Picnic at Hanging Rock: What We See and What We Seem

The article can be found: here.

The main points of the article are:

People magazine called the movie 'unsatisfying.'

The film launched Peter Weir's career.

The film is about 'watching, looking, about the gaze itself.'

As far as Appleyard college goes, 'young female flesh is to be hidden, contained and concealed.'

There is some fetishism in the movie.

The bolder girls are 'eager to pass through innocence and into adult sexuality.'

Miss McCraw's view of the volcano with lave that can be 'forced up from down below' is basically a takeoff on male ejaculation.

For the stern Mrs. Applyard, the Rock is a phallic symbol.

Miranda is the 'object of the projections and fantasies of nearly all the characters.'

Picnic is a movie about the 'projection of desires.'

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Irma is withholding a 'secret understanding.'


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