Mondo Bungle

Picnic At Hanging Rock, 1975

What is it about this film that so arrests me, regardless of how many times I've seen it? I don't know, really. And I shouldn't know, it doesn't want me to know. It's keeping it from me, and everyone else, and that is why it lingers with such subtle voracity.

Peter Weir's sophomore directorial effort is a study in intrigue and atmosphere which it simply has in spades. Deep in Australian wilderness, a group of schoolgirls take a field trip for a nice picnic at Hanging Rock, and what happens henceforth is a subject of immense speculation. Four wander off for a hazy exploration of the rock that seems to slow or even stop time in its tracks. One returns in hysterics. There are no answers.

The labyrinthine shots of the rock's narrow corridors coupled with its supernatural sonic emanations and the most amazingly haunting pan flute powered score (a heavy component of the film's lingering ability) is so otherworldly as to be completely worldly. It's just a joyous experience.

__________________