If Terrence Malick made an X-files episode... Weir makes a minimalist film feel rich with his delicate, haunting touch. Perfect use of music. I just can't get over how much that one girl looked like a young, female Stephen Fry, though.

Absolutely spellbinding, and effortlessly so at that. Definitely reminded me a lot of Roeg's Walkabout and Antonioni's L'avventura, albeit with less overt symbolism than the former, and more sympathetic figures than the latter. I loved the way it handled its central theme of sexual repression. It's hard to believe that Weir went on to direct drivel like The Truman Show and Master and Commander.

Even better than I remembered, and it haunted me for 25 years. Keeps you in a delicious paradox of wanting to know the answer but also never wanting the mystery to end.

i don't really get disappearance films. this reminded me a lot of spoorloos. both have good music and good cinematography but absolutely no character development and very dull concepts that are apparently supposed to carry the suspense.

The acting is laughably bad.

Cinematographer shows mastery over his craft. Costume design is also done pretty well. The girls look .. well young and beautiful. Acting is good. Music except for some parts is good. Overall well made cinema that along with the subject matter will grab your attention. I dont expect this to stay in my memory for a long time - but some images & symbolism surely will. Subliminal & almost repressive eroticism. It gets you thinking things without actually showing much. Just with camera and dialogs.

Aesthetically speaking I personally don't respond as much to soft, hazy and somewhat lush tones as I do to harsh (often monochromatic) ones. Such quibbles aside "Picnic at Hanging Rock" manages to hit an uncomfortable discord despite - or perhaps because of - the harmony inscribed in every lyrical scene. It's unsettling in all of its curious harmony. It's quite unlike anylike anything perhaps barring Coppola's "Virgin Suicides". An obvious idiosyncratic Aussie double with Roeg's "Walkabout".

553

The movie has an absolutely amazing first act that does a great job of building to the "big" moment of the film, but after it hits its high note the movie becomes much less engaging. The problem is not the lack of a resolution, I think the issue is that the story follows threads that I don't think are so engaging while not paying more time to the things that would be. Ultimately, much like the characters in the film, once Miranda goes, you kind of wish she'd come back.

Not unlike Roeg did in Walkabout, Weir succumbs to lensing the Aussie nature and wildlife like a tourist would. This distracts from an otherwise eerie, if dramatically limp, Proustian chiller. A film like this is hard to rate objectively since it either speaks to you or it doesn't (and also because I care fuck all for objectivity), so rather than saying it's a poor movie, I'll just say it wasn't my particular cup of beer.

A bizarre film with exceptionally outstanding cinematography and a anomalously aberrant score that redolently compliments the ambiguity of the Rock's undisclosed secrets. Even when these are finally revealed, the setting's refinement outweights the horrifyingly malign impressions this film leaves.

Speaking as someone who has spent the past eight months in school reading lengthy case law on corporate liability and incomprehensible legislation dealing with the subdivision of real property, I can safely say that this film is fucking boring.

Mystical, dreamlike horror film which poses no easy answers. A rewarding entry for those who like their thrillers done with a subtle hand.

A great mystery film that really shows you the power of unexplored nature and the results of repressed sexuality.

Possesses an inexplicably angelic quality and maintains it throughout the film's entire running time. Certainly one of the most entrancing pieces of cinema I've ever beheld.

Certainly the most striking thing about this film for me, was its atmosphere. It has such a strange, otherworldly quality to it which made me feel quite uncomfortable and uneasy for parts of it. It’s an Australian film which claims to be based on real events, but this is false. Not all that much happens in it and there’s some questionable acting/characters, but its strength lies in its ability to evoke a truly unnerving mood and atmosphere which makes it worth a watch.

The cinematography and score are so ethereal. A haunting tale of longing and isolation. The lack of clarity as to what actually happened really makes this a creepy, unsettling film.

#608

A fascinating, unsolvable mystery which is, in a way, about its very unsolvability. Set in a remote time and place (rural Australia, 1900), the feeling of lostness, combined with the deep, often unspoken love between characters, creates a unique and haunting atmosphere. Fine acting all around; Peter Weir's direction is patient and subtly imaginative; Cliff Green's script balances dreamy mystery and the structures of Victorian society skillfully. Some heavy-handed symbolism; otherwise a winner.

The students at private girls school Appleyard College are dressing on the morning of St. Valentine's Day, 1900. Several of the girls, including Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert), Irma (Karen Robson), Marion (Jane Vallis), Rosamund (Ingrid Mason), waifish Sara (Margaret Nelson) and outsider Edith (Christine Schuler) read poetry and Valentine's Day cards. The group prepare for a picnic to Hanging Rock, accompanied by the remote mathematics mistress Miss Greta McCraw (Vivean Gray) and the young and