Rating: 
Summary: A statement against cold rationalism and muted emotion
Review: I would highly recommend this offbeat Peter Weir offering to anyone who enjoys thoughtful period pieces or stylistically distinctive films. The film, which takes place in pseudo-Victorian outback Australia, concerns the disappearance of four boarding school ladies during a visit to a massive rock outcropping.While the mystery behind the ladies disappearance is certainly interesting enough, what really makes this movie are:
1) the faithful depiction of the unusual setting and space, which have a vividness and authenticity usually associated more with great literature, and
2) the high technical quality. The film is so beautifully shot, with such ethereal lighting and score, that the movie transcends its plot. Better yet, this transcendence of plot is clearly the director's intention. Rather than try to solve an unsolvable mystery, he is interested in the nature of mystery itself. We are given different (utterly different in fact) perspectives on what happened might have happened, ranging from the girls ascending directly to heaven as sacrificial angels to their being defiled and murdered. In its subjectivity, and shifting perspective, it seems to carry the Rashomon-like message that some things are unknowable. The transcendence of plot can be connected to point one above as well. The girls' sense of confinement is perfectly captured in the scene in which we feel their sense of liberation at simply being allowed to take off their gloves. One woman in particular seems too beautiful and good for that-or any other-sexist world. In a sense she is so coveted that her only hope at self-definition is escape. Hence her climb, shoeless, up into Hanging Rock. Perhaps she endeavors to escape the socially sanctioned attempts people will make at possessing her in the world below. In this sense it could be seen as ironic that the humdrum people below naturally assume that the ladies have been abused on the mountain. 'The truth' remains a mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating film
Review: Sorry for my bad english. I'm Italian and I fear that can't explain well my opinion. I try:
For me who see this Peter Weir's film or love it or hate it. Are not a third way. I love it. For me it's a real masterpiece. The story is original and mysterious, the actors are not famous but many of them (expecially the girls) are really "inspired", the photography of some scenes remember the impressionist pictures, the music theme is magic, the direction is magisterial the atmosphere of the film (the mix of music, scenes, colours) is like a dream, and like a dream is impossible find out a exact explanation of the story. You can only immagine it.
In short if You want see a ordinary film not see "Picnic at Hanging Rock" but if You want enter on a XIX century's mysterious picture/book see it
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and mysterious
Review: While I prefer Australian director Peter Weir's nightmarish World War I epic "Gallipoli," "Picnic at Hanging Rock" certainly ranks as one of his best efforts. Released in the 1970s amid what critics dubbed the "Australian New Wave" or an influx of talent from Australia which included actors as well as directors, Weir put Down Under on the cinematic radar screen with this lush, eerie, claustrophobic film about a group of girls who disappeared on February 14, 1900 in an area known as Hanging Rock. Weir went on to helm several noteworthy films, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "The Mosquito Coast," "The Truman Show," and "The Dead Poets Society." I have seen most of Weir's films over the years, but a recent viewing of "Picnic" convinced me that most of them pale in comparison. What's amusing about this is that the movie is unfathomable in a traditional sense. We never really learn why these girls vanished or where they might have went. Instead, Weir uses his film as a vehicle for making a statement about the oppressive social position of young women in turn of the century Australia. The young ladies at Appleyard College are going on a picnic excursion to nearby Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day. Most of the girls are ecstatic about the trip as it will allow them to escape, if even for a few hours, the insufferable grasp of the stern headmistress of the school. Known to her charges only as Mrs. Appleyard, this woman possesses an intimate understanding about what sorts of behavior society expects from its female members and she expects her students to internalize them. Subservience, chastity, and probity in all areas of life are virtues best learned and then never questioned. Obviously, several of the girls chafe under such daunting responsibilities. As a punishment for one miscreant, Appleyard bans her from joining the picnic. The rest go happily, warned in advance by the headmistress to stay away from the rocks at all costs because of an unspecified danger. The trip is at first uneventful, even after four of the girls violate Appleyard's warning and decide to journey into the rocks. One of the girls disobeying orders is the lovely Miranda, a woman referred to as a Botticelli angel incarnate by the school's French teacher, who is quite popular with her fellow classmates. Something weird happens then, an event that will have a lasting impact on everyone associated with this picnic. Three of the girls ultimately disappear, along with one of their teachers. One