Picnic at Hanging Rock

Audience Reviews

View More

Wayne K @RT88290232 May 9 A defining film of Australia’s New Wave movement, Picnic At Hanging Rock is a very twee title to an ominous and haunting story. Heavy with themes of sexual awakening, coming of age and cultural displacement, the story takes place at a time when Australia was on the cusp of becoming its own independent country, yet its populated almost entirely by English individuals. It makes the disappearances all the more frightening, since being lost in a foreign country is completely different from being lost in your own. The film’s pacing often works against it, as the languid shots and extended pauses in conversation become more tedious than anything else. You want to see the many ramifications of the tragedy, but you usually only see it from the perspective of the same people over and over. But if you don’t mind being patient, PAHR is the kind of mystery that sticks with you after the credits have rolled, and the lack of closure is really the icing on the cake. See more J. J @RT98080190 May 5 As a lover of Australian cinema, I approached Picnic at Hanging Rock expecting something on the level of Walkabout, but found it a major disappointment. The cinematography is attractive in places, yet lacks the hypnotic brilliance and emotional tension of Nicolas Roeg’s work. The biggest problem is the near absence of a real script. Ambiguity can be powerful, but here the plot feels opaque to the point of inertia. Rachel Roberts, such a formidable actress in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and O Lucky Man!, seems wooden here, though I blame the material and direction more than her performance. The lack of music also drains the film of emotional momentum. There are glimpses of greatness, but for me it mistakes vagueness for depth. See more Kyle M @RT77296778 Apr 28 An Australian staple of 70s cinema that’s utterly haunting whilst somberly ticks apart from the ominously maintained mystery faithfully interpreting its elemental material through scenically imprinted subtlety, thus being moderately thrilling at a decent chilly level beneath the suspenseful potential that lingers, nonetheless. (B) See more Wilder S @RT59014389 Mar 23 This felt like half dream, half something sad. The plot of the movie isn’t as captivating as its aesthetic. I can’t tell if "beautiful" is the right word, but this movie really is an underrated gem. See more Mix R @Foxxxy Mar 22 It just felt kind of pointless to me. See more Teddy B @RT90521672 Jan 27 Peter Weir retains the complex mystery, the blurred lines between fiction and reality, the dreamy, hypnotising atmosphere, and welcomes the maybe-present themes of sexual repression and Australia's cultural history from Joan Lindsay's original novel and improves on them, with eerie performances, beautiful cinematography and a disquieting soundtrack. You have to enter this film like under a hypnotist's trance: open, calm, curious; not expecting so much a mystery but the consequences of a quiet phenomenon. See more Read all reviews

Picnic at Hanging Rock

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING