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Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film directed by Peter Weir and based on the 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. Cliff Green adapted the novel into a screenplay. The film stars Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Vivean Gray and Jacki Weaver. The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine's Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.

Picnic at Hanging Rock
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPeter Weir
Screenplay byCliff Green
Based onPicnic at Hanging Rock
by Joan Lindsay
Produced byHal McElroy
Jim McElroy
Starring
CinematographyRussell Boyd
Edited byMax Lemon
Production
companies
Distributed byB.E.F. Film Distributors
Release date
  • 8 August 1975 (1975-08-08)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$443,000–480,000[1][2]
Box officeA$5.12 million (Australia)

Picnic at Hanging Rock was a commercial and critical success, and helped draw international attention to the then-emerging Australian New Wave of cinema. It is widely regarded as one of the most iconic and defining films of the New Wave. In 1996 it was voted the best Australian movie of all time in a poll by the Victorian Centenary of Cinema Committee and the NFSA.

Plot

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On Valentine's Day 1900, students from Appleyard College, a girls' private school in Victoria, Australia, embark on a picnic to Hanging Rock to celebrate St. Valentine, led by teachers Miss Greta McCraw and Mlle. de Poitiers. Sara, a quiet orphan who has been separated from her older brother Bertie, is forced to stay behind with Miss Lumley and the school's headmistress, the harsh Mrs. Appleyard.

At the Hanging Rock, students Miranda, Marion, Irma, and Edith leave the picnic to explore the area. They pass a young Englishman, Michael Fitzhubert, and his Australian friend, Albert Crundell. The girls climb the Rock and fall asleep under a strange influence. Later, the girls awaken and Miranda, Marion and Irma proceed in a trance into a hidden crevice; Edith watches and screams in terror as she flees back down the Rock.

The picnic group of students, having also fallen asleep, are alarmed when they wake up to find Miss McCraw and the three girls missing. A police search yields no clues, despite Edith's fragmented accounts of the girls' disappearances, seeing Miss McCraw running up to the Rock without her skirt, and seeing a mysterious red cloud.

After having nightmares about the girls' disappearances, Michael conducts his own search for the girls with Albert. Michael stays at the Rock overnight and finds Irma alive inside a crevice the next day, but loses consciousness due to heat exhaustion. After Albert returns with the police force, Michael slips him a scrap of Irma's dress. Albert returns to the mountain to find Irma, who has no memory of her disappearance and cannot say what happened to Miranda, Marion, or Miss McCraw.

The disappearances cause a scandal, leading to students leaving the school and spreading unrest. News attention begins to swarm the search parties as Michael's dreams about the disappearances continue, with Miranda symbolized via the presence of a white swan. As the school's reputation and financial stability suffers, Mrs. Appleyard informs Sara that her guardian has not contacted the college in months and her tuition has not been paid. She tells Sara that her presence at the school is in jeopardy and that as a result of missed payments, she is no longer able to participate in extracurricular lessons. Sara begins to spend most of her time bedridden, mourning Miranda.

Irma, recovered but amnesiac, is to be sent back to Europe to reunite with her parents. She visits the college during a dance lesson to wish the rest of the students farewell, but is swarmed by her classmates, who scream at her and question her innocence and amnesia. After Irma departs in tears, Mlle. de Poiters discovers that Miss Lumley has restrained Sara against one of the walls for the span of the lesson under the guise of improving her posture.

The night before the rest of the students are set to leave the college for Easter, the date Sara was given for her guardian to resolve missing fees, Mrs. Appleyard visits her in the dormitory to tell her that she must return to the orphanage. Despite her cold demeanor, she breaks down in her office weeping after this conversation. The next morning, Albert recalls a dream in which Sara visited him, surrounded by her favorite flower, to bid him goodbye. Mrs. Appleyard meets with Mlle. de Poitiers, who previously expressed concern for Sara's health, and falsely tells her that Sara's guardian came to collect her. That evening, the two have dinner together, although Mrs. Appleyard, drinking heavily, evades Mlle. de Poitiers' attempts to ask whether Sara will be joining them for the next term.

