Weir excerpts

In the magazine Venice, the Los Angeles Arts and Entertainment Magazine, of June, 1998, there is an article entitled Peter Weir on Movies, Madness, and Monty. In the article there is one question asked him about Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Question: After that you did Picnic at Hanging Rock. Was it based on a true story?

Answer: Supposedly, but no one could ever find any newspaper accounts. I think it was an invention on the part of the novelist (on whose book the film was based), but why she should make up such a story I don't know. She would never answer the question about whether it was true or not, which didn't bother me. I used the device that it was probably true. What interested me was the fact that people disappear every day, seemingly into thin air sometimes, and they're never heard from again. And it's very important in many cultures to bury the body and have a feeling of closure when someone dies. With disappearance, you never have that.


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