Picnic at Hanging Rock (The Criterion Collection)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (The Criterion Collection)
by Peter Weir

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Movie Reviews of Picnic at Hanging Rock (The Criterion Collection)

Movie Review: Chilling and mysterious
Summary: 5 Stars

The young ladies at Appleyard College are going on a picnic excursion to nearby Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day. Most of the girls are ecstatic about the trip as it will allow them to escape, if even for a few hours, the insufferable grasp of the stern headmistress of the school. Known to her charges only as Mrs. Appleyard, this woman possesses an intimate understanding about what sorts of behavior society expects from its female members and she expects her students to internalize them. Subservience, chastity, and probity in all areas of life are virtues best learned and then never questioned. Obviously, several of the girls chafe under such daunting responsibilities. As a punishment for one miscreant, Appleyard bans her from joining the picnic. The rest go happily, warned in advance by the headmistress to stay away from the rocks at all costs because of an unspecified danger. The trip is at first uneventful, even after four of the girls violate Appleyard's warning and decide to journey into the rocks. One of the girls disobeying orders is the lovely Miranda, a woman referred to as a Botticelli angel incarnate by the school's French teacher, who is quite popular with her fellow classmates.

Something weird happens then, an event that will have a lasting impact on everyone associated with this picnic. Three of the girls ultimately disappear, along with one of their teachers. One girl who went with them but complained the entire way does emerge from the rocks, shrieking and moaning about something but making little sense. Two young men in the vicinity with another group also noticed the girls heading off to Hanging Rock, but what they know about the disappearance never receives an adequate explanation. Several days later, as the hysteria over the mystery continues to deepen, one of these young men discovers one of the missing girls. This young lady is severely dehydrated and remembers nothing about what happened to her two companions. As time goes by, no one even remotely connected to this event seems to get over it. Mrs. Appleyard is probably the biggest loser as her school, which relies exclusively on tuition and fees paid by affluent parents, begins to go under because no one wants to send their children there anymore. We are told at the end of the film that the headmistress disappears while searching Hanging Rock for Miranda and her companion in a final, desperate attempt to salvage her reputation and her school.

"What does this all mean?" is probably what most viewers will ask themselves when the final credits roll. I know I wanted a satisfying explanation to this heap of weirdness. Instead of giving an easy answer, Weir repeatedly frustrates his audience's attempt to discover what really happened to the hapless girls. The director gives us numerous red herrings about the disappearance, none of which pans out in the end. Watches worn by several people at the rock mysteriously stop, a sudden weariness descends on the picnickers about the time the girls disappear, and the cryptic comments voiced by Miranda tantalizingly hint at but ultimately provide little in the way of explanation for the mystery. Viewers, like myself, who have seen a whole lot of strange films want to make that logical leap to a supernatural cause for the event, but Weir refuses to allow us to do so. The only certainty we find within the confines of "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is uncertainty. Perhaps the disappearance of the free spirited, "angelic" Miranda represents a sort of necessary escape from the social repression enforced against all females in Victorian era society. Why not? This is as good an explanation as any other put forth to explain this enigmatic film.

What really impressed me in "Picnic" is the soul searing creepiness of the whole thing. Hanging Rock sits in the middle of a vast tract of wide-open space, like some profane eruption from deep within the earth. Zamfir's pan flute mixed with a downright scary soundtrack provides chills to the nth degree. Moreover, the music often swells to nearly unbearable levels whenever the camera pans across the ominously silent crags of Hanging Rock. Everything works in "Picnic" except figuring it all out. It becomes maddening trying to second guess the film when all I really should have been doing is sitting back and enjoying the ride. Criterion makes this a worthwhile experience with a nice widescreen picture transfer but regrettably with few extras. Still, Weir's odd film should provide those who like to think a bit with an excellent, if head scratching, trip.

Summary of Picnic at Hanging Rock (The Criterion Collection)