
Picnic at Hanging Rock
3.6
(244)
Drama
Mystery
1975
115 min
PG
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.
Starring:
Drama
Mystery
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"a gorgeous film. i'd say it's a bizarre mixture of suspiria, the secret garden, and maurice; and i can't remember the last time i've seen anything this sapphic (the 1970's carrie, maybe?). there's LOTS of affectionate touching, hair braiding, hand holding, corset pulling, and female-on-female crushing. it's barely subtext.
after a while i assumed it was heading in a direction similar to bbc's children of the stones, but answers are left vague.
the visual language is impeccable: more than once does the film compare miranda (the object of sarah's affections) to swans or botticelli's artwork. the birth of venus appears as an illustration and a tattoo and a spoken metaphor, and swans (symbols of transplanted creatures with no independent ability to survive in australia) are shown in bedrooms, ponds, lakes, and ceramics. there's some really excellent cinematography and camera angles too (that shot of miranda combing her hair in the mirror in the beginning?? đź‘Ś). if you like tragic endings, you'll probably love it."
"Not sure how this made it onto my list …it is ethereal with some pretty scenes, but I would not recommend .. "
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Emerson Barth