Picnic at Hanging Rock

About the show

This is the pre-eminent film of Australian New Wave Cinema, first released fifty years ago. It was both a critical and commercial success, even though one American distributor at a preview screening complained that he’d wasted two hours of his life and felt compelled to throw his coffee at the screen. Why? Because it is a mystery unsolved, and by the end of the film much remains unknown.

The advertising material says:“On St Valentine’s Day in 1900, a party of schoolgirls set out to picnic at Hanging Rock … some were never to return.”

It is a costume drama, the schoolgirls in white frocks, tightly corseted, innocent, perhaps, repressed, perhaps. The stern headmistress (played by Rachel Roberts) issues her instructions before the party leaves the school for their picnic. A sense of incipient danger is instilled even before they arrive at Hanging Rock. Once there, some girls opt to disobey instructions and explore the Rock, climbing higher, and passing deep into its tempting recesses. There is a frisson of unresolved sexual tension, and the Rock seems to cast a spell over the group of renegade girls.

The cinematography is superb and perfectly captures the heat and atmosphere of the place. It’s high time to revisit this film – on the big screen in Cheltenham. Just don’t expect resolution by the end. And please, don’t throw your coffee!