Vanishing Point
Time, April 23, 1979
As a special treat, the young ladies of Appleyard College (it is
really just a finishing school for adolescents) are to be taken on an
educational outing to the base of Hanging Rock, a massive formation. The
precise pedagogic function of this venture is unclear-something about
appreciating more fully the depths of geologic time, perhaps the
mystery of Hanging Rock's origins in violent tectonic chaos.
About this the girls are quite unconcerned. The trip represents a
day away from the stultifying routine that has turned them into
twittering caged birds. Even as they leave for their picnic, they are
instructed not to remove their white gloves until they have safely
passed through a neighboring town. There will of course be no question
of disencumbering themselves from all their heavy corsetry. The time is
1900, and the place is provincial Australia: the most repressive tenets
of the Victorian behavioral code, especially regarding sexuality, are
rigidly enforced.
The brooding rock exerts a primitive magnetic force on some of the
girls. Four, led by the lovely Miranda (Anne Lambert) leave the group to
explore it more closely. One, chubby and asexual, turns back, but the
other three press on. Two of them (along with a teacher answering some
mysterious impulse to join them) are never seen again. One girl is
rescued some days later but never speaks about what may or may not have
happened on Hanging Rock. Nor does the film, based on a thriller by Joan
Lindsay, offer any definite explanation. It does explore the rational
efforts to solve the mystery (two young men who were near by seem likely
suspects at first) and it examines how the tragedy affects the various
interested parties in the aftermath.
It could be objected that this failure to come up with a realistic
denouement is a fault, but it is one that the film shares with works
like L'Aventura and Blow-Up, whose director, Michelangelo Antonioni, has
obviously had an influence on Peter Weir. As in the master's work, the
criminal, if there is one, is society. It does not matter to Weir
whether there was a sexual criminal lurking up there among the rocks,
awaiting these young women who are easy prey, or if their own erotic
repression led to some self-destructive hysterical act. The point is that
the repression existed, and that it was not created by its victims.
There is something else Weir wants to say-that in society, a sense
of order is a very fragile thing. If people do not allow for the
inexplicable, then they will collapse of shock when chance makes its
inevitable appearance. That is what happens to Mrs. Appleyard, the
school's headmistress (Rachel Roberts) and to the little academic world
she has created when the full impact of the picnic strikes her. The
suicide of a girl who had a crush on one of the victims is the final
blow.
This horrific tale is told with marvelous shadowry indirection and
delicate lyricism. It is full of enigmatic silences, which create a
nice, ironic tension between the film's genteel manner and its really
quite ferocious theme. It may be seen as a mature exercise in style by a
young director, if for no other reason. In addition it is the
centerpiece, so far, of the revitalized Australian film industry and the
first assured work by a director who could gain an international
reputation.
Back to start of Picnic at Hanging Rock section
My Index Page
|