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Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975,
Australia)
In Peter Weir's mystical, intriguing, and bewildering
film about sexual repression, at a private girls' school in Australia
that experienced an unsolved and puzzling mystery:
- the pre-credits prologue: "On Saturday 14th
February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College picnicked
at Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During
the afternoon several members of the party disappeared without
trace..."
- the haunting voice-over by young boarding schoolgirl
Miranda St. Clare (Anne Lambert) - a line paraphrased from Edgar
Allan Poe's A Dream within a Dream: "What we see and
what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream" - emphasizing
the themes of voyeurism, peeping, repressiveness, gazing, coming-of-age,
and dream worlds
- the images of young nubile schoolgirls in their prim
and constrictive white dresses and stockings - on Valentine's Day
in the year 1900 during the Victorian-Edwardian-era in Australia
- passing love notes to each other and preparing for an ill-fated
journey with strict authoritarian headmistress Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel
Roberts) (of Appleyard College) to Hanging Rock (near Woodend, Victoria)
for a day's picnic - metaphorically entering into a primitive place
of wild danger (similar to the passage into adult sexuality)
- the ominous description of the day's outing by Mrs.
Appleyard to the assembled girls (with hints of sexual, phallic danger
and feminine crevices, openings and caves): "Once again let
me remind you, the rock itself is extremely dangerous, and you are
therefore forbidden any tomboy foolishness in the matter of exploration,
even on the lower slopes. I also wish to remind you, the vicinity
is reknowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various
species. It is, however, a geological marvel, on which you will be
required to write a brief essay on Monday morning. That is all. Have
a pleasant day, and try to behave yourselves in a manner to bring
credit to the College"
Pre-Picnic Warnings from Mrs. Appleyard
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- the sensual cinematography of the day's journey
via a horse-drawn carriage driven by buggy-coachman driver Ben
Hussey (Martin Vaughan), the girls' laughter, and the picnic conducted
in the warm shade
- an ominous occurrence: the watches of both Mr. Hussey
and the young mathematics teacher Miss Greta McCraw (Vivean Gray)
stopped at 12 noon - she remarked: "It stopped at twelve. It
never stopped before. Must be something magnetic"
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Math Teacher Miss Greta McCraw (Vivean Gray)
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Miss McCraw's Watch
Stopped at Twelve Noon
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- the exploration of four girls (including pretty,
angelic, ethereal and popular blonde Miranda (described by a teacher
as "a Botticelli angel"), smart glasses-wearing Marion
Quade (Jane Vallis), pretty Irma Leopold (Karen Robson), and whining,
fat Edith (Christine Schuler)) among the menacing outcroppings
and phallic-shaped forbidden volcanic rock crevices as they stripped
away their layers of clothing before mysteriously disappearing
in the foreign location
Four Girls Exploring Hanging Rock
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Miranda
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Irma
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Marion
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Edith
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- the scream of lagging-behind Edith when she witnessed
something at the moment of the three other girls' disappearance
as they walked behind a rock face; only Edith returned, although
hysterical and unable to describe what had transpired
- the late-night report of the buggy driver Ben Hussey
and Mme. de Poitiers to Mrs. Appleyard back at school about the three
missing girls and Miss McCraw: "Madam, something terrible has
happened....Three of your young ladies and uh - Miss McCraw are missing
- on the rock....Nobody knows what happened"; later, Edith claimed
she saw Miss McCraw heading up the rock formation without her skirt
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"Madam, something terrible has happened"
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"Nobody knows what happened"
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- the next day, a search party (with bloodhounds)
at Hanging Rock resulted in Albert Crundall (John Jarratt) (who
had lunched at the site the day the girls vanished) discovering
Irma unconscious, and when she awoke, she had no recollection of
what had happened ("I remember - nothing! Nothing! I remember
nothing!"); she was found without her corset, shoes or stockings:
("Miss Irma's corset - it's missing!"); Doctor McKenzie
(Jack Fegan) examined her for signs of molestation and reported: "She's
quite intact" (i.e., an unbroken hymen)
- the series of strange events surrounding the mysterious
figure of Mrs. Appleyard, who was implicated in abusively threatening
orphaned school girl Sara Waybourne (Margaret Nelson) to be thrown
out of the school for her indebtedness ("This is not a charitable
institution"), and strapping her to the wall to improve her
posture; after the disappearance of the girls, parents began to withdraw
their children from the school, she began drinking
- the school gymnasium scene of the provocatively scarlet-dressed
Irma, who was saying goodbye to her classmates (just before being
removed from the school by her parents) and was mobbed by them for
refusing to reveal the secrets at Hanging Rock that she had experienced
- the assertion by Mrs. Appleyard that Sara had been
taken away and returned to the orphanage, followed by the shocking
discovery the next morning of the dead body of Sara; her bloodied
body was below her 2nd floor bedroom window and had crashed through
the roof of the greenhouse - was it a possible suicide?; after the
discovery, Mrs. Appleyard (in black mourning clothes) was thought
to have hurriedly packed up and quickly departed before she could
be questioned
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Sara's Body in Greenhouse
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Mrs. Appleyard in Mourning
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Miranda's Last Wave
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- afterwards, the final concluding narration about
the incident: ("The body of Mrs. Arthur Appleyard, Principal
of Appleyard College, was found at the base of Hanging Rock on
Friday, the 27th of March 1900. Although the exact circumstances
of her death are not known, it is believed she fell while attempting
to climb the rock. The search for the missing school girls and
their governess continued spasmodically for the next few years
without success. To this day, their disappearance remains a mystery")
- there was the slow-motion return to the picnic scene with Miranda
waving goodbye and the freeze-frame of her turning her head away
from the camera - during the film's final fade-out
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Miranda (Anne Lambert)
The Corseted Schoolgirls on Valentine's Day, 1900
Constrictive White Dresses and Black Stockings
Carriage-Ride to Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Picnic
Chaperone Mme. de Poitiers (Helen Morse)
Rock Passageways
Peering Through Cave Opening
Edith's Last View of the Other Three Girls
Discovery of Unconscious Irma
Threats and Abusive Treatment Toward Sara by Strict Mrs.
Appleyard
Irma Surrounded and Assaulted by Classmates
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