verses as the piano drops into the water. THE PIANO is one of my favorite films to be made in my lifetime, I adore it.
Yeah, THE PIANO does work in much the same way, doesn’t it. Good call.
Yup. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is definitely a good contemporary version of Weir’s masterpiece. I also really love the odd THE LAST WAVE as another great early Weir film.
This countdown has produced your best work to date, Troy. As the Sklars would now say: “Boom!”
Thanks brother, however I still prefer “Folks!”
The despair and uncertainty that pervades this film like a mist hanging over the memories of our youth is so thick in this film that you wanna scream. I went to bat praising TROYS review of CAT PEOPLE yesterday but I should have stayed silent with the superlatives as he has bested himself with this, his finest piece in the count so far. The wording and structure are almost poetic and I was gripped and intriqued with his written take on this film that is not easy to derscribe. Absolutely this is horror, and one of the best of its decade. Damn, I should have seen this coming. If JAMIE planted the seed then Troy nurtured it to full bloom. My favorite essay on the count thus far!
Thanks, Dennis. If any film is going to bring out my poetic side, it would be this one, so I’m glad that came out. Sometimes I have to struggle to get a unifying theme for one of these reviews, but that last paragraph felt pretty organic as I wrote it (though it did begin with about 3x the content that I felt the need to pare down, lest it start worming its way into the realm of purple prose).
Anyways, I’m confident that my final piece for this countdown, which is the #1 selection, won’t come anywhere near this due to the format I’m using on it, so you probably won’t need to adjust your opinion on my best piece anymore 🙂
If it’s the film I’m thinking it is, you might really wanna take a days rest, play with your daughter for a while and clear your head before you start tapping away…
He-he…
Uncle ALFRED would expect nothing less….
😉
After reading Troy’s review, I can’t see my having the arrogance to ever pen another film review.
As an Australian, I am overwhelmed at how insightful this essay is.
Australians live predominantly on the verdant coast and most of us live overwhelmingly urban lives in big cities. The perceptions of Heath and Rattigan while valid do not resonate in the suburbs. Moreover, historically white Australians have exploited the bush not celebrated its mystery. The true custodians of the land, Aboriginal Australians, have been decimated and remain shamefully destitute in shanty-towns: there is no mystery only squalor and alienation.
Wow, thanks so much Tony. I found the “Australian-ness” of the film to be such an intriguing factor, which seems to be true of many of the more revered films from your country that make it to the States.
Your point on that exploitation is a good one and sadly one that is all too familiar in the US or any other colonized country as well. PICNIC can certainly be read as pointing at those themes, but Weir makes them explicit in THE LAST WAVE, another great film of his (that I couldn’t find room for on my list).
I couldn’t agree with you more Tony! This is probably Troy’s greatest review, even with some other essays pushing close. It’s descriptive, vivid and beautifully in tune with the purpose of it’s inclusion here – magnificently validating it as a “horror” film. This is the ultimate accomplishment.
The Australian perceptions are a special treat to enhance Troy’s piece even further, methinks.
But let’s not sell yourself short either! Ha! Your work has been A + over the past five or six months as many authors and historians have attested at FilmsNoir.net!
I think I said it was brilliant stuff too…
I would like to join the chorus of kudos and also say that this is my fave review of Troy’s so far. Great, great stuff as you do a fantastic job conveying the haunting beauty (and horror) of this otherworldly film. You write:
“Then, in a final haunting and slow-motion climb, the three girls disappear without a trace, awash in a trance-like aura of compliance and perhaps even transcendence at whatever lies ahead for them.”
Just reading this passage makes me want to watch the film again. I love the ambiguity of Weir’s film and this invites repeated viewings as I try (maybe like some of the characters) to look for some clue, some piece of dialogue or gesture that provides further insight into the disappearance of the girls. It’s kinda like watching LOST HIGHWAY or MULHOLLAND DRIVE, just when you think you have reach a plausible theory, something in the film refutes and you’re back to square one.
Anyways, great film and top notch essay, too!
J.D., you are a tireless blogger and a sport through and through. This is a sterling example of a great comment, but you submit this regularly!
Thanks very much my friend!
Beautiful, poetic and intoxicating. Also, ambiguous and mysterious. It invites you to look beyond the conventional, and that’s what qualifies it as a great film.
Marvelous word economy David!
This is a great review. After reading about this film for years, I didn’t actually see it until less than a year ago. To me it’s a mood-inducing, thought-provoking masterpiece.
I well remember your enthusiasm for this Pierre, and I agree with you lock, stock and barrel. And yeah, Troy has earned all the praise he has been getting for this.
Always a special treat to have you here Pierre!