By J.D. Lafrance
There is a fascinating air of mystery surrounding Peter Weir’s adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) that captivated me when I first saw it many years ago and continues to haunt me. While the story is a simple yet intriguing one its lack of closure is not. Several schoolgirls and their teacher go missing on a rather imposing rock out in the countryside on St. Valentine’s Day in 1900. The film tantalizes us with just enough clues and evocative imagery to keep us wondering just what happened. There are no easy answers only several theories and this is what keeps me coming back to the film. It is brilliantly directed by Weir and features a maddeningly elusive screenplay by Cliff Green and memorable performances from a cast largely made up of young girls. But perhaps the best performance comes from the most enigmatic character in the film – the Hanging Rock, an impressive geological formation that manages to be unsettling even on a bright, sunny day. Picnic at Hanging Rock is a film that invites repeated viewings because it is the things that are left unsaid and the things that we don’t see that are obsessively analyzed by re-watching what is shown and what we learn from the enticing crumbs of information Weir and Green leave behind.
It is February 14th in 1900 and a group of schoolgirls from Appleyard College venture out to Hanging Rock near Mount Macedon in Victoria, Australia for a picnic. The establishing shot is that of the rock and this is significant because in many respects it is the most important thing in the film – the source of mystery. Weir employs some low level sound effects, a combination of wind and subtle rumbling that sets a disquieting mood. He puts us on edge right away as the opening credits play over a montage of the schoolgirls getting ready for their picnic. There are two shots early on that seem to play slightly in slow motion – that of Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert) lying in bed, her eyes opening and looking over at her roommate Sara (Margaret Nelson) who smiles back at her in another shot. She does this in an ever so slightly forced way that seems subtly unnatural. It’s hard to put your finger on it but something is slightly off about these two girls.
After the credits end we are privy to a conversation between the two girls and find out that Sara is obsessed with Miranda to which the enigmatic girl tells her, “You must learn to love someone else apart from me, Sara. I won’t be here much longer.” What an odd thing to say! Does Miranda mean that she won’t at the school much longer or alive much longer? Is she somehow aware of what will happen later on? Has she planned her disappearance ahead of time? Miranda is a hard character to read as she maintains an unapproachable façade that anticipates some of the femme fatales in David Lynch films.
The headmistress Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) warns the girls not to go exploring the rock and to watch out for venomous snakes and poisonous ants. Are the filmmakers throwing that out there as merely a red herring, another theory to add to the collection? An odd thing happens en route to Hanging Rock. One of the accompanying teachers, Miss McCraw (Vivean Gray) dishes factoids about it, in particular the rock’s age, and then goes into something akin to a trance as she talks about how it consists of volcanic rock. This goes on for a few moments before she snaps out of it. Has the rock somehow already put the zap on her? The girls arrive at Hanging Rock and the first shot is a low angle one with it looming ominously over them as they make a toast to St. Valentine. Miranda cuts into a heart-shaped cake with a rather large knife. Interestingly, all the clocks in the party have stopped at 12 and Miss McCraw reckons it is “something magnetic” even though it never happened before.
Marion (Jane Vallis), Miranda, Irma (Karen Robson) and with Edith (Christine Schuler) as a last minute edition, get permission to go up to the rock to make “a few measurements.” Miranda tells her teacher, Mademoiselle de Poitiers (Helen Morse), not to worry as they’ll only be gone a little while. There is a long shot of the girls heading off to the rock. Miranda is last and turns to wave to her teacher. She waves back and Weir cuts to a close-up of Miranda as if to suggest that her teacher and classmates should study this well because it will be the last they’ll see of her. En route to the rock, the girls are spotted by two young men and one of them, Michael (Dominic Guard), becomes captivated at the sight of Miranda as evident in the slow motion point-of-view shot of her skipping across a small creek. This is followed by a close-up shot of her looking up at the rock. He is so drawn to her that he finds himself following Miranda to Hanging Rock but for some reason not all the way.
Once at the rock, all the girls look up with only Edith, who asked to come along, refusing to do so. Weir pans the camera around so that we get a real sense of place – the dense vegetation and woods that surrounds the rock and how the environment threatens to envelope the girls even before they ascend further. Once there, he films the girls from high overhead or from narrow passageways as if someone or something is watching them. Miranda seems to be the only one with an inkling of this and seems to be picking up on the rock’s vibe. While an exhausted Edith rests, Miranda and the other girls take their shoes and stockings off and climb further up the rock in their bare feet – rather unladylike at the time. Edith runs after them. The girls climb higher and look down at their classmates on the ground, regarding them rather clinically while Miranda says cryptically, “Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.” Without a word, all four girls lie down simultaneously and go to sleep while the highest most part of the rock watches over them.
