Summary
During a Picnic on St. Valentine’s Day, 1900, a few students and a teacher disappear without a trace. A search ensues with little reward, and the surrounding population is haunted by the mystery of what has happened.
My Thoughts
Before “Witness” (1985), “Dead Poets Society” (1989), “The Truman Show” (1998), and “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (2003), Peter Weir directed another film, one that was seldom brought up, except by cinephiles, until the television adaptation in 2018, starring Natalie Dormer. That film is “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, and I believe, out of all the films Peter Weir has directed, this one is my favorite. It’s not as conventionally tense as “Witness”, nor is it as inspiring as “Dead Poet’s Society”. It’s not as humorous as “The Truman Show”, or as epic as “Master and Commander”. The film is something else entirely; it’s disquieting, somewhat disturbing though no violence is ever really shown on screen. It’s a film that kept me up last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about those poor schoolgirls Picnicking at Hanging Rock. This is movie that has instantaneously jumped to my top 100 after just one viewing. It’s a movie that I imagine many will find unsatisfying, many more will find confusing, and some, like myself, will find it utterly captivating, poetic, dreamlike, melancholy, and even ethereal.
(SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
On Valentines Day in the year 1900, an Australian Girls’ School takes a trip to Hanging Rock; a geological formation about a half-day’s ride from civilization. While at the Rock, a few of the girls wander up into the Rocks and disappear. As time goes by, very few clues are found as to what happens, but people of the nearest town seem determined to find some closure.
(SPOILERS END)
This is more or less an ensemble piece. There are probably a half dozen characters that we follow throughout this movie, and all of them have motivations, arcs, and flaws that make them interesting. There are the girls themselves, the ones who go missing, who seem airy and otherworldly; they’re obsessed with poetry, and the way the cinematographer shoots their trek through the forest makes them look like fae floating through a magical forest. Even one of their teachers says one of the girls looks like a Botticelli angel. There’s the headmistress, Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts, “Murder on the Orient Express”), who seems to view the girls’ disappearance as an annoyance and nothing more, until it becomes obvious that the disappearance is affecting the future of the school. There are the three boys that were picnicking near the girls, but not with them. One boy in particular seems overly distraught, as he was one of the last to see them. All of the characters are affected by the events that transpire in ways that are very obvious, but there are other glimpses of random people throughout the town. This movie, while only an hour and forty-five minutes long, gives a very omnipresent view of how everyone was affected by the disappearance, while not actually telling us how the event came to be.
I feel like I have to put some sort of spoiler warning for the following paragraph, even though I think this movie is spoiler-proof. I went into this movie already knowing the ending, because the ending is kind of what this movie is famous for. If you’d like to go into this movie without any knowledge I’d stop reading now.
Still here?
So, they never find all the girls, and we’re never given an answer as to what exactly happened. People in the town hypothesize, and there are hints at all sorts of possibilities, but there is never anything certain; it’s left up to the viewer to decide. I think that that ending is incredibly ambitious, but I can see how some people would hate it. Here are some reasons why it worked so well for me.
From the very beginning, we get a sense of unease, even though the events happening before us are a very normal everyday affair. There are little subtleties that come back to play games with your mind throughout the film; little hints at possible things that could’ve happened. From the very beginning, when Sarah (Margaret Nelson) and Miranda (Anne Lambert) talk quietly in their room, we learn that Miranda does not believe she will be coming back soon. The way Miranda says this makes one wonder if she is in on the disappearance. Perhaps she and the other girls just walked away? But then there are other things that come into play, too. Both the carriage driver and the schoolteacher’s watches stopped at exactly 12:00, so nobody know what time it was. Did somebody stop the watches? Was it coincidence? Is there something supernatural going on at Hanging Rock? There are other things we need to take into account too- the boys that were at the rock. None of them were together when the girls vanished, could one of them have had something to do with it? But then how did one boy overpower four girls? Also, when the girls climbed the rock, they seemed to be getting more disoriented. Mrs. Appleyard instructed the girls to be careful around the rocks, because there were venomous snakes and ants. Could the disorientation be the result of venom poisoning, or, again, is it something more supernatural? One of the girls, Edith (Christine Schuler) returns from the rock relatively unharmed, but again, disoriented, and she cant tell anyone what happened, but though her legs were scratched there were no animal bites. Why did the girls remove their shoes before they climbed further up the rock, and why did they remove their stockings? Why did one of the teachers hide evidence from the police; did she think it was insignificant or was she doing it maliciously? When one of the boys climbs back up into the Rock, he seems more disoriented than ever… is it just the rock? Is the place just cursed? Or is there some logical explanation for all of this?
These are the kinds of circles my mind has been running since yesterday. I assure you there are a thousand more questions you’ll want to ask, and a thousand more that will follow those. This movie is extremely disquieting, and it lingers in the shodowy corners of your mind forever.
Verdict
This is a movie I, personally, would consider nigh perfect, but I know it has received a ton of flak from people who like moves with conclusive endings (who needs that?). I get that criticism, but for me, a movie that makes me stay awake at night, puzzling over its small details, is diabolically brilliant. This is a movie that makes you think, and it doesn’t expect you to figure out the answers either. It simply poses an infuriating question, and waits quietly as you try to figure it out. I have not seen the Amazon Prime Limited Series, but honestly I don’t have much interest. This film seemed to get the story across quite nicely, and I’ll be thinking about it for months to come.
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