Sara's body is later discovered in the greenhouse; she has apparently jumped from the roof of the main building and crashed through the greenhouse's glass roof. The gardener rushes into Mrs. Appleyard's office to explain the tragedy and finds her sitting calmly at her desk, wearing funeral attire, with her suitcases already packed. A voiceover explains that Mrs. Appleyard, facing the collapse of her school and haunted by the events of the movie, was found dead at the base of Hanging Rock, having apparently fallen while climbing it.

During a flashback to the picnic day, the voiceover states that the disappearances of Miranda, Marion, and Miss McCraw remain unsolved mysteries despite further search attempts, continuing to haunt the local community.

Cast

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Production

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Works of Australian Impressionism, such as Frederick McCubbin's Lost (1886), inspired the film's themes and visual style.[3]

The novel was published in 1967. Reading it four years later, Patricia Lovell thought it would make a great film. She did not originally think of producing it herself until Phillip Adams suggested she try it; she optioned the film rights in 1973, paying $100 for three months.[4] She hired Peter Weir to direct on the basis of his film Homesdale, and Weir brought in Hal and Jim McElroy to help produce.[1]

Screenwriter David Williamson originally was chosen to adapt the film, but was unavailable and recommended noted TV writer Cliff Green.[5] Joan Lindsay had approval over who did the adaptation and she gave it to Green, whose first draft Lovell says was "excellent".[4]

The finalised budget was A$440,000, coming from the Australian Film Development Corporation, British Empire Films and the South Australian Film Corporation. $3,000 came from private investors.[4]

Filming

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Martindale Hall (located near Mintaro in South Australia), was the location for Appleyard Hall, the school featured in the film.

Filming began in February 1975 with principal photography taking six weeks.[6][7] Locations included Hanging Rock in Victoria, Martindale Hall near Mintaro in rural South Australia, and at the studio of the South Australian Film Corporation in Adelaide.

The film's mise-en-scène and cinematography was strongly influenced by the work of the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionists, active in Victoria in the 1880s and 1890s. Leading Heidelberg School member Frederick McCubbin also lived in and often painted the Macedon Ranges, the setting and filming location of Picnic at Hanging Rock.[8] To achieve the look of an impressionist painting for the film, director Weir and director of cinematography Russell Boyd were inspired by the work of British photographer and film director David Hamilton, who had draped different types of veils over his camera lens to produce diffused and soft-focus images.[7] Boyd created the ethereal, dreamy look of many scenes by placing simple bridal veil fabric of various thicknesses over his camera lens.[5][7] The film was edited by Max Lemon.

Weir recalled that while many in the cast and crew took the film in a humorous and jocular manner when filming began, the mood changed once location work began on Hanging Rock:

There is just something about the area that is oppressive and depressing. Absolutely nothing unusual happened while we were there, but everyone was nervous while we were there, and we were all glad to get away at last.[9]

Casting

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Weir originally cast Ingrid Mason as Miranda, but realised after several weeks of rehearsals that it was "not working" and cast Anne-Louise Lambert. Mason was persuaded to remain in the role as a minor character, Rosamund, by producer Patricia Lovell.[5] The role of Mrs. Appleyard was originally to have been taken by Vivien Merchant; Merchant fell ill and Rachel Roberts was cast at short notice.[1] Several of the schoolgirls' voices were dubbed in secret by professional voice actors, as Weir had cast the young actresses for their innocent appearance rather than their acting ability.[10] The voice actors were not credited, although more than three decades later, actress Barbara Llewellyn revealed that she had provided the voice for all the dialogue of Edith (Christine Schuler, now Christine Lawrance).[10][11]

Music

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The main title music was derived from two traditional Romanian panpipe pieces: "Doina: Sus Pe Culmea Dealului" and "Doina Lui Petru Unc" with Romanian Gheorghe Zamfir playing the panpipe (or panflute) and Swiss born Marcel Cellier the organ. Australian composer Bruce Smeaton also provided several original compositions (The Ascent Music and The Rock) written for the film.[5]

Other classical additions included Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C from The Well-Tempered Clavier performed by Jenő Jandó; the Romance movement from Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik; the Andante Cantabile movement from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, and the Adagio un poco mosso from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" performed by István Antal with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra. Traditional British songs God Save the Queen and Men of Harlech also appear.