Miranda is the first to wake and she, Marion and Irma climb up further despite Edith’s protests. Edith screams in terror and we see her running frantically down the rock. Weir cuts to the remaining schoolgirls with Mademoiselle de Poitiers who informs Appleyard that they left Miss McCraw behind. She too has gone missing, presumably while looking for the girls. However, no one saw her leave because they were all asleep at the time. Edith returned screaming and all she admits is that the three other girls were still on the rock. She saw Miss McCraw in her underwear (?!). What is it about the rock that motivates women to discard articles of clothing? The rest of the film focuses on the search for the missing girls and teacher and the resulting fallout at the school. We are witness to the cruelty of the other schoolgirls and even the teachers, obviously upset over what happened, taking it out on the survivors. The tone shifts from an atmospheric horror film to a different kind of horror, more of a psychological one as it transitions into a fascinating study of human behavior. Weir shows how the dynamic between the remaining girls, specifically Sara and Edith, changes after Miranda, Marion and Irma go missing. A few more clues as to what might have happened are discovered but instead of providing answers they only pose more questions.
Like us, Michael is haunted by the whole affair and he can’t let it go. In a way, he is almost driven mad by his obsession with Hanging Rock. For example, his solo journey up the rock is unsettling as he too falls asleep on it, dreaming of seeing the girls walking up the rock as key lines of dialogue are repeated along with Edith’s scream.
I believe that this scene points to supernatural causes for the disappearance of the girls. Obviously, Michael can’t be hearing all of these voices but we are meant to hear them and interpret it as something otherworldly while metaphorically it represents the young man’s confused mind. It is here that Weir’s complex soundscape is at its best and most disturbing as Michael goes off the deep end. He soon passes his obsession on to another young man (John Jarratt) who is soon clamoring his way up the rock despite what happened to his friend.
Picnic at Hanging Rock had its premiere in Adelaide to critical acclaim. Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, “As a tantalizing puzzle, a tease, a suggestion of a forbidden answer just out of earshot, it works hypnotically and very nicely indeed.” In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, “Among other things it knows that there are some romantic longings, especially in the young, that are so overwhelming they simply cannot be contained. The result is a movie that is both spooky and sexy.” Timemagazine wrote, “This horrific tale is told with marvelous shadowry indirection and delicate lyricism. It is full of enigmatic silences, which create a nice, ironic tension between the film’s genteel manner and its really quite ferocious theme.” In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack called it “one of the most hauntingly beautiful mysteries ever created on film.” However, Newsweek magazine wrote, “His movie is stylish and entertaining, but what he is pushing as metaphysical profundity is closer to metaphysical mush.”
In some respects, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a coming-of-age story masquerading as a horror film. Young girls experience a waking nightmare with several of their classmates inexplicably disappearing. How does this affect them? Unlike many other horror films, Weir’s film spends a lot of time dwelling on the effect that the terrible event has on the survivors. No one is exempt, from the young classmates to the teaching staff. It forces some of these girls to grow up very fast while others regress, withdrawing into themselves.
Picnic at Hanging Rock ’s prevailing theme is that of obsession. First, there is Miranda’s obsession with Hanging Rock. There’s Sara’s obsession with Miranda. Finally, there is Michael’s obsession with finding Miranda, which he passes on to another young man. It is one of those horror films where the environment itself is the threat or monster. There is definitely something not right about Hanging Rock but Weir never tells us for sure. He is content to simply show how it affects those that come in contact with it. This is a film for those that like cinematic puzzles, watching them repeatedly to uncover some clue or detail perhaps overlooked previously. Unlike most horror films, Picnic at Hanging Rock is just as interested in the horrific event as with its aftermath. We see how the incident affects the townsfolk that reside near the school and also get glimpses of how the media have exploited it, shaping people’s views. It was Weir’s intention to “take the idea of the red herring and to embrace that cliché and pass through it and beyond it, to make so many allusions and connections with images that they were no longer red herrings, but something powerful and unknowable.” The disappearance of the girls has shattered lives and left others haunted forever, which Weir suggests are equally disturbing.
I like the “coming of age” vs. “horror film” idea and concur with your supernatural interpretation. And obsession is the central theme. A great film and a review to match it!
