Picnic at Hanging Rock

[Severini]

Australia 1975 - Director:Peter Weir

Did anyone watch this movie?What did you think about it?

Stephen King had recommended this one in his very good non fiction book "Danse Macabre" and although I had watched some of the more or less 100 movies he recommends (I hated some [Repulsion] thanked for he´s directed me towards some others [Black Sunday] and didn´t get the omission of many other ones [Eyes without a face and Carnival of Souls]) I haven´t given much attention to this one until today.

I began searching the internet and the story seems be an old one (but I realized it was based on a real event that´s happened more than 100 years ago and no longer cared about it) but the fact that the movie remains unsolved and open to multiple interpretations increased my interest.

Is it any good?

[Dr. Zirk]

I'm a big fan of Picnic at Hanging Rock. It has a thin vein of horrific mystery running through it that is only marginally exploited in the story, leaving the resolution up to the viewer. That's my kind of film: one that fully engages the viewer's own imagination.

As I understand it, the released version was a bit of an editing hack job, and not exactly what Peter Weir had in mind. Supposedly the "police investigation" part of the story was originally intended to introduce more characters with possible connections to the events portrayed, further expanding the realm of possible explanations the viewer has to consider. However, that information comes from an obsessive film buff, and I can't vouch for the authenticity of that story.

In any case, the presence of many loose plot threads doesn't take away from the final picture at all. Picnic at Hanging Rock is definitely worth viewing if you're in the mood for something a little dreamy, a little poetic, and more than a little unexplained.

[waffles]

This is a fabulous movie.

Have you guys seen The Last Wave?
I think it's creepier than Picnic.

Happy viewing,

Waff's

[ElHI]

Yes, this is a great film! It has some strange eerie music by this romanian guy Georgiu Zamfir (spelling?), playing Pan Flute.

It is a great representation of the original meaning of "panic". It would appeal to anyone who likes the stories of Machen, Blackwood or Sarban, illustrating the "wild" side of nature: mysterious, very attractive but really dangerous... There's also a good deal of repressed sexuality (as in the authors I've mentioned), but how could that be otherwise, when it deals with an all-girl private boarding school at the end of the Victorian era?

[Dr. Zirk]

Hey waffles, great recommend on Peter Weir's The Last Wave. I got it from Netflix this weekend, and I loved it right away. Very different from Picnic at Hanging Rock, but just as interesting. And it stars David Gulpilil, a wonderful Aborigine actor who also starred in Walkabout, one of my favorite films of all time.

I'll definitely second the recommend for The Last Wave. It's magical, apocalyptic, and dream-like - a great film all around.

[waffles]

Hey Dr. Zirk,

Glad you liked the Last Wave.
I always forget about this movie until someone mentions Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Cheers!

[Karnos]

Quote Originally Posted by ElHI";p=&quot

Yes, this is a great film! It has some strange eerie music by this romanian guy Georgiu Zamfir (spelling?), playing Pan Flute. It is a great representation of the original meaning of "panic". It would appeal to anyone who likes the stories of Machen, Blackwood or Sarban...

Who is this Sarban? That's a new name for me. But you team him/her up with Machen and Blackwood, so I guess that's reference enough

I'm also going to check that Georgiu Zamfir guy!

[bendk]

Sarban's novel THE SOUND OF HIS HORN was selected for the book HORROR 100 BEST BOOKS. It is a 'If Hitler had won the war' novel. I have had it for a while, but I haven't read it yet. I guess it has been highly regarded since its initial appearance. Kingsley Amis wrote the introduction to the copy I own - a Ballantine pb published in 1960.

I googled Sarban and came up with this biography page:
http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/user...arus/wall.html


I just watched the movies PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and THE LAST WAVE and I liked both of them. THE LAST WAVE was especially creepy in the wake of the most recent tsunami disaster. Thanks for the recommendations.

[ElHI]

Sarban has written some great stories, they were all published again by Tartarus Press, together with newly found ones. Ringstones is really excellent, and that's the one I had in mind when citing Sarban in this thread. You can find cheap second-hand paperback copies of this novella quite easily. The Tartarus volume RINGSTONES AND OTHER CURIOUS TALES is much rarer though, but the other tales are worth the price.

One of the found pieces, Number Fourteen, is a really chilling tale of a malformed teenager girl who fascinates a beautiful dancer of around her age, leading to her disappearance. I won't spoil the suspense by revealing you what is hinted at in the end. Suffice it to say that it gives the creeps and you really no longer sympathizes at all with the crippled... It can be found in the above-mentionned Tartarus volume, as in their THE SACRIFICE AND OTHER STORIES, collecting all four of the unpublished tales. The title story is in the same dreamy, Pan-related vein as Ringstones, and The King of the Lake will appeal to every amateur of bondage and BDSM (I know you're there! ;)).

I still have to read The Sound of His Horn and THE DOLL-MAKER AND OTHER TALES OF THE UNCANNY, but I'm quite confident that I'll enjoy them very much when I do.

You'll note that the bibliography provided in the link quoted by bendk is by the ubiquitous Douglas A. Anderson, and also that there is a connection with Mirror... Do you need more reasons to start reading him?

[bendk]

I'm not a big Aleister Crowley fan, but speaking of things Pan-related, I always thought his unrestrained poem HYMN TO PAN was rather interesting.

Found here:
http://d21c.com/wal9/poems/crowley.html