Picnic at Hanging Rock
I recorded this 1975 Peter Weir-directed film on DVR. Not sure why. And not sure why I felt drawn to watching it late last night. But I did...and...wow. Has anyone else seen it? It was mind-blowing. It is shoving Donnie Darko aside for my most favorite movie ever. I love these mysterious, open-ended stories. I guess I love torturing myself...
YC
3 comments:
i've always loved it, too. of course any movie about a girls boarding school is bound to be excellent. it's haunted me all the years since it came out. i see it every so often and never get tired of it. the original story/evidence behind it is pretty freaky as well.
How about Heavenly Creatures, also based on a true story? Very creepy.
Actually, there is no evidence that there was any disappearance of schoolgirls at Hanging Rock on Valentines Day in 1900 or any other time. Remember the movie, Fargo, which began with, "This movie is entirely true" or some such? Well, same thing here. It's just a movie.
That said, it is an incredibly haunting movie, and so haunting, in fact, that I did a lot of my own research on it after watching it. I found out that the last chapter of the NOVEL on which it was based was not published because the editors thought the story would be better left unresolved.
The resolution contained in that final chapter - called "The Secret of Hanging Rock" is pure science fiction. The girls disappear into the rock - transforming into nature, itself. As does Mrs. McCraw.
Apparently, Irma, who was found a week later, was sort of "spit out" by the force of nature that took the other two girls and the teacher. I guess she somehow did not measure up. Nor did Edith, who never went into the "trance" that the other girls entered into before they disappeared.
I was fascinated by a couple of things in the movie that I couldn't find any research on at all. One was all the napping that took place. Why was everyone so sleepy? Not just on the Rock, but also at its base? And the other was the whole Sara/Bertie thing. What was the significance of Mrs. Appleyard's torture of Sara? And why was it necessary to have had Sara and Albert be brother and sister yet never meet? Was it to establish this sort of "metaphysical" connection between all things?
Incredible movie.
And yes, Deb, Heavenly Creatures is on my list. I did hear that one was true. Wasn't it Kate Winslet's first film?
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