Another review

Mon Dieu! This is a stunning Australian film, resplendent in its intensity from start to finish. The plot concerns three young girls and a school teacher who disappear after making a trip to Hanging Rock, an immense rock formation near a school for young girls. Despite officials' best efforts, the girls cannot be found. Only one is finally discovered, alive, by two young men. I don't believe I've ever seen a film that so intelligently builds upon the raw intensity of its plot, acting, and dialogue. The questions surrounding the girls' fate are like a spectre that hangs over everyone near the Rock - most of all over the Victorian girls school. The atmosphere of the film is superb, as the hazy cinematography and consistently amazing, varied score compliment the story perfectly. The film ends without telling us the story's ending, yet I wasn't unsatisfied with the picture at all, as I was so under the spell of the movie. Though I hate to say this after only seeing a movie once, I would say that this is about as good a movie as I've ever seen.

The beauty and perfection of Picnic at Hanging Rock are difficult to describe. It is a film made to be legendary. Aside from everything I mentioned in my first paragraph, there are still many smaller facets of the film awaiting to be discovered. The ending of the film is truly magnificent, and it only increases the mystery and enigma surrounding the storyline. The youthful beauty of the girls only makes their disappearance more poignant and affecting to the viewer. The film is also wildly successful in portraying "smaller" characters. The two men who find one of the missing girls, "Irma", share at least two fascinating conversational interludes. Their eventual discovery of Irma is one of the few triumphs for humanity that the film allows. I was also deeply moved by the two scenes in which school mistress informs a schoolgirl that she will soon be returning to an orphanage as her benefactor has not paid her tuition for six months. The school mistress shows no emotion as she delivers this piece of shattering news to the girl, and then walks away like an ambulatory statue of stone. Once inside her own quarters, however, the school mistress breaks down and begins to cry.

Many people see this sensitive, sweeping film as an allegory of some kind. Most commonly, people claim the Victorian girl's school is a symbol of repression and that the girls' escape to Hanging Rock is actually a representation of their sexual independence. Let me pause a minute while I curse the fact I was born a human. Listen, if you find something inherently sexual in this film, that's your problem. If you accept this interpretation of the film, you are obviously missing out on the truly frightening aspects of the story - you also must have failed to see the intensity of the reality of the picture. This is a movie that should make you get up and check to see if your door is locked! Not that I want to pass judgment on anyone, but it seems to me that this assumption of something sexual intended in this story of young girls might actually very well be a subtle manifestation of pedophilia.

Please do watch this film as soon as you can, as it is one of the best representations of film as art that I've ever seen. 10 stars(out of 10)