Thanks! Some don’t consider PICNIC to be a horror film but I think it is, just in a more understatedly menacing way.
J.D., your examination of the film’s themes and the narrative flow are brilliantly presented in one of the very best reviews of this film I have ever read! Some consider it the greatest Australian film ever made, and this is a position that is hard to contest. Harrowing, mystifying, and with ascending power, it is a film that provokes provocative discussion. It is beautifully filmed, scored and acted, and rewards repeat viewings. Your own passion is palpable! The final paragraph is absolutely stupendous.
Thank you for awesome comment, Sam!
PICNIC is definitely one of my all-time fave Australian films and I am a huge fan of Weir’s work. He successfully made the transition to Hollywood without diminishing the quality of his work but his early films are incredible, this one in particular, which I love revisiting time and time again and still find things I hadn’t noticed the last time.
I like the suggestion that Miranda anticipated some of the femme fatales in David Lynch’s filmography. A very well written and observant piece. Definitely one of my favorite films from Down Under.
Thank you! I always wondered if Lynch had ever seen this film as it does have, at times, an Lynchian vibe in terms of ominous mood and brilliant use of soundscape.
My favorite film, bar none.
Peter Weir said «I did everything in my power to hypnotize the audience away from the possibility of solutions.». Build a compulsion to fill the void is one of the most wonderful ways of doing cinema, and art in general. The haunting atmosphere of “Picnic…” does it marvelously.
The reference to Lynch gave me new ways of looking at the film, thank you J.D.
You’re welcome! I’m a huge fan of Lynch’s films so that notion was lurking in the back of my mind somewhere the last time I watched PICNIC.
I hadn’t actually considered this one for the list, but that’s probably because I’ve just seen it the one time and don’t remember enough about it. I do like the fact that we’re including films that stretch the boundaries of childhood though, and this one fits in that mold.
It sure does. These girls are quite young and the things they encounter during the course of the film force them to grow up pretty fast.
This is among my all-time favorite movies, and I deliberately put off reading your review until I had time to properly appreciate it. I’m very glad I did so, because there’s a lot to appreciate! It’s a splendid piece. I especially like your comparison with some of Lynch’s work, a point that hadn’t occurred to me before (probably because the style of Weir’s movie is a subtle whisper to Lynch’s customary in-your-face bellow).
One extra puzzle is why Anne Lambert never became the international star I think everyone assumed she’d become after Picnic.
Yeah, I sometimes wonder why Lambert didn’t become a bigger movie star but she certainly left an indelible mark with PICNIC!
Thank you for reading and for the kind words.
This is one of those few films that I found very captivating but could never put a finger on a specific reason as to why I got so intrigued. The film’s biggest strength is the atmosphere it creates, the sounds are very sensory and along with the music and the poetic cinematography, the film never lets you escape its mysterious air.
Well said! I completely agree. The atmosphere of this film is a large part of its appeal to me as well. There is something hypnotic about it that gets me every time.
Thanks J.D. for this stimulating discussion of the film. My parents took me to it in the 70s when I was about 12. Its themes largely went over my head, but the haunting images and music couldn’t be forgotten. Theme wise, one much discussed by critics is the incongruity of Victorian era British society transplanted into the primitive Australian bush. The society, mainly represented by the girls college, stifles creative expression, independent thought and sexuality. With the three characters who never return from Hanging Rock I’m tempted to side with those who see them not as sacrificial victims but as independent spirits who break free from the strict confines of their social milieu. This is best demonstrated, of course, by Miranda. Described as a Botticelli angel, she’s presented as a kind of Venus, an unworldly ethereal creature. In climbing the rock towards the heavens, you could say that while lost to society, she’s really gone to a realm where she belongs. Maybe even Sara, despite her tragic suicide, is another one who escapes. Through death she avoids the fate decreed for her by Mrs Appleyard of being sent back to a terrible orphanage. Weir, it’s to be remembered, originally shot an ending in which Mrs Appleyard climbs the rock and is confronted by a resurrected Sara! Reflecting on “Picnic ..” one might ponder the question of who and what actually gets “lost” or “disappears”. With the decline of the college, Mrs Appleyard is in a very deep sense lost. With her decline and death the college itself, (the institution, if not the building) is surely about to disappear.
Well said! I like this theory and I can certainly see how it applies to one way of looking at the film. And that’s the beauty of PICNIC, it has enough ambiguity to invite all kinds of interpretations.