DramaMystery

Picnic at Hanging Rock

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

In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.

Release Date : 1975-09-02

Language :EnglishFrench

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : McElroy & McElroyPicnic Productions Pty. Ltd.British Empire Films AustraliaAustralian Film Commission

Production Country : Australia

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Mrs. Appleyard

Original Name : Rachel Roberts

Gender : Female

Character Name : Miss Greta McCraw

Original Name : Vivean Gray

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mlle. Dianne de Poitiers

Original Name : Helen Morse

Gender : Female

Character Name : Miss Dora Lumley

Original Name : Kirsty Child

Gender : Female

Character Name : Tom

Original Name : Tony Llewellyn-Jones

Gender : Male

Character Name : Minnie

Original Name : Jacki Weaver

Gender : Female

Character Name : Miranda St. Clare

Original Name : Anne-Louise Lambert

Gender : Female

Character Name : Irma Leopold

Original Name : Karen Robson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Marion Quade

Original Name : Jane Vallis

Gender : Female

Character Name : Edith Horton

Original Name : Christine Schuler

Gender : Female

Character Name : Sara Waybourne

Original Name : Margaret Nelson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Rosamund Swift

Original Name : Ingrid Mason

Gender : Female

Character Name : Blanche Gifford

Original Name : Jenny Lovell

Gender : Female

Character Name : Juliana

Original Name : Janet Murray

Gender : Female

Character Name : Sgt. Bumpher

Original Name : Wynn Roberts

Gender : Male

Character Name : Col. Fitzhubert

Original Name : Peter Collingwood

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs. Fitzhubert

Original Name : Olga Dickie

Gender : Female

Character Name : Michael Fitzhubert

Original Name : Dominic Guard

Gender : Male

Character Name : Albert Crundall

Original Name : John Jarratt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mr. Whitehead

Original Name : Frank Gunnell

Gender : Male

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Vivienne Graves

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Angela Bencini

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Melinda Cardwell

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Annabel Powrie

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Amanda White

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Lindy O'Connell

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Verity Smith

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Deborah Mullins

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Sue Jamieson

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Bernadette Bencini

Gender : Female

Character Name : Pupil

Original Name : Barbara Lloyd

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mrs. Bumpher

Original Name : Kay Taylor

Gender : Female

Character Name : Const. Jones

Original Name : Garry McDonald

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ben Hussey

Original Name : Martin Vaughan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Doc. McKenzie

Original Name : John Fegan

Gender : Male

Reviews

Wuchak

@Wuchak

2021-06-23

_**Several females suddenly go missing in southeast Australia in 1900**_ When the students & staff of a girl’s school outside Melbourne take an outing to Hanging Rock on Valentine’s Day in 1900, three girls and a teacher mysteriously go missing. What happened to them? Directed by Peter Weir and based on the 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975) is an artsy psychological mystery that seems timeless. The style is akin to movies like “Days of Heaven” (1978), “The Secret Garden” (1993) and “The Virgin Suicides” (1999). If you like those movies you’ll appreciate this one. While not as compelling as Weir’s future “Dead Poets Society” (1989), there are some obvious parallels. Both movies deal with prep schools that represent the curious constraints of civilization; you play the game to survive and the only way to escape is through some kind of exile. The first act is artistic, but rather dull with an increasing sense of foreboding. Things pick up during the haunting outing at Hanging Rock. Once the females go missing the movie becomes compelling because the viewer WANTS to know what happened. The fun of the movie is to speculate on the clues and come to a probable conclusion, as well as look for symbolic meaning. I should add that I own the “The Secret of Hanging Rock,” published in 1987, which contains Lindsay’s supposedly missing 18th chapter. I strongly believe this was a scam by the publisher to sell more books after the author’s death due to the increasing interest in the story via the movie’s international success. There is zero factual evidence of this apocryphal 'last chapter' containing the 'explanation' to the original book. Lindsay had repeatedly stated that she did NOT write any solution and purposefully left the story a mystery, fiercely advocating the open-endedness of her tale. It doesn’t help that this curiously brief ‘last chapter’ doesn’t fit the style & content of the original novel; it’s awkwardly blunt with its peculiar ‘explanation.’ Still, it is ONE of the possible answers and certainly adds to the interesting mystery. The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, with another version running about 8 minutes longer. It was shot at Hanging Rock in the state of Victoria, about a 50-minute drive northwest of Melbourne in southeast Australia; the Appleyard College sequences were shot at Martindale Hall near Mintaro in South Australia, about a 7-hour drive northwest of Hanging Rock. Other scenes were shot in the studio at Adelaide, which is about an hour drive south of Martindale Hall. GRADE: B