A really terrific movie is out on blu-ray today- a mysterious and elegiac mood piece from the great Australian director Peter Weir, and this is one of his earliest films. Picnic at Hanging Rock tells the story of four teenage girls in turn of the century Australia who suddenly vanish one day into the strangely beckoning rocks of the Outback, and no one can figure out what happened to them. Was it real? Is it an allegory for female subjugation in the early 1900's? Or something else entirely? See if you can break through the silence when you watch it- Weir gives us no answers, only unsettling and provocative questions and atmosphere. You can't miss this one, it's one of the great films of the 1970's.
Original 1975 Trailer:
