Another review

'Picnic at Hanging Rock' still mesmerizes after 23 years

DAN BENNETT; Staff Writer

The film that introduced Peter Weir to an international audience, establishing him as a major directorial talent, still mesmerizes 23 years after its initial appearance.

'Picnic at Hanging Rock,' the 1975 Australian film concerning the real-life disappearance of teen-age girls at a school picnic in 1900, is still harrowing stuff. Weir has now released the director's cut of the film - playing for one week only at the Ken Cinema in San Diego - and he's taken a different route from most. 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' has been rereleased with seven minutes deleted, rather than added, Weir removing scenes he found unnecessary. The result remains a powerful film about the tragedy of loss and the agony of uncertainty.

What remains most impressive about the film is Weir's gentle artistry, turning what could have been a standard mystery into something with an exotic visual texture. Weir treats each scene as a ballet of sights, using slow motion, gradual dissolves and other mild tricks to create a big effect.

'Picnic at Hanging Rock' has long earned high praise because Weir refuses to go with easy answers. The director consistently works different meanings and motivations into the film.

When three girls and a teacher disappeared on a hot summer day, walking to the top of a dormant volcano, it was a traumatic time for Australia.

The possibilities were endless, including foul play and physical mishap. Were the girls lost? Murdered? Did they leave on their own?

Weir works magic by gently hinting at different possibilities, including one that suggests the girls knew they were walking to their deaths. Areas of mythology are introduced. The date was Feb. 14. Did the girls end their lives in some romantic fervor? Did they sacrifice themselves to the volcano in some sort of far-out virgin suicide? Were they poisoned by snakes or murdered and buried by a killer?

Weir lets all things fall where they may, and does so with great care and skill. 'Picnic at Hanging Rock,' made by the director who would go on to make 'The Year of Living Dangerously,' 'Witness,' 'Dead Poets Society,' 'Fearless' and the recent 'The Truman Show,' is a majestic use of the medium.