There is currently no official soundtrack commercially available. In 1976, CBS released a vinyl LP titled "A Theme from Picnic at Hanging Rock", a track of the same name and "Miranda's Theme". A 7" single was released in 1976 of the Picnic at Hanging Rock theme by the Nolan-Buddle Quartet. The song peaked at number 15 on the Australian singles chart.[12]

An album Flute de Pan et Orgue (Music from Picnic at Hanging Rock) was released by Festival Records France.

Theatrical release

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The film premiered on 8 August 1975, at the Hindley Cinema Complex in Adelaide. It was well received by audiences and critics alike.[7] By 1978 it had made more than $3 million in Australian cinemas.[2] It eventually grossed $5,120,000 in box office sales in Australia.[13] This is equivalent to $40,863,759 in 2022.

In 1998, Weir removed seven minutes from the film for a theatrical re-release, creating a shorter 107-minute director's cut.[5]

Reception

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Horror need not always be a long-fanged gentleman in evening clothes or a dismembered corpse or a doctor who keeps a brain in his gold fish bowl. It may be a warm sunny day, the innocence of girlhood and hints of unexplored sexuality that combine to produce a euphoria so intense it becomes transporting, a state beyond life or death. Such horror is unspeakable not because it is gruesome but because it remains outside the realm of things that can be easily defined or explained in conventional ways."

Vincent Canby, writing about the film for The New York Times[14]

Weir recalled that when the film was first screened in the United States, American audiences were disturbed by the fact that the mystery remained unsolved. According to Weir, "One distributor threw his coffee cup at the screen at the end of it, because he'd wasted two hours of his life—a mystery without a goddamn solution!"[5] Critic Vincent Canby noted this reaction among audiences in a 1979 review of the film, in which he discussed the film's elements of artistic "Australian horror romance", albeit one without the cliches of a conventional horror film.[14]

Despite this, the film was a critical success, with American film critic Roger Ebert calling it "a film of haunting mystery and buried sexual hysteria" and remarked that it "employs two of the hallmarks of modern Australian films: beautiful cinematography and stories about the chasm between settlers from Europe and the mysteries of their ancient new home."[15]

Richard Freedman of the The Star-Ledger wrote "it is so drenched in the sensuality of a time and way of life long passed that it is a sheer pleasure for weary 20th Century eyes to behold. Yet it has a unique sensibility of its own. By giving us the materials to fashion our own work of art, it performs a function given only to the highest art: it makes us think as it fills us with awe and wonder."[16]

Joseph Bensou of the Daily Breeze praised Weir's direction, writing "It's an arty film... And like the artist, Weir insists on layering colors and depth to his mystery ever so slowly and deliberately, adding a stroke of character here and a brush of suspense there." He also notes the "convincing" performances of the cast, especially Mrs. Appleyard, "played with a touch of evil" by Rachel Roberts, and Sara Waybourne, "played effortlessly" by Margaret Nelson.[17]

Cliff Green stated in interview that "Writing the film and later through its production, did I—or anyone else—predict that it would become Australia's most loved movie? We always knew it was going to be good—but that good? How could we?"[6]

Picnic at Hanging Rock currently has an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Visually mesmerizing, Picnic at Hanging Rock is moody, unsettling, and enigmatic -- a masterpiece of Australian cinema and a major early triumph for director Peter Weir".[18] Metacritic, another review aggregator, gives the film a score of 81/100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]

Accolades

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Award Category Subject Result
AACTA Awards Best Film Hal and Jim McElroy Nominated
Best Direction Peter Weir Nominated
Best Actress Helen Morse Nominated
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Tony Llewellyn-Jones Nominated
Best Screenplay Cliff Green Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Cinematography Russell Boyd Won
Best Costume Design Judith Dorsman Nominated
Best Soundtrack Greg Bell and Dan Connelly Nominated
British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography Russell Boyd Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Writing Cliff Green Nominated

Home video

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The director's cut was released on DVD in the US by the Criterion Collection on 3 November 1998. This release featured a new transfer of the film, a theatrical trailer and liner notes. The Criterion Collection released the director's cut on Blu-ray in the US on 17 June 2014. It includes a paperback copy of the novel and a number of featurettes.