girl who went with them but complained the entire way does emerge from the rocks, shrieking and moaning about something but making little sense. Two young men in the vicinity with another group also noticed the girls heading off to Hanging Rock, but what they know about the disappearance never receives an adequate explanation. Several days later, as the hysteria over the mystery continues to deepen, one of these young men discovers one of the missing girls. This young lady is severely dehydrated and remembers nothing about what happened to her two companions. As time goes by, no one even remotely connected to this event seems to get over it. Mrs. Appleyard is probably the biggest loser as her school, which relies exclusively on tuition and fees paid by affluent parents, begins to go under because no one wants to send their children there anymore. We are told at the end of the film that the headmistress disappears while searching Hanging Rock for Miranda and her companion in a final, desperate attempt to salvage her reputation and her school. "What does this all mean?" is probably what most viewers will ask themselves when the final credits roll. I know I wanted a satisfying explanation to this heap of weirdness. Instead of giving an easy answer, Weir repeatedly frustrates his audience's attempt to discover what really happened to the hapless girls. The director gives us numerous red herrings about the disappearance, none of which pans out in the end. Watches worn by several people at the rock mysteriously stop, a sudden weariness descends on the picnickers about the time the girls disappear, and the cryptic comments voiced by Miranda tantalizingly hint at but ultimately provide little in the way of explanation for the mystery. Viewers, like myself, who have seen a whole lot of strange films want to make that logical leap to a supernatural cause for the event, but Weir refuses to allow us to do so. The only certainty we find within the confines of "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is uncertainty. Perhaps the disappearance of the free spirited, "angelic" Miranda represents a sort of necessary escape from the social repression enforced against all females in Victorian era society. Why not? This is as good an explanation as any other put forth to explain this enigmatic film. What really impressed me in "Picnic" is the soul searing creepiness of the whole thing. Hanging Rock sits in the middle of a vast tract of wide-open space, like some profane eruption from deep within the earth. Zamfir's pan flute mixed with a downright scary soundtrack provides chills to the nth degree. Moreover, the music often swells to nearly unbearable levels whenever the camera pans across the ominously silent crags of Hanging Rock. Everything works in "Picnic" except figuring it all out. It becomes maddening trying to second guess the film when all I really should have been doing is sitting back and enjoying the ride. Criterion makes this a worthwhile experience with a nice widescreen picture transfer but regrettably with few extras. Still, Weir's odd film should provide those who like to think a bit with an excellent, if head scratching, trip.
Rating:
Summary: "What we see and what we seem are but a dream."
Review: Peter Weir's haunting film "Picnic at Hanging Rock" takes place on Valentine's Day, 1900. A group of schoolgirls from the exclusive Appleyard College embark on a picnic at Hanging Rock--a notoriously dangerous local landmark. The girls are instructed NOT to explore the rock but to picnic at its foot. Four girls disobey the headmistress, and they leave the group to explore the rock. A schoolmistress later follows them. Of the five people who climb Hanging Rock, only one returns. On one level, the film is the story of the missing schoolgirls, and the sort of mass hysteria--and voyeurism--that breaks out following the sensationalistic mystery. However, the film carries a much deeper meaning than this. For the repressed schoolgirls, the outing represents a rare escape for a suffocating environment. There is an atmosphere of suppressed excitement amongst the girls--they've spent the early part of the morning reading love poetry and Valentines. The girls comb each other's hair and quote poetry to one another, and it is almost as if they are enchanted princesses. As the girls leave the school behind, they discard their gloves, and once under the languorous shadow of Hanging Rock, the girls enjoy rare freedom. Once given a small taste of freedom, a small party of schoolgirls wanders away and is lost. One of the most popular, confident, and attractive girls in the school--Miranda--is also the leader of the ill-fated exploration. It is Miranda's decision and curiosity that leads the girls astray. Hanging Rock seems to lure in its victims as they are drawn towards its ancient hypnotic, power. "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is visually an absolutely beautiful film. When we first see Hanging Rock, it is bathed in mist and there is a sense of mystery. Weir manages to balance the beauty of that Valentine's Day--full of sweet promise--with a sense of dread and impending doom. It's one of the most suspenseful films I've ever seen. It's horrifying while beautiful--terrifying while languorous. In short--it's a masterpiece of filmmaking. The film contains many subtle references to multiple explanations of the disappearance--I prefer to accept the Persephone myth--but the film is open to many interpretations. I also recommend reading the novel "Picnic at Hanging Rock" by Joan Lindsay. It's an excellent book--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: True Story of Schoolgirl Disappearance in the Outback
