Picnic at Hanging Rock [Criterion Collection]

Director: Peter Weir

Overview

Peter Weir's haunting and evocative mystery is set in the Australia of 1900, a mystical place where the British have attempted to impose their Christian culture with such tweedy refinements as a girls' boarding school. After gauzily-photographed, nicely underplayed scenes of the girls' budding sexuality being restrained in Victorian corsets, the uptight headmistress (Rachel Roberts) takes them on a Valentine's Day picnic into the countryside, and several of the girls, led by the lovely Miranda (Anne Lambert) decide to explore a nearby volcanic rock formation. It's a desolate, primitive, vaguely menacing place, where one can almost feel the presence of ancient pagan spirits. Something -- and there is an unspoken but palpable emphasis on the inherent carnality of the place -- draws four of the girls to explore the rock. Three never return. No one ever finds out why. The repercussions for the school are tragic, and of course Roberts reacts with near-crazed anger, but what really happened? Weir gives enough clues to suggest any number of explanations, both physical and supernatural.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/08/2014
UPC:	0715515120319
Original Release:	1975
Rating:	PG
Source:	CRITERION
Language:	English
Sales rank:	14,857

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rachel Roberts	Mrs. Appleyard,Sgt. Bumpher
Dominic Guard	Michael Fitzhubert
Helen Morse	Mlle. de Poitiers
Jacki Weaver	Minnie
Vivean Gray	Miss Greta McGraw
Kirsty Child	Dora Lumley
Anne Louise Lambert	Miranda,Actor
Karen Robson	Irma
Jane Vallis	Marion
Christine Schuler	Edith Horton
Margaret Nelson	Sara
John Jarratt	Albert Chauffeur
Ingrid Mason	Rosamund
Martin Vaughan	Ben Hussey
Jack Fegan	Doc McKenzie,Actor
Garry McDonald	Jim Jones
Frank Gunnell	Edward Whitehead
Tony-Llewelyn Jones	Tom
Kay Taylor	Mrs. Bumpher
Jenny Lovell	Blanche
Janet Murray	Juliana
Bridgette Phillips	Actor
Tony Llewellyn-Jones	Tom
Barbara Lloyd	Pupil
Peter Collingwood	Colonel Fitzhubert
Olga Dickie	Mrs. Fitzhubert
Bruce Smeaton	Composer

Technical Credits

Joan Lindsay

Cliff Green

Jim McElroy	Producer,Producer,Producer
John Graves	Executive Producer
Patricia Lovell	Executive Producer
Joan Lindsay	Screenwriter
Cliff Green	Screenwriter,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The first significant splash made by the Australian New Wave on world cinema, Picnic at Hanging Rock is director Peter Weir's haunting, delicate, and exquisitely photographed tale of three young girls who disappear during a school outing in the year 1900. It hints at what is to come in films like Weir's truly shattering The Last Wave and in coming-of-age films such as Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career - a new look at an exotic country's early days and unique history. Weir was a foremost force in the rebirth of Australian cinema, using period pieces such as this one, combined with heavy atmospherics and a fresh take on colonialism, to promote a kind of mystical super-realism that is evident in most of his films and those of Australian directors who followed him. Weir's refusal to provide a satisfying end to his puzzle of a story is also emblematic of a fresh approach that strays from a rationalized Western viewpoint into more supernatural realms that are linked to the aboriginal culture of the continent.