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Rating: The mystery as an inseparable part of Life's matters, the exaltation of Nature in its relationship with Man, English society at the beginning of the 1900s, Love in its sublime aspect. These are the themes magnificently dealt with in "Picnic at Hanging Rock", one of the early works of Peter Weir ("Dead Poets Society," "The Truman Show").
A film with a skillfully slow pace and intense flavor, featuring soft images, supported by a wonderful and fitting soundtrack.
In the English domain of Australia in 1900, on Valentine's Day, the students of the aristocratic Appleyard College for girls, after exchanging notes of love and friendship, go on an excursion with some teachers to Hanging Rock, a volcanic rock formation with untouched nature and an unsettling profile.
Miranda, a sweet, charismatic, and sensual girl, and three other companions leave the group to explore its summit in the warm hours after lunch, enchanted by the call of nature and the unknown. At precisely noon, a strange phenomenon occurred that stopped the clock hands. A teacher also follows them shortly after, driven by an irresistible impulse. They vanish into thin air, only one returns in a confused state. In the following days, the police conduct intense but fruitless searches. Michael, a young English aristocrat and his all-purpose servant, present on the day of the disappearance and fascinated by the graceful demeanor and angelic faces of the girls, engage in a generous and arduous search that is rewarded with the finding of only one of the girls. Of the others, nothing more will be known.
Cleverly suggesting, without ever explicitly admitting it, that the story is based on a true event, Peter Weir weaves a film where he exposes various aspects: the classist society and its ignobility (Michael, the aristocrat, who, in the search for the girls, begins to understand how insignificant class differences are, sympathizing with the servant); pure Love (of Sara, an introverted and less fortunate student, towards Miranda), human insensitivity (in the treatment reserved for Sara by the college headmistress); human greed (the college, following the events, falls into ruin, families withdraw their daughters, and the headmistress despairs for the impending bankruptcy much more than for the disappearance of those young lives).
All set in a well-reconstructed period setting, with a well-directed and well-acted story. Noteworthy is the interspersing of original close-ups of small animals captured in their habits or the buzzing of insects sometimes the only sound in the scene, highlighting the authoritative presence of Nature. The effect is also notable in the focal close-ups of Miranda, simple and beautiful to whom "daisies are the flowers she likes the most". Another moment to recall the soundtrack, beautiful in the main flute theme and remarkable in the piano part that accompanies the frantic search for the girls by the gentleman and his servant (one of my favorite scenes).
Get hold of the film, turn off the lights, and immerse yourself in this Victorian atmosphere, on the edge of the real, letting yourself be drawn by the sweet and sensual charm of Miranda, who once said, with wisdom equal to her ethereal beauty:
"There is a right time and place for everything to have a beginning and an end".
Directed by Peter Weir
Australia 1975
Miranda: Anne-Louise Lambert
The Headmistress: Rachel Roberts
Michael: Dominic Guard
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