Picnic at Hanging Rock is a mystery that's not really about the mystery with characters doing a search that doesn't really matter. There's no reason for the disappearance of the girls, nor is any solution available at the end. For a standard movie goer this is probably a deal breaker, but for more adventurous viewers who are down for an hour and a half of psychological probing, it's a feast. Coming right after the boob and blood-soaked Morrissey horror jaunts, it's also a welcome change of pace.
The film is about a private girl's school in Australia that sends a group of students to Hanging Rock, a mamelon created by a former volcano. They're going as part of a research project for a report, and when they get there some girls seems content to lie down and chill, others eat and read poetry, and a few unfortunates decide to go off into Hanging Rock to explore. After falling asleep they wake up, as if in a daze, and then wander into an opening while the stereotypically annoying fat girl Edith screams her head off. After the disappearance the search is on, with police and reporters getting involved, all while the headmistress Mrs. Appleyard acts like a piece of shit.
Mrs. Appleyard was my favorite part of this movie because I've always liked when films displayed the banality of evil, or just people behaving cruelly because of pragmatic reasons. Rather than being concerned about the safety of the disappeared girls, Appleyard is annoyed because they're going to be losing money from those girl's tuition funds, and to make matters worse, several other parents are stopping their payments and taking their girls back home. As an outlet for this frustration Appleyard expels an orphan girl named Sara, a girl who wasn't allowed on the trip and has been tortured by Appleyard throughout the movie. Her suicide at the end seems preordained, but Appleyard is dressed in hypocritical black mourning clothes with Sara's bags already packed and ready to go. She really is a fascinating character, and one that I look forward to paying special attention to on further viewings, as her dynamic with Sara is probably the juiciest character stuff we get here.
The film maintains a tone of unease throughout, and Hanging Rock is shot as an imposing, mysterious location. It's a brilliant use of "location as antagonist," with a natural phenomenon looking magnificently creepy at times. There are also shots of reptiles and other insects, and I've always loved those kinds of nature shots in films (see also my review of Walkabout, which is a treasure trove of nature photography). There are other characters in this film aside from the girls and Hanging Rock, but in a delicious twist, not a single male character in this feature is even remotely as interesting as the females or the lifeless chunk of nature. I can't stress enough how refreshing that is, given how penis-centric 90% of cinema is.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is brilliant, but one of those films that you need to be in a specific mood to watch. I wouldn't say that it's entertaining, but it lingers with you for a long time afterward and is essential viewing. As for ranking, I'm going to place this one right above Dead Ringers but below This Is Spinal Tap, since that seems to be another nice dividing point. Between Dead Ringers and Picnic at Hanging Rock I don't know which one I'll be watching again in the future, but I'll definitely want to watch Tap before either of them.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Robocop (1987)
3. Seven Samurai (1954)
4. The Seventh Seal (1957)
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
6. Grand Illusion (1937)
7. High and Low (1963)
8. Shock Corridor (1963)
9. Hard Boiled (1992)
10. Sid and Nancy (1986)
11. The 400 Blows (1959)
12. Walkabout (1971)
13. The Killer (1989)
14. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
15. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
16. Dead Ringers (1988)
17. The Naked Kiss (1964)
18. A Night to Remember (1958)
19. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
20. The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)
21. The Long Good Friday (1980)
22. Blood For Dracula (1974)
23. Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
24. Amarcord (1973)
25. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
26. Summertime (1955)
27. Alphaville (1965)
Next time: I've very excited to go back to the 1930s with Fritz Lang's first talkie, 1931's M.
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