Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Country: AUS
Technical: col 115m
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Anne Lambert
Synopsis:
The tranquil, ordered world of a Victorian college in Australia is shattered by the disappearance of a small group of girls during a picnic on a beautiful summer's afternoon.
Review:
Showing how fragile a civilised but repressed society can be when faced with eternal, impenetrable forces, this ravishing film almost seems to take Forster's Marabar Caves as its starting point, until one discovers it was based on an actual incident. In any event, it put the new Australian cinema on the map almost singlehandedly, revealing at the same time that there were other gems to be discovered there. It revels in its omission of any explanation, of course, and that indeed is its strength, and there are clues for the observant which themselves go uncontextualised: for example, both Irma and Michael bear the same scar on the forehead, though no one points it out. The use of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto's slow movement, together with the sun-dappled imagery, inevitably call to mind Elvira Madigan, which is a pity for this unique film, otherwise better served by pan pipes and other original music for voices and piano.
Country: AUS
Technical: col 115m
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Anne Lambert
Synopsis:
The tranquil, ordered world of a Victorian college in Australia is shattered by the disappearance of a small group of girls during a picnic on a beautiful summer's afternoon.
Review:
Showing how fragile a civilised but repressed society can be when faced with eternal, impenetrable forces, this ravishing film almost seems to take Forster's Marabar Caves as its starting point, until one discovers it was based on an actual incident. In any event, it put the new Australian cinema on the map almost singlehandedly, revealing at the same time that there were other gems to be discovered there. It revels in its omission of any explanation, of course, and that indeed is its strength, and there are clues for the observant which themselves go uncontextualised: for example, both Irma and Michael bear the same scar on the forehead, though no one points it out. The use of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto's slow movement, together with the sun-dappled imagery, inevitably call to mind Elvira Madigan, which is a pity for this unique film, otherwise better served by pan pipes and other original music for voices and piano.
Country: AUS
Technical: col 115m
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Anne Lambert
Synopsis:
The tranquil, ordered world of a Victorian college in Australia is shattered by the disappearance of a small group of girls during a picnic on a beautiful summer's afternoon.
Review:
Showing how fragile a civilised but repressed society can be when faced with eternal, impenetrable forces, this ravishing film almost seems to take Forster's Marabar Caves as its starting point, until one discovers it was based on an actual incident. In any event, it put the new Australian cinema on the map almost singlehandedly, revealing at the same time that there were other gems to be discovered there. It revels in its omission of any explanation, of course, and that indeed is its strength, and there are clues for the observant which themselves go uncontextualised: for example, both Irma and Michael bear the same scar on the forehead, though no one points it out. The use of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto's slow movement, together with the sun-dappled imagery, inevitably call to mind Elvira Madigan, which is a pity for this unique film, otherwise better served by pan pipes and other original music for voices and piano.