Picnic at Hanging Rock
1975, mystery/thriller
directed by Peter Weir
March 17th – 21st
at the FRIDA
by Henry Littleworth & Bella Marinos
Peter Weir’s 1975 classic Picnic at Hanging Rock is a waking nightmare that defies explanation. Set in early 1900s Australia, the film follows a group of students from Appleyard College, an all-girls boarding school, on a Valentine’s Day picnic at the eponymous “Hanging Rock,” a hallowed volcanic formation on the outskirts of their town. Frenzy follows when three schoolgirls and their teacher vanish without a trace. The boarding school and surrounding community are all left with nothing but superstition to make sense of the disappearances. This film makes viewers feel like they’re drifting peacefully over some great, unseen terror. Picnic at Hanging Rock will be playing at the Frida Cinema in downtown Santa Ana from March 17th through the 21st.
CONTINUE READING BELOW (MAYBE SPOLIERS)
The setting of Picnic at Hanging Rock is also its central symbol. Hanging Rock is a symbol of three themes of the film: nature’s retribution, colonialism’s oppression, and the unseen power of the mystic.
Hanging Rock is part of a volcanic formation in southern Australia that was, for tens of thousands of years, a sacred-grounds for native Aboriginal tribes. The rock imposes on the flatlands that surround it; its enormity and polarity in the landscape emphasize its sanctity. In spite of the frivolous picnics and privies hosted around its base—where the schoolgirls eat, read, and lounge—the mysterious and bestial events that take place are a reminder of the mountain’s true nature, one of untamed, and perhaps untamable, force. Through the film’s progression, we see the results of colonialism in both nature and the community, as colonialism oppresses, contains, and consumes them all.
The brutality enacted upon Aboriginal Australian people and nature, though significantly more violent, is linked to the repression which colonial society enforces on the young, white schoolgirls. The systematic habit of colonialism to sanitize, tame, and control nature as a means of exerting authority over native groups, also determines how colonial structures behave toward its own people. Though the schoolgirls live in the wild heartland, they know little about it. When they are brought to Hanging Rock for their Valentine’s picnic, not only are the schoolgirls emotionally removed from the land through a lack of knowledge and experience, but physically removed from it as well. Even in the extreme heat, they are forced to don their uniforms of sanitized purity: collared white dresses, petticoats, corsets, gloves, and high-heeled black boots. Outfits curated for their lack of adventuring abilities.
The schoolgirls are furthermore discouraged from exploring the mountain by their chaperones, despite their natural human instinct to uncover the mysteries of Hanging Rock. This heartless, detached relationship with nature exposes colonialist anxieties regarding nature’s inherent power. Aware of this power and the significance of these sacred-sites to Aboriginal people, invasive settlers pursue the taming, sanitation, and domination of the landscape. Those who control the land control the people who live on the land. The oppression of the schoolgirls is not just limited to their interactions with the landscape, but also that of their history, sexuality, and human nature. Picnic at Hanging Rock tells a story of freeing oneself from the grips of colonialism, and the revolution as well as chaos that may spark from it.
The Fog innocently drifts over the Appleyard entourage, slowly enshrouding them and the rock in mystery. Unbeknownst to the group, the fog is the instigator of the ensuing chaos. The Fog first causes everyone’s pocket watches to freeze at exactly 12 noon, indicating the thinning of the veil between the natural and the supernatural. Four girls—Irma, Edith, Marion, and Miranda—adventure away from the rest of the group moving deeper into the bush, untethering themselves from the world as they know it. The Fog trails alongside them as they venture higher and higher up the rock. The Fog does not cause distortion or confusion for the girls but is merely an indication of such sensations. Throughout the film, we get a glimpse under the Fog, some clue to the nature of the disappearances and whatever lies beyond. However, as soon as we think we might be piecing it all together, the Fog returns and what was shown is snapped off and abstracted, becoming yet another part of the mystery.
Hysteria & Sexuality
As we move through the film, the purity, fragility, and helplessness of the schoolgirls is at the forefront. They must wear layers upon layers of tight, hot, lacey clothing, speak softly, and act with much restraint. Any and all deviation is met with swift, pitiless consequences enforced by the teachers at Appleyard College. Their journey to the rock is void of emotion. Only upon arriving at the edge of the bush, the schoolgirls regain their spirits, coming alive with sighs of relief, removing their gloves at last. The tight grip of colonial society loosens this far into the wild.
As the aforementioned group of four venture up the rock, they remove their shoes and stockings. Edith hesitates, keeping her stockings but continues to trail the others up the slopes. Autonomy is on the horizon. They plunge their feet in the grass growing in the cracks of the rock and dance under the baking afternoon sun. Unknown to the rest of the picnic, it is here that the defiant three completely sever their ties to their colonial oppression. They are no longer bound by the rules other than those brought forth by the bush. They nap high on the peak, while flies, reptiles, and birds ramble around their home that is Hanging Rock. The schoolgirls transform, becoming another blade of grass, another bird song, another rock. Nature carries on, their presence no longer threatening nor trivial. They join the endless and unmoveable cycle that is life and death, free from the sterile, static atmosphere of Appleyard College. As a final act of defiance—influenced by nature's unruliness, the girls chose to return to the wild earth, never to be seen again.