Picnic at Hanging Rock
| Year: | 1975 |
| Director: | Peter Weir |
| Producer: | Hal McElroy/Jim McElroy |
| Cast: | Rachel Roberts, Anne Lambert, John Jarratt, Jacki Weaver |
Haunting, sumptuous and beautiful throughout, one of the best renditions of period dress, settings, behaviour and ideals on film and Australia's first worldwide cinematic hit. The true story of a small ladies' college in rural Victoria on a daytrip to the mythical Hanging Rock - a volcanic hill in the bush - where two students and their governess vanished in 1900.
The first 45 minutes is a joy of sights, sounds, mood and texture, but from there the story become a little more grounded and loses some of that flavour, and despite retaining its poise and beauty the rest of the way through, it tries to make a story out of little material. Not a trace of the missing girls or teacher were ever found in real life (although the discovery of one on top of the rock is depicted in the film - after a convalesence she doesn't report anything of what happened to the others) and it's therefore the unenviable task of the writer and director to try and stretch the story into a feature length film without a satisfactory conclusion.
Lambert is indeed as beautiful and haunting as a Boticelli angel as one of her teachers points out, and Jarratt and Weaver look impossibly pubescent - they can't have both been more than 20.
The first 45 minutes is a joy of sights, sounds, mood and texture, but from there the story become a little more grounded and loses some of that flavour, and despite retaining its poise and beauty the rest of the way through, it tries to make a story out of little material. Not a trace of the missing girls or teacher were ever found in real life (although the discovery of one on top of the rock is depicted in the film - after a convalesence she doesn't report anything of what happened to the others) and it's therefore the unenviable task of the writer and director to try and stretch the story into a feature length film without a satisfactory conclusion.
Lambert is indeed as beautiful and haunting as a Boticelli angel as one of her teachers points out, and Jarratt and Weaver look impossibly pubescent - they can't have both been more than 20.