Review: This really is an amazingly engrossing film given the limited case information that director Peter Weir has to work with. Picnic, looks simply beautiful and the photography is done tremendously well to give the film a very haunting and hypnotic feel. In the year 1900 a group of schoolgirls are taken on a class outing to Hanging Rock for St. Valentine's Day. Two girls go missing and a third is found half-alive but does not remember what has happened. The star of this show is the rock where they go too. The whole area has an unnatural feel to it. The story also revolves around the school headmistress, bullying, love and the investigation and search for the missing girls. Nobody knows what happened up at the rock, but Weir does a tremendous job of creating a surreal and almost supernatural explanation for their disappearance. The truth is that the girls bodies where never found and one suspects that they where either murdered or got lost - however the fact that everyone fell asleep on that fateful day and the subsequent discovery of one of the missing girls who can not remember what happened (except for a buzzing noise) almost puts these events into the same category as an alien abduction experience. Remarkable filmmaking though and certainly very unsettling in a family film sort of way. Top marks all round and Weir fans rate this as his best work.
Rating: 
Summary: A story like lantana
Review: This brilliant feature film is actually a true story of 4 people getting lost and never being seen again on a school excursion to hanging rock in victoria, Australia on valentines day 1900. all 4 dissapear and are never seen again except for one who miraculousley survives yet can remeber nothing of her stay at the mountain all this is wound up with farmers finding dead people policemen searching and two young men who seem to know a bit too much. peter weir has turned this story from Joan lindsay into a brilliant array of natural beauty of the area of mt masedon and fits the story line into it as well without the slightest hiccup. The cinematographer does a great job of keeping the face towards the camera, but the sound can be fairly dodgy in some parts. all in all this extroadinary master piece tells the story with suspense as well as letting you view the beautiful scenes around MT MASEDON. This is suitable for the elder generation children would find it boring and too hard to understand. I rate it 3 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Nearly Flawless (**** 1/2)
Review: One of the breakthrough Australian films of the 1970s, directed by Peter Weir in his unique style. A group of schoolgirls and some of their teachers go off to the geological formation known as Hanging Rock for an innocent Valentine's Day outing in 1900. Three girls and a teacher decide to explore on their own but only one of them ever returns - and she has no recollection of what happened. Though the film is more style than substance and the mystery isn't resolved, this supernatural drama is engrossing and the eerie, dreamlike atmosphere is hard to resist.
Rating:
Summary: This could be the scariest movie ever made...
Review: In the past near-three decades, a great deal has been made about the mystery surrounding Peter Weir's eerie, subversive film "Picnic at Hanging Rock." The movie is about a group of girls from an Australian college that travel to a local geographical wonder, Hanging Rock, to spend the day. While there, four girls wander off, and when everything is said and done, three girls and a teacher are missing. Much like the disappearance of Anna in Antonioni's "L'Avventura," I won't be revealing much when I say that the mystery of their disappearance is never solved. The thing is, that's not the point of Weir's chilling masterpiece. "Hanging Rock" is made up of suggestions, possibilities, and longing, but no valid intuition. Anyone into psychology would have a heyday with the film. Weir's camera portrays the rocks that the girls wander into as giant, oppressive phallic objects that even seem to have faces. While the girls rest on the ground, a snake-like object crawls past them. The adventurous girls shed their stockings and shoes in an erotic moment that feels liberating and, well...DIRTY at the same time. The headmistress of the college and a student that seemed unhealthily attached to one of the missing girls seem to have their own sexual issues rising to the surface. Then again, maybe "Picnic At Hanging Rock" isn't even much about the disappearance of the girls than just about the hidden perversity that lies behind it all. That is what makes "Picnic" so incredibly horrifying and essential to any viewer at the same time. There isn't an inch of naked skin shown in the film, not one moment of sex, but the clues and suggestions that arise regarding the disappearance of the girls hint at something sadistic, something degrading, something awful. Then again, someone could watch the film and think it was a UFO, murder, or that they simply metaphysically vanished. Whatever the answer is, it's not important. Watch "Picnic at Hanging Rock" for yourself and decide YOUR theory, but don't be surprised when you realize that the WHAT is not as important as the WHAT IF..., and that the movie scares the living hell out of you.
