Picnic at Hanging Rock Picnic at Hanging Rock Film Guide Brendan Maher fresh film festival 2006 Picnic at Hanging Rock Picnic at Hanging Rock Introduction ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’, Peter Weir’s Director Peter Weir/ second feature film, released in 975 Australia/975/07 mins is an exciting mixture of horror (with- out the bloodshed) and fantasy within Cast a Victorian period drama. The film Rachel Roberts Mrs. Appleyard adapted from Joan Lindsay’s 967 Dominic Guard Michael Fitzhubert book has an open-ended story with Vivean Gray Miss McCraw no specific resolution. The audience Helen Morse Mlle. de Poitiers is left with the task of piecing the Kirsty Child Miss Lumley mystery together. Tony Llewellyn-Jones Tom The film is strong on atmos- Jacki Weaver Minnie phere and invokes the carefree days Frank Gunnell Mr. Whitehead of youth as well as having an over- Anne Lambert Miranda whelming sense of calamity about to Karen Robson Irma take place. The calamity that befalls Jane Vallis Marion the picnic group visiting the Rock, forces outside of his control. Weir Christine Schuler Edith also spreads out into the wider com- started the 980’s with ‘Gallipoli’ Margaret Nelson Sara munity causing tension and despair (98) - a milestone work of Austral- Wynn Roberts Sgt. Bumpher for those affected. ian cinema and one that made Mel John Jarrett Albert Gibson an international star. Peter Collingwood Colonel Fitzhubert Director Peter Weir Weir has spent most of his Weir’s films are on the whole are not time in America since the mid-80’s Crew difficult to categorise, despite the and his list of credits is impressive Director Peter Weir variety of characterisation and set- – it includes ‘Witness’ (985) ‘Dead Executive Producers John Graves, ting. His broad theme is the difficulty Poet’s Society’ (989) ‘The Truman Patricia Lovell an individual has in dealing with the Show’ (998) and most recently Producers Hal McElroy, Jim McElroy outside world or a new environment, ‘Master and Commander (003) Original Music Bruce Smeaton which is often depicted as strange, Weir is interested in society, Cinematography Russell Boyd frequently hostile and sometimes how it represents itself and the un- Editor Max Lemon teetering on destruction. derlying tensions within that society. Art Director David Copping Weir was born in 944 in Syd- It is often the case in his films that Costume Design Judy Dorsmand ney and joined the film-making col- the lead character becomes caught lective Ubu Films while at University. in a new society or an alien environ- He worked in television for a number ment and he or she investigates of years, making a satirical sketch that environment with or for us, the programmes and also utilising the viewer. Weir also seems to have a facilities to make two short films. strong wish to understand and depict In 974 he made the under- the geographical or physical space ground feature ‘The Cars That Ate that the society controls/the environ- Paris’ in which a rural town in Aus- ment it exists in e.g. the Aboriginal tralia named Paris has developed an culture in ‘The Last Wave’; the Amish industry by causing car accidents and community in ‘Witness’ or the made making a profit from the wrecks. up set in ‘The Truman Show’. It is ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ in suggested that Weir’s work is an 975 made Weir’s reputation and its amalgam of arthouse and generic ethereal mood was widely praised. Hollywood films. It could be said Weir dealt with Aboriginal culture in that many of his main characters are a more direct manner in his next film standard ‘Hollywood’ lead characters ‘The Last Wave’ (977) in which a that have strayed into an arthouse lawyer looking into a case deals with movie – an alien environment. fresh film festival 2006 Picnic at Hanging Rock Synopsis Another family are also visiting there: That night, the girls return On St. Valentine’s Day in 900, at Colonel Fitzhubert, his wife, son home late. Mrs. Appleyard finds out a private girl’s school – Appleyard Michael and servant Bertie. that three of the girls and one teach- College - in rural Australia, the girls The girls’ picnic at the Rock er Miss McCraw are missing. Edith, share cards amongst each other. and then four of them, Miranda, Irma, disheveled and tired can’t remember They prepare for a visit to Marion and Edith ask their teachers if what happened. local rock formation called Hanging they can go further into the outcrop. A search of the rock is Rock – a volcanic outcrop of some They are allowed and they begin to undertaken. The girls are nowhere geological interest. Miss