PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

Australia, 1975, 115 minutes, Colour.
Rachel Roberts, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, John Jarratt, Dominic Guard, Vivean Grey, Anne Lambert.
Directed by Peter Weir.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a film that is a continual delight to watch and listen to, exquisitely designed and photographed, a re-creation of a period, often in beautiful tableaux. But the plot is full of mystery, suggestion, hints at what motivates people beneath the level of consciousness, people in a remote colony, trying to make an England in the Antipodes, bring civilisation to the rugged bush, act out behaviour in an age that suppressed feeling under genteel manners. Hanging Rock becomes a symbol of the conflicts which arise for teachers, pupils, the gentry, the townspeople. What happens is not so important, rather the mystery of the meaning, The film boasts many fine performances including those of Rachel Roberts and Helen Morse. The photography and the music have been lavishly praised. In fact Picnic at Hanging Rock is one of the finest films of the earliest seventies made in Australia.

1. The achievement of this film? As an Australian film? Content, the technical aspects?

2. Audience curiosity and interest in this real-life puzzle? The response to the various aspects and pieces of the puzzle? The fact that the puzzle was not solved?

3. The eerie atmosphere for the film? How well was this communicated? The watches stopping, the heat and the haze, the Rock spiriting away the girls, the scratches, the lack of injuries on Irma, the music and the Pipes of Pan? Miranda and her comment on 'the right time for things'? How satisfactory were the clues? Enough for an interpretation which was not fully natural?

4. A realistic interpretation of the mystery? The girls being curious, getting lost, falling down holes and disappearing? The romantic attitudes of the girls so that they would get lost? Were there sufficient clues for a realistic interpretation?

5. The initial atmosphere of the school as important for themes and the atmosphere? The opening with the attention to detail on the girls, their characters, ways of behaviour, the atmosphere of a school at 1900? The girlish behaviour, giggling and talking and chatter? The number of pupils in this exclusive school, the attitude of the teachers? The atmosphere of St. Valentine's Day? The emphasis on manners and breeding? The significance of the outing? Mrs. Appleyard's instructions about behaviour for example the gloves, not wandering on the rocks? The presentation of so much of the school and its way of life in the form of tableau and painting? Audience response to this detailed atmosphere for the mystery?

6. The prim and repressed atmosphere of the school? 1900 and Victorian manners and morals? The smouldering beginnings of desire under the surface? Miranda and her air of mystery, her hold over the others, Sarah as an orphan and her longing for friendship and love? Miranda's mysterious words to her? Sarah and her staying at home and pining, her insolence to Mrs. Appleyard? The other girls as illustrating this?

7. The contrast with the Rock, the way that it was filmed, standing out, primitive and phallic symbol? The rugged detail of the lock? Its fascination and draw on the girls? Its being seen from a distance, at close-up? The musical and sound accompaniment to the Rock? The girls and their exploration and the effect that it had on them, drawing them, tiring them out, moving away in slow motion? Miss Mc Craw and her attitude towards the Rock? And her disappearance?

8. The portrayal of the picnic itself: its detailed panning through the various girls and their behaviour of playing, eating, resting? The insight into each girl at the picnic? Mademoiselle and her comment on 'Botticelli angels'? The music during the picnic?

9. The film's portrayal of the behaviour of the girls: as ordinary and girlish, taking their stockings off etc., symbolic? The ascent and its symbolic nature, slow motion? The screaming as the girls disappeared?

10. The contrast with Mrs. Appleyard? Her attitude towards her school, trying to make an English school in Australia? Her standards? Victorian primness? Her attitude towards Sarah and the learning of the poem? Her attitude towards the girls' disappearance, her being desolated, lacking in control? Worrying about parents taking the girls away, her harshness as regards Sarah's fee? The resignation of the teachers? Her beginning to drink, her repression, her behaviour at the meal, the servants' attitudes? The incident and the picnic killing Mrs Appleyard? Her attitude towards Sarah and Sarah's death, her own sitting at her desk with the commentary about her death? The significance of her death?

11. The presentation of Sarah and her role in the film? As different from the other girls? Relationship to Miranda? The detail of her treasures? Irma and her attraction to Miranda? To Mademoiselle? The fact that she was rescued, that she recovered, the hysteria of her return? Mademoiselle as a sensible person and her relationship to the girls? Her romantic attitudes? Her grief and trying to discover the truth? Her coping with the situation? With Irma’s hysterical visit to the girls? The other teacher and her prim and properness, her inability to cope, her hiding during the hysteria, her resignation? Minnie and her observations on the girls? The servants' attitudes in the school? Her discussion of the girls with her boyfriend? What did these characters contribute to the theme and the atmosphere?

12. The theme of class difference? The town of Woodend, the police, the trackers, their being photographed for history? The ugly atmosphere of the town and resentment of the girls* disappearance? Suspicions of crime? The way the Inspector and his assistant handled the case?

14. Class questions as focussed in the two boys? The party of the English group and its formality and tableau? Michael and his being part of this world, his going to talk with Albert? The significance of their reaching out for the bottle, sharing thoughts and talk? Watching the girls? Michael’s gradual involvement and fascination with Miranda? His following the girls, his dreaming, his climbing of the Rock and the torture that it gave, the reason for finding Irma? His inability to cope? The contrast with Albert and his preoccupation with the present? The working class and servants? His ability to track Michael, rescue Irma, and yet not be preoccupied about it? The relating of the dream? Albert and his relationship with Sarah and their symbolic significance?

15. What was Michael's role in the mystery of Hanging Rock? The effect on him?

16. How was the film a symbolic one? The film's portrayal of visual symbols? Music? How realistic was the film? Is it a film classic?