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Author Topic: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock  (Read 3549 times)

chesterfilms

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saltine

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2008, 12:24:46 PM »
I love the mood of this film.  I think Weir did an amazing job of maintaining that otherworldly atmosphere throughout the entire film. 

Those shots of the animals and vegetation juxtaposed with the girls in their corsets, lacy dresses and ribbons emphasized the theme you see in so many Aussie films, the staid and proper newcomers don't belong in this exotic land.  Ultimately, everyone paid the price for the intrusion too.

I have been to Hanging Rock.  I didn't picnic, but there are picnic grounds there now with tables and trash bins.  Still it looks much the same as in the film, eerie and forbidding.   
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ses

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2008, 12:53:35 PM »
I did enjoy the mood of this film and I thought it looked beautiful.  The score was beautiful and haunting at the same time, but I have to admit, it reminded me a teensy bit of Karate Kid II due to the use of panflute  :P, but I still enjoyed it.

Like Saltine said, I liked the juxtaposition of nature vs. society, but ultimately the film didn't hold my attention very well, and I thought that it was much more style over substance. 
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winrit

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2008, 12:19:02 AM »
The most memorable part of the movie was the sound: the score, but also the clock ticking, flies buzzing, and other sounds of nature blending in and out of the score. I was completely wrapped up in the other worldliness of it and although there is little resolution to be had, I was hooked on trying to solve the mystery. In fact, had the mystery been solved I probably would have enjoyed the story less. Not knowing drives the movie and the lack of resolution leaves the door open for whatever you want it to be, whether it is gruesome or mystical.

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SloppyDog

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2008, 09:55:02 AM »
Like most Aussies of my generation I first saw this at high school and I've seen it a few times since.

It's intensely lyrical, beautifully paced and the soundscape it just mesmorising, but the thing I find most memorable about it is Miranda's face. It dominates the film and is the image that stays with me long after the film ends - despite the fact that she's only in the first act.

In fact, despite the fact that I've sene the film about four times, when I sat down to watch it again, I actually could not remember what happened after the disappearance. I think that has a lot to do with the direction and the way the screenplay and the performances after the disappearance seem to be so defined by that girl.

Oh, the other thing that blew me away this time was realising that the farmhand was John Jarratt, who was famous here for years for hosting the Better Homes and Gardens lifestyle show, until he returned to acting as Mick 'Head on a Stick' in Wolf Creek.

Anyway, I love it and will return to it again over the years, if just to get as close to dreaming as film can get.

duder

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2008, 11:48:24 AM »

Those shots of the animals and vegetation juxtaposed with the girls in their corsets, lacy dresses and ribbons emphasized the theme you see in so many Aussie films, the staid and proper newcomers don't belong in this exotic land.  Ultimately, everyone paid the price for the intrusion too.

That is certainly an interesting reading (I didn't know it was a common theme in Australian films), but I'm not sure the idea of "punishment" applies here. I saw it more as a symbolic representation of sexual awakening/emancipation. It's not even very subtle about it, with Victorian-era repression in clear contrast with the freedom and eroticism of the natural world in general and Hanging Rock in particular ("vulcanic; siliceous lava forced up from deep down below; soda trachytes extruded in a highly viscous state", says one of the teachers at one point). It's not for nothing that they gradually dispose of their clothes before they disappear (the corset a symbol of sexual repression), or that one of the girls is called a "Boticelli angel".
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winrit

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2008, 04:24:48 PM »
In the original ending of the book the girls throw their corsets over the cliff. Marion, Miranda, and Miss McCraw then transform into small creatures and crawl into a hole in the rock, which another boulder then covers, leaving Irma alone and clawing at the fallen rock. Throwing the corsets may be a way of rebelling against the civilized world, but also a way of becoming more "natural" in preparation for their transformation.

The ending is left open in the published version of the book and in the movie, but the original ending does give us an idea of what the author was thinking.
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duder

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2008, 04:39:07 PM »
In the original ending of the book the girls throw their corsets over the cliff. Marion, Miranda, and Miss McCraw then transform into small creatures and crawl into a hole in the rock, which another boulder then covers, leaving Irma alone and clawing at the fallen rock. Throwing the corsets may be a way of rebelling against the civilized world, but also a way of becoming more "natural" in preparation for their transformation.

The ending is left open in the published version of the book and in the movie, but the original ending does give us an idea of what the author was thinking.

Wow, I do not like the original ending :). Thankfully, the book and the film are completely separate entities, so Lindsay's ideas have absolutely no bearing on how I look at Weir's work.
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winrit

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Re: Filmspotter Marathon - Australian Films - Picnic at Hanging Rock
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2008, 04:54:27 PM »
Wow, I do not like the original ending :)

I don't think that anyone liked the original ending, that is why it never ended up in the book.  :)

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