In the UK, the film was released in a special 3-disc DVD set on 30 June 2008. This set included both the director's cut and the longer original cut, the feature-length documentary A Dream Within a Dream, deleted scenes, interviews with the filmmakers and the book's author Joan Lindsay, poster and still galleries,. UK distributor Second Sight Films released the film on Blu-ray in the UK on 26 July 2010.[20][21]

In Australia it was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in August 2007, and re-released in a 2-disc Collector's Edition in May 2011. This edition includes special features including theatrical trailers, poster and still galleries, documentaries and interviews with cast, crew and Joan Lindsay.[22] It was released on Blu-ray in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment on 12 May 2010, including the feature-length documentary A Dream Within a Dream, a 25-minute on-set documentary titled A Recollection: Hanging Rock 1900 and the theatrical trailer.[23]

Legacy and influence

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Picnic at Hanging Rock was voted the best Australian film of all time by members of the Australian Film Institute, industry guilds and unions, film critics and reviewers, academics and media teachers, and Kookaburra Card members of the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), in a 1996 poll organised by the Victorian Centenary of Cinema Committee and the NFSA.[24]

The film has gone on to inspire other more recent artists, who have come to regard the film for its themes as well as its unique visuals.

Director Sofia Coppola has borrowed heavily from Picnic at Hanging Rock for her productions of The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.[25] Both films, like Picnic at Hanging Rock, deal extensively with themes of death and femininity as well as adolescent perceptions of love and sexuality.[26][27]

American television writer Damon Lindelof said that the film was an influence on the second season of the television show The Leftovers.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Stratton, David (1980). The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival. Sydney, Australia: Angus & Robertson. pp. 68–69. ISBN 9780207141461.
  2. ^ a b Souter, Gavin. "Australian film, makers take on all comers". 4 December 1976. p. 8.
  3. ^ Rayner, Jonathan (2003). The Films of Peter Weir. London, England: Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0826419089.
  4. ^ a b c Murray, Scotty; Ginanne, Antony I. (March–April 1976). "Producing 'Picnic': Pat Lovell". Cinema Papers. pp. 298–301.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "A Dream Within a Dream": Documentary (120 minutes, Umbrella Entertainment, 2004)
  6. ^ a b "The Vault", Storyline, Australian Writers Guild, 2011, p. 68
  7. ^ a b c d McCulloch, Janelle (30 March 2017). "The extraordinary story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  8. ^ Rogers, Anna Backman (2002). Picnic at Hanging Rock. Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 9781839023361. pp. 22–23.
  9. ^ Mahar, Ted (22 June 1979). "'Picnic at Hanging Rock' provides feast for emotions, mind and heart". The Oregonian. p. 66.
  10. ^ a b "Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Unseen Voices". The Bright Light Cafe. 2012.
  11. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (23 January 2014). "Picnic at Hanging Rock: Rewatching classic Australian films". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  12. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 219. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  13. ^ "Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Film Victoria. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  14. ^ a b "Picnic at Hanging Rock by Vincent Canby". The Criterion Collection. 1979. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  15. ^ Ebert, Roger (2 August 1998). "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  16. ^ Freedman, Richard (24 February 1979). "'Picnic' vividly plants the seeds of thought". The Star-Ledger. p. 8.
  17. ^ Bensou, Joseph (27 July 1979). "Fiery roles mark Aussie film". Daily Breeze. p. 58.
  18. ^ "Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  19. ^ "Picnic at Hanging Rock Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  20. ^ "Picnic At Hanging Rock - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray] [1975]". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  21. ^ Atanasov, Svet (14 August 2010). "Picnic at Hanging Rock Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.
  22. ^ "Umbrella Entertainment - Collector's Edition". Archived from the original on 27 April 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  23. ^ "Picnic at Hanging Rock Blu-ray". Umbrella Entertainment Website. Umbrella Entertainment. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  24. ^ Berryman, Ken (February 1996). "100 Key Australian Films". Cinema Papers. No. 108. pp. 22–23.
  25. ^ Weird, Jake (9 May 2000). "The Virgin Suicides and Picnic at Hanging Rock". Weirdland. BlogSpot. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  26. ^ Monden, Masafumi (June 2013). "Contemplating in a dream-like room and the aesthetic imagination of girlhood". Film, Fashion & Consumption. 2 (2). doi:10.1386/ffc.2.2.139_1. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  27. ^ Rodenstein, Roy (9 May 2000). "The Virgin Suicides". The Tech Online. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  28. ^ Ryan, Maureen (29 November 2015). "'The Leftovers' Boss Damon Lindelof Explains That Shocking Twist". Variety. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
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