Picnic at Hanging Rock

Three students and a school teacher disappear on an excursion to Hanging Rock, in Victoria, on Valentine’s Day, 1900. Widely (and incorrectly) regarded as being based on a true story, the movie follows those that disappeared, and those that stayed behind, but it delights in the asking of questions, not the answering of them., A schoolgirl outing in 1900 leads to the disappearances of a number of girls and their teacher. The film explores what happened, but delights in leaving many questions unanswered, When a group of Australian schoolgirls from an elite Victorian finishing school embark on a Valentine’s Day excursion to an unusual outcropping of volcanic rock, four members of the party are drawn towards the summit, where they vanish into thin air., A schoolgirl outing in 1900 Australia leads to the disappearances of a number of girls and their teacher. The film explores what happened, but delights in leaving many questions unanswered., Atmospheric drama about the inexplicable disappearance of a group of schoolgirls and their teacher when they go picnicking at a local beauty spot in Victoria, Australia, on St Valentine’s Day, 1900., Peter Weir’s haunting and evocative mystery is set in the Australia of 1900, a mystical place where the British have attempted to impose their Christian culture with such tweedy refinements as a girls’ boarding school. After gauzily-photographed, nicely underplayed scenes of the girls’ budding sexuality being restrained in Victorian corsets, the uptight headmistress (Rachel Roberts) takes them on a Valentine’s Day picnic into the countryside, and several of the girls, led by the lovely Miranda (Anne Lambert) decide to explore a nearby volcanic rock formation. It’s a desolate, primitive, vaguely menacing place, where one can almost feel the presence of ancient pagan spirits. Something — and there is an unspoken but palpable emphasis on the inherent carnality of the place — draws four of the girls to explore the rock. Three never return. No one ever finds out why. The repercussions for the school are tragic, and of course Roberts reacts with near-crazed anger, but what really happened? Weir gives enough clues to suggest any number of explanations, both physical and supernatural., Peter Weir’s mythical film tells the story of how, on a hot summer’s day, the teachers and girls from a private school in remote Outback Australia visit a local beauty spot only for three of the girls and a teacher to disappear into thin air.