Picnic at Hanging Rock
Peter Weir, Australia, 1975o
On Saint Valentine's Day in 1900, the female students at a private Australian school are given permission by their stern headmistress to travel to an ancient volcanic outcropping for an afternoon picnic. The beautiful day turns into a nightmare when a few among them, including the beautiful and enigmatic Miranda, vanish without explanation on Hanging Rock.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is determined to keep its secrets to itself. Yet it’s as beguiling as films come. It opens in the gauzy languor of the schoolgirls’ morning routine – which Weir shoots with lacy, barely sublimated eroticism – and closes with a development that suggests its mysteries go even deeper than the central disappearance of the three schoolgirls and one teacher who never make it back from Hanging Rock. [Excerpt]
Keith PhippsL'imagerie romantique qui nourrit le film paraît viciée ce n'est pas seulement en tant que support à fantasmes que le film est captivant, c'est aussi et surtout en tant que forme hybride.
Amélie DuboisLa mise en scène excelle à suggérer le trouble d'adolescentes fascinées par une nature sauvage ; c'est sur grand écran qu'il faut savourer ces images sublimes au romantisme vénéneux.
Philippe RouyerGalleryo
