Picnic at Hanging Rock

Name: Picnic at Hanging Rock
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Released: February 2, 1979
Duration: 115 min
Rating: 81
Cast: Anne-Louise Lambert, Frank Gunnell, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, Jane Vallis

1979

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 19 Ratings

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8.1

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 19 Ratings

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Picnic At Hanging Rock

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Movie Details & Credits

British Empire Films Australia | Release Date: February 2, 1979 | TV-PG

Starring: Anne-Louise Lambert, Frank Gunnell, Helen Morse, Jacki Weaver, Jane Vallis, Karen Robson, Kirsty Child, Rachel Roberts, Tony Llewellyn-Jones, Vivean Gray

Summary: On Valentine's Day 1900, three school girls and a school teacher go missing under mysterious circumstances during a trip to Hanging Rock in Victoria, Australia.

Director: Peter Weir

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 115 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

A film of haunting mystery and buried sexual hysteria. Read full review

100

Chris Cabin

It’s the characters’ ceaseless need to fully understand, outsmart, and undermine nature’s sway that drives them into fervor and, often enough, leads them to shuffle off this mortal coil. Read full review

100

Marjorie Baumgarten

Peter Weir made this unsettling, atmospheric film early in his career, and it is still one of his most successful projects to date. Read full review

100

Empire Ian Nathan

A fascinating film that is by turns fascinating and mysterious. Read full review

Vincent Canby

The result is a movie that is both spooky and sexy. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

An exceedingly beautiful film, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK seems to aspire to be an existential thriller of some sort. At times the film seems to tread in BLACK NARCISSUS territory with its depiction of barely controlled sexual hysteria and its eccentric lyrical quality. It's all pretty overheated and underexplained but this arty, vague, and possibly supernatural movie lingers on in the memory. Read full review

Judith Martin

Purely visual cinema was accomplished successfully in "Days of Heaven," where there is no story line to speak of, but people and nature are made memorably vivid through the moving picture.Picnic at Hanging Rock is not up to that level visually, because it occasionally slips into the hair-color advertisement school of slow-motion beauty. But even the attempt is marred: Looking for game clues would spoil any painting, but having to look and not being able to find them is worse. [16 March 1979, p.18]

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User Reviews

Nimbus1701

Mar 23, 2019

A masterclass in film-making and cinematography; soft photography, variable pacing and dialogue fit for theatre. A story about isolation, aging, love and punishment. Watch carefully, as everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.

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JLuis_001

Nov 15, 2020

From what I read about this film when it was released, a lot of people had trouble accepting its lack of resolution.
After all, it's not always pleasant to be left with questions when an enigma is interesting, and many times I would have agreed with those opinions, but I think that Picnic atFrom what I read about this film when it was released, a lot of people had trouble accepting its lack of resolution.
After all, it's not always pleasant to be left with questions when an enigma is interesting, and many times I would have agreed with those opinions, but I think that Picnic at Hanging Rock would have lost much of its essence and especially its cult if it had been of that way.

The film is deliberately constructed that way. the notorious lack of conclusion and answers are what make this film better because if the mystery were more conclusive, I doubt that it would measure up to the puzzle, because if the answers were rational, it would take away much of the charm and if the answers were supernatural, maybe it would turn it into a different film, therefore the mystery works better and what you form in your mind will… Expand

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Deanomite

Jan 14, 2020

I know it is the seminal Aussie movie (to me that is Mad max or Crocodile Dundee) and I know it is a great example of Impressionism through an Aussie lens. But, I don't get it, even after reading reviews of how great it is. Maybe because the character development is so sparse and the plotI know it is the seminal Aussie movie (to me that is Mad max or Crocodile Dundee) and I know it is a great example of Impressionism through an Aussie lens. But, I don't get it, even after reading reviews of how great it is. Maybe because the character development is so sparse and the plot so thin, this is just inaccessible to me. I love all of peter Weir's other works (Fearless, Truman Show and Master and Commander especially), but when watching this I cannot absorb it. i give it a 7 for being an Impressionist painting in motion.… Expand

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