
PopGap #21: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Written by dorrk | 27 September 2016 |
What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream.
Picnic at Hanging Rock has such a rhapsodic, enchanting, and unnerving first act that the rest of Peter Weir's 1975 mystery unavoidably falls short of maintaining that high standard. Although often mistaken as a true story, this adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel is pure fiction: during an outing at the titular landmark, three young women and a teacher from an early 20th century Australian boarding school disappear, and the resulting searches and investigation raise more questions than answers.
The first half-hour of Picnic at Hanging Rock is intoxicatingly dreamy, with its frames carefully composed like renaissance paintings, but shot through a filter of gauze, golden hour sunlight, and morning dew. Once the narrative transitions to a more conventional plot, there's bound to be some let down — but that's just when the intriguing symbolism, exploring the conflict of essences between Australia's ruggedly sensual geography and its stiff Victorian English colonizers, becomes most apparent, imbuing the land itself with a sense of ecstatically supernatural purpose, and raising enough compelling juxtapositions to carry the movie to a satisfyingly allegorical conclusion.
Trailer for Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
More info
I'll post reviews for all the movies on this blog, and live-tweet most viewings here:
https://twitter.com/popgap
As movies are added to this list, I'll add them to Letterboxd, here:
https://letterboxd.com/dorrk/list/popgap-2016-09-voters-choice/
You can keep track of my Flickchart here:
http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=dorrk
TL/DR
-
Movie:Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
-
Dir.:Peter Weir
-
Project:PopGap #21: Voters' Choice
-
Watched:9/12/2016
-
Rating:7/10
-
Flickchart Rank:790
-
Chart Percentile:77.78%
Tags
Related Articles
- Silver Screen Streak List #17: 04. The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
- PopGap #11: Wake in Fright (1971)
- Silver Screen Streak List #16: 02. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
- Silver Screen Streak List #16: 03. Midnight Express (1978)
- Silver Screen Streak List #17: 05. Patrick (1978)
- PopGap #12: Muriel's Wedding (1994)
Latest Articles
-
Silver Screen Streak List #24: The Best Crime Thrillers I Haven't Seen
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2023 has been put down
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2023
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: 04. Invention for Destruction (1958)
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: 03. Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: 02. Hellzapoppin' (1941)
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: 01. The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
-
Silver Screen Streak List #22: 05. The Hippopotamus (2017)
POPGAP Projects
-
Silver Screen Streak List #24: The Best Crime Thrillers I Haven't Seen
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2023 has been put down
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2023
-
Silver Screen Streak List #23: The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
-
Silver Screen Streak List #22: The 28 best films of all time you've probably never seen
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2022 is all Oct-Over now, Baby Blue
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2022
-
Silver Screen Streak List #21: Dramas of the 1940s
-
Popgap Diary: 2021 in Review
Popular Articles
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2019
-
Introducing the Silver Screen Streak movie challenge
-
Octoblur 2017: Annual Horror-ish Movie Nightmare-a-thon
-
PopGap #08 Re-cap: Comedies Since 1970
-
Octoblur 2017: R.I.P.!
-
PopGap Diary: Octoblur 2020
-
Octoblur 2015 - It's Over!
-
PopGap #19: Movie Books Special Report
-
Popgap Diary: 2019 in Review