McCraw and steadily walk up the rock. Michael to be found. Edith is questioned by Mademoiselle de Poitiers supervise sees them at one point as they move the police and remembers that she the group of girls. The owner of the through the bush. passed Miss McCraw, who was wear- school Mrs. Appleyard warns them to Edith, resting, watches as the ing no skirt, only pantaloons, as she be on their best behaviour on the trip. other three walk around an overhang. ran by. Michael is also questioned by One girl, Sara is left behind. She calls after them. the police. The girls travel through the Distressed, Edith runs The police continue to search. local village and arrive at the Rock. screaming from the Rock. The townspeople are uncomfortable fresh film festival 2006 3 Picnic at Hanging Rock by the unsolved mystery. Michael is The films end with a narrator suggestions of sexuality. At the same haunted by the matter and goes to describing how Mrs. Appleyard’s body time there was a high level of prosti- search the Rock with Bertie. He stays was found near Hanging Rock some tution mainly due to poverty. on the Rock overnight and is found time later. A familiarity with the works worn out at a cave entrance. Before of writers such as Brontë sisters, being taken to hospital, he gives Story Repression versus Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Bertie a piece of cloth. It is from one Freedom Thomas Hardy will give the viewer a of the girl’s dresses. Bertie searches The film is set in 900 in the latter good idea of the moral codes that again and finds Irma alive. stages of Queen Victoria’s reign existed during the time of the film. Irma too can’t remember in Britain (she died in 90). The We can see that ‘Picnic…’ anything. The disappearance has Victorian era (837-90) has sets up as a central theme, the caused parents to take their children become synonymous with a society notion of repression and societal con- out of the school. Sara who has cre- that invoked a strong set of moral trol and how that is challenged by the ated a shrine for one of the missing standards, whilst often acting in the individual’s search for freedom and girls Miranda is asked to leave as her opposite manner. more mysterious external forces. Guardian has not paid her fees. She This was especially true is the The College aims to bring the must return to an orphanage. She area of sexual morality where society girls up in a manner that befits their commits suicide. went to great lengths to suppress all upper class Victorian status. The girls 4 fresh film festival 2006 Picnic at Hanging Rock are told not to take off their gloves until they have passed the town, Australian New Wave Cinema despite the searing heat. They are expected to behave in a specific way. Picnic at Hanging Rock’ is de- four hundred films were made be- However both inner desires and the scribed as one of the films that tween 970 and 985. draw of the mysterious Rock confront epitomized the new Wave of films Film-makers such as Weir, the societal control that has been that emerged from Australia in the Gillian Armstrong, Phillip Noyce taught to them. mid-70’s. As with any burgeoning and Bruce Beresford and screen Three of the four girls who movement, there were a number of actors such as Mel Gibson, Judy walk up the Rock express a sensual- specific factors, which underpinned Davis, Bryan Brown and Sam Neill ity that was evident in the opening this growth in film-making: emerged from films, which were sequence (with the Valentine cards). The Conservative govern- rapturously received both locally The girls are seemingly swallowed up ment of the 960’s gave way to the and internationally. by the Rock, with Edith, significantly, Liberal Gorton government, which Two specific bodies or styles of unable to follow. She is unable to attempted to foster interest in the work have been noted during this pe- embrace this sensual world and is Arts as a means of expressing riod. The mid to late 970’s period of left behind. national identity. The government generally arthouse work such as ‘Picnic It is also significant that Sara set up the EFF (Experimental Film at Hanging Rock’ and Armstrong’s ‘My kills herself towards the end of the Fund) with the aim of identifying Brilliant Career’ and the early eight- film. She expresses the same long- and encouraging the best film-mak- ies commercially driven films such as ings as Miranda. We wonder had she ing talents. It was also decided that George Miller’s ‘Mad Max’ trilogy. traveled with Miranda, would she too these people would be asked to join As with many developing have been lost on the Rock.