Rating:
Summary: Mysterious happenings in girlhood paradise
Review: This tale of a bevy of Victorian era Australian teenage schoolgirls on a picnic outing to the outback couples some fine photography with a dark, almost eerie plot. It was one of the first of the so-called New Wave Australian films which I watched when it was first released. The plot initially unfolds in painful slow motion until the idyllic picnic scenes turn to a horrifying tragedy. The enigmatic disappearance of three girls which remains unresolved till the end can be interpreted in many ways, including in terms of contrasting themes of liberation and repression which are a definite subtext in the movie. If you have a special interest in Australian film, you must watch this at least once.
Rating:
Summary: Ridiculous mix of softcore porn and German expressionism
Review: The movie begins on shots of beautiful teen models doing artsy things with undertones of lesbianism. Furthermore, we learn that they are in a boarding school for girls, in the turn of the last century. For stereotypes, we are quickly provided with not only one but two Strict Governesses (tm) and a Lusty Teacher (tm), French too (not to mention, later, an Old Horsecart Driver Guy (tm) and a Clueless Police Force That Can't Solve Anything (tm)). That was the last straw : on these premises I thought I had the wrong movie and had somehow rented a strange mix between a softcore porn and German expressionism. Well, I'm not beyond enjoying that sort of fare, so I forged ahead. The second part of the movie has the girls of Appleyard College, in Australia, go to a picnic at Hanging Rock, a place infested with venimous snakes and ants [!]. Why a Strict Governess would let her protégées wander around such a place is explained away by a bit about the scientific interest of the rock. Oh yes, a school for girls from the turn of the last century that's keen on scientific education, to the point of risking their charges' lives. Wow, that makes sense. I guess this is an Ultra-Permissive School (tm), the kind that allow teens in modern-day movies to razz the teachers, carry switchblades and guns around, organize wacky fundraisers, or learn kung-fu and beat up bullies in plain view. Well, a zillion soft-core shots and poetry readings later, four girls want to do a little exploration the rock, and Lusty Teacher (tm) gives them permission. You know, despite all those venomous snakes and ants. Of course they get lost, go insane, and dissapear, except for Annoying Dumpy Girl (tm), the only girl in the entire movie who doesn't look like a main character from a really good lesbian porn, but could still have a bit role. The rest of the movie simply degenerates into predictable ridicule, especially with the Clueless Police Force That Can't Solve Anything (tm) (despite looking around the mound where the girls dissapeared more than once). Another girl is found, but she won't say anything. One of the two Strict Governess (tm) is also gone. The other Strict Governess (tm) decides to finally do Strict Governess-like things, and threatens the former lesbian lover of one of the victims (or so we think - there is actually no sex in this movie) to send her to an orphinage. This is used to pound into us the horribleness of being a woman in 1900. Well, I can't disagree with that, but as these are all kids of rich parents (never mind that they're all improbably beautiful) it doesn't quite come off as "horrible". She'll do all right. There is an English kid who, by virtue of coming from the continent, is a Snotty but More Civilized Brat With a Heart of Gold (tm). His presence is pretty unnecessary, except to pad the running time by showing how much of a Heart of Gold he has, you know, because he is from England and therefore More Civilized (tm), and provide more laughs as he discovers the bodies and goes insane, while the family servant makes up an alibi for his absence and tells the father that he's boozing up at a local bar. Ho ho. Straight rating : ZERO. B-Movie Rating : 3.7/5.0
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