Picnic at Hanging Rock **** (1975, Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver) – Classic Movie Review 7097

Rachel Roberts stars as headmistress Mrs Appleyard in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

‘On St Valentine’s Day in 1900 a party of schoolgirls set out to picnic at Hanging Rock. Some were never to return.’

Miranda: ‘What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream.’

Director Peter Weir’s eerie and evocative 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock transports us back to Australia 100 or so years ago when three schoolgirls vanish inexplicably on a class outing to Hanging Rock.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is extremely impressive, fully enjoyable period entertainment, gorgeously made, and beautifully shot in Eastmancolor. However, a resistance to this arty film may set in towards the end when you begin to realise that there will not be any attempted solution to the mystery it outlines.

The acting is attractive and Roberts clearly enjoys herself as the school’s bossy headmistress, Mrs Appleyard. Helen Morse as Mlle de Poitiers, Anne-Louise Lambert as Miranda and Tony Llewellyn-Jones as Tom are also all notable in the cast.

One of the key films in the ‘New Australian Cinema’ of the Seventies, this is a typical work of the mystically inclined director Weir. It won one BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography (Russell Boyd), and was nominated for Best Costume Design (Judith Dorsman) and Best Sound Track. There were seven Australian Film Institute award nominations, but, curiously, no wins.

It runs 115 minutes and the tightened-up 1998 Director’s Cut re-edit runs 107 minutes.

The screenplay by Cliff Green is based on the novel by Joan Lindsay.

Also in the cast are Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, Vivean Gray, Kirsty Child, Anne-Louise Lambert, Tony Llewellyn-Jones, Frank Gunnell, Karen Robson, Jane Vallis, Christine Schuler, Margaret Nelson, Ingrid Mason, Jenny Lovell and Janet Murray.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is directed by Peter Weir, runs 115 minutes, is made by Picnic Productions, South Australia Film Corporation, Australian Film Commission, British Empire Films Australia, McElroy & McElroy and EMI, is released by GTO Films (UK) and Atlantic (US), is written by Cliff Green, is shot in Eastmancolor by Russell Boyd, is produced by Hal McElroy and Jim McElroy and is scored by Bruce Smeaton.

It is filmed at Mount Diogenes, Hanging Rock Reserve, Woodend, Victoria, Australia, and various South Australia locations.

Rachel Roberts preferred acting to a piece of tape on the wall instead of the other actresses, so allegedly it was tense on set.

Get ready for the 2018 Picnic at Hanging Rock starring Natalie Dormer.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7097

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