I visited Hanging Rock many times and every single time, I could feel....breathe the primitive magic that is Australia. There is something truly in the air there that is unexplainably real.
I have that exact same feeling when I go for trips around Victoria. Hanging Rock definitely had it, but so many other places also echo with a strange feeling of old stories that never die. Primitive magic is a great way to put it. The Australian landscape is full of it.
I cannot think of another film that simply does NOT provide answers at the end. This film does not ever explain what happened to those girls. And that's why it lingers in your mind for years and years. It's not a commercial film. But it will haunt you to the end of your days. And add that pan flute soundtrack on top of all of that...
There are 'answers' and then there are conclusions. That was the unfortunate thing about Fire Walk With Me which is that Lynch and Frost never intended us to know who killed Laura Palmer and thats I think what makes television so underrated compared to film, because film is almost a sort of propaganda in the US with this notion of an 'ending'. I read the history of this film and its said that when distributors in the US saw it they practically rioted they were so upset they didn't find out 'whodunnit'. They had to calm down before finally agreeing to distribute it.. Thats the great thing about movies and other forms of 'art', which is that they create questions, not really give answers. American film in particular has this almost built in stupidity about it that everything has to be packaged in a nice little bow, and reality certainly is not like that.
@@Casanova-Frankenstein_93 I'm sure that comment is beneath you. Recently watched the Quiet Girl. Different but for me what Picnic at Hanging Rock fails to even come close to. Picnic at Hanging Rock is just awful. The most boring film of all time.
summer between 5th (elementary school) and 6th(middle school) took a movie class.. we watched 9or10 pretty obscure movies.. even at that young age, I remember being really entranced w/this movie.. We had just watched "Last Wave" w/ R. Chamberlin, another Australian Supernatural flick..so I was already kinda prepared(lol).. it was a slow movie for me at 10yo.. but, it obviously left an impression..cuz, here I am, looking to watch it again. - I also remember being reminded of Picnic at Hanging Rock when I saw Wolf Creek :p
This interview sounds a lot like some monologue. The voice, tone of the narration, it sounds oddly dramatic and so charismatic. It's a shame that he almost left filmmaking altogether.
I'd love to know whether he was privy to the then unpublished final chapter? The film skips over various details from the book, as any film adaptation of any book must, and yet every detail that was crucial to that final chapter is in the film.
I've heard that it was a publisher who came up with the ending. Somebody so adamant that the potential director not ask if its true isn't likely to try to 'sum things up' even in a fantastical way. The open endedness is one of hte main points of the film and the book.
I have recently read that some people who have visited Hanging Rock have experienced strange things. Watches have stopped, and in a nearby town, water has been observed flowing uphill( and balls have been seen rolling uphill too. It has been continually suggested that a space time warp or some sort of time portal could impinge on the Bermuda Triangle. Could a space time warp or some sort of time portal impinge on Hanging Rock?.......
Sadly, Peter Weir did not seem to be able to acknowledge that Jim and Hal McElroy found the music for the film. Then Pat Lovell had already knew about the film, but had nothing to do with getting the film made.
This clip is only a 3 minute excerpt out of a 2 hour documentary on then special features of the Picnic at Hanging Rock DVD. In the full documentary he explains and discusses why he re-edited the movie.
@@saiashwin26 He cut numerous scenes from the film, including the entire subplot of Michael befriending Irma after she reappears. The scene where the girls sing "Rock of Ages" in the church is also cut, as are several others. The version of the film currently available on DVD is this butchered "director's cut." It's very unfortunate that Weir did this - a very odd decision to go back decades later and hack through an already perfect film.
I lost a lot of respect for Peter Weir when for his unnecessary 'Director's Cut' of his masterpiece, he chose to cut key scenes. I feel this was a serious error of judgment on his part.
I absolutely agree with you. I first saw the film when I was 16 (44 years ago) and I still remember the profound effect it had on me at the time. Last year, I was invited to a friend's house to watch the Blu-ray version (Director's Cut) on his very large screen 'Kuro' television, which was designed to retain the cinematic look of films. Whilst the transition to Blu-ray was quite stunning, it could not compensate for the huge disappointment I felt at the omission of those key scenes.
@@oldwaltonian2476 I couldn't agree with you more. Like you, I first saw this film when I was still at school and likewise, it affected me profoundly and helped to change my perception of cinema as an important art form. Revisionism like this would be akin to Shakespeare cutting key scenes from his plays with a view to 'improving' them., whereas in reality it would actually amount to cultural vandalism. Weir needs to seriously reconsider his ill-advised actions because he got it right the first time.
@@nimos1 It is good to know, at least, that there seems to be many others who feel the same way as each of us. Hopefully, Weir might eventually be humble enough to realise his mistake in order that a 'restored' version of the orginal film can be made using contemporary technology. Incidentally, I realised that I was actually 15, not 16, when I first saw this film and just a few years prior to that, I had been gripped by another 'enigmatic' film set in Australia; Nicolas Roeg's 'Walkabout'. Seeing both of these films had a particular resonance for me, since I had returned to England in late 1968 after living in Australia for 5 years.
This film is crap. Absolutely nothing happens. You wait for the best part of two hours for something to happen and it does not. Avoid at all costs. A complete waste of your life. Don't make the same mistake I made many years ago!
The film is a feeling, it was never intended to be a solvable mystery. Just because you didn't take anything away from it doesn't mean it isn't a work of art.
But that's entirely the point. I admit, I too felt cheated on first viewing, but the effect is how it stays with you. You spend the whole movie confused and missing this girls, waiting for them to reappaear on screen, which does not happen - and exactly reflects how the characters are feeling. That sense of loss and frustration building into a chaotic frenzy and eventually imploding. it's not really about the girls at all. This story has stayed with me for years, a true modern classic.
+Darragh Mallon imo it was obvious the girls would never reappear - I was actually surprised that one of them DID. It would so completely undermine the entire aura of mystery the film builds from the very beginning. Mysteries are meant to be deepened - not solved. That's what this film's about.
