Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
Mystery Film By Australian Director Peter Weir Still Haunts
Apr 29, 2009
The opening title card of Picnic At Hanging Rock reads like this:
On Saturday 14th February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College picnicked at Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the afternoon several members of the party disappeared without a trace...
Foreshadowing Ghosts
Just as the morbid sisters of Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides danced dreamily around their suburban prison awaiting their fates, so too the ill-fated girls of Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock dance about, reciting poetry and whispering, dressed in ghostly white attire, as if they were already vapors wafting through the atmosphere.
Further foreshadowing the imminent mystery, one of the soon-to-be lost girls, Miranda, quotes Edgar Allen Poe, What we see and what we seem are but a dream within a dream.
Mystery Lying Within Caves
Before the girls head out on their field trip, the headmistress sternly warns them about the dangers lying in wait throughout Hanging Rock, in the form of venomous snakes and other poisonous creatures large and small.
Once at the park, the girls and their chaperones lay about, eating their picnic, and continuing with their poetry recitals, in the shadow of the enormous rocks. The much favored and beautiful Miranda convinces her friends Edith, Irma, and Marion to go on an exploration of the rocks and caverns above.
An extended Lynchian shot of ants frantically consuming a discarded piece of bread and jam sets the darkening mood.
As soon as they arrive at the foot of the caves, ominous conversations ensue; spooking the rotund outcast Edith, causing her to muse, ...except for those people down there, we may be the only living creatures in the whole world.
The series of events leading up to the vanishing are filmed in a surreal haze, embellished by the spooky music composed by Gheorghe Zamfir; Weir intercuts shots of the caves, inviting and deep, like a wide open mouth wailing with the wind (this atmospheric use of sound, specifically the wind, is used incessantly by director David Lynch).
The loveliest shot of the film occurs just prior to the girls disappearance; as they walk to an open spot among the rocks, and slowly, gracefully, lie down in unison, in one fluid balletic motion.
While asleep, a frightfully ugly and long snake slithers and slides along Miranda’s legs, past her torso, before slipping gently past her slumbering face.
The last to awaken is Edith, and upon standing she sees her three companions climbing steadily up, and between two open faced rocks, headed toward the cavernous abyss. Hysterically Edith screams for their return, but the girls little more than pause before continuing their ascension, before disappearing completely.
After The Vanishing
After the vanishing, Edith reveals that as she was running down from the rocks, she passed one of her teachers, Miss McCraw, running up, destined to be lost as well; pressed further by investigators, Edith reveals that Miss McCraw had been running, strangely, sans skirt.
The second half of the film revolves around the investigation of the incident, and the subsequent search. Suspicions arise surrounding different players involved; as well as the haunted memories that consume the survivors.
The music switches from the nightmarish echoes of the pan flute to the lush strings of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven; which signals the film’s transition away from a disturbing horror film to a more conventional crime drama.
But, due to Peter Weir's excellent pacing and color-rich photography, the tension and the intrigue never subsides. And while some stories absolutely must have the mystery solved to complete the picture, Picnic At Hanging Rock satisfies more with ambiguity; leaving the viewer haunted.
Peter Weir
Previous to Picnic At Hanging Rock, Peter Weir made the cult classic The Cars That Ate Paris (1974); Mr. Weir followed Picnic with two classics of the Australian New Wave, The Last Wave (1977) and Gallipoli (1981); before embarking on a career in Hollywood that is remarkable for the sheer quality of the films:
- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
- Witness (1985)
- The Mosquito Coast (1986)
- Dead Poets Society (1989)
- Green Card (1990)
- Fearless (1993)
- The Truman Show (1998)
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
 |
