In the year 1900, a group of school girls and their teacher celebrate Valentines Day by going up to Hanging Rock. Three of the girls vanish without a trace.
Blaine: The idea for “Picnic at Hanging Rock” came to author Joan Lindsay in a dream she had and when she woke up she wrote down everything she had dreamt about. Patricia Lovell, the executive producer, read Joan’s novel on her kitchen table till midnight. After Patricia finished reading, she thought it would make a fantastic film. Australia had never done a period film before, the country had done movies that were original and humorous, but that’s it. People thought “Picnic at Hanging Rock” wasn’t going to work as a film. What they needed was a director with skill and talent. Peter Weir was hired because the producers saw an early film of his and felt he was suitable for “Picnic at Hanging Rock”.
Peter read the novel and he had an urge to make it into a film. The fact that it was an unsolved mystery was electrifying for Peter. Joan Lindsay tested Peter Weir out when she met with him, which was strange for Peter because he wasn’t used to being tested to see if he was worthy enough to direct a project or not. Good news was Peter and Joan were able to connect with each other. Peter Weir was informed not to ask if the novel is based on a true story to Joan Lindsay, but Peter disobeyed those orders and asked anyway. Peter was very curious to know and Joan told him not to ask that question again. Joan also challenged Peter by asking if he thinks it’s right what happened to those three girls who went missing and Peter was unsure.
It was a mystery to Peter if the book was a fictional or non fictional story, but he thought maybe they could trick the audience by making them believe it’s a true story. Peter thought they could start the film off with words making it look like this really happened. Peter knew they had to do something in order to make the audience interested in what they were about to watch.
“Picnic at Hanging Rock” was scheduled to shoot for only six weeks, usually a film needs more time than that, and it was a lot for Peter to handle because he had to make sure he got every shot he needed. Peter never complained though. Peter committed himself to this project and he worked hard. Peter was also a man with a lot of ideas and that’s one of the things a director is all about. Peter likes to experiment a lot while shooting a movie and try out the scene in a different way.
Peter had actress Vivien Merchant in mind for Miss Appleyard, the headmistress, because he felt she was suitable for the character and Vivien was happy to do it, but something came up at the last minute and she couldn’t do the project. Peter had to look fast for another actress. There was a shortlist of actresses to play Appleyard. Peter had just seen “Murder on the Orient Express” with Rachel Roberts and thought she should get the part. Rachel was able to fit into the costume that was originally made for Vivien Merchant and the wig too. But Rachel refused to wear someone else’s stuff because it was considered to be bad luck. That was something Rachel Roberts learned from the theater. So the character was given a new look.
The women who were going to play the school girls had to look right for this film and by right that means feel like they were from that period. The character, Miranda St Clare, who is one of the three girls who goes missing was originally going to be played by Ingrid Mason, but she wasn’t working for Peter Weir. Then Peter saw a picture of a young lady named Anne-Louise Lambert and she was perfect. Executive producer Patricia Lovell had to break the news to Ingrid that they gave the part of Miranda to someone else. The executive producer felt Ingrid shouldn’t be left out of the project so she talked to Peter and convinced him on giving Ingrid another role.
Ingrid got to play a different character, it was a small part, but the Miranda part isn’t that big either.
Anne-Louise Lambert was the shy type compared to Miranda. Anne thought of Miranda as a natural, warm loving and free spirited woman.
Anne was nervous at times feeling she wasn’t doing a good enough job while they were shooting. Anne wandered off whenever they were taking a break from shooting so she could have time to herself. Joan Lindsay joined Anne on one of her walks and gave her a big hug. Joan was proud with the work Anne was doing and that made Anne feel positive about herself. Watching Anne perform brought back a personal memory of Joan's.
Anne-Louise Lambert was playing a great leader out of the group of school girls, but the problem was she was so good that Peter had wished there were more scenes with her. Anne’s character, Miranda, is only around for the first half hour of the film and then she disappears. Later in the film, two boys are looking for the girls and one of them daydreams about Miranda. Peter thought it would be a good idea if Anne would pop up just for one more scene.
Author Joan Lindsay would hang around while they were shooting and she talked to the actresses. Joan was proud of everyone, from the actors, to the director, to the crew, for bringing her novel to life through film. The way it was looking as a film was exactly how Joan imagined when she wrote the book. The actresses loved playing the characters Joan had created. It was hard to break out of character for the actresses after shooting a take because they were so attached as they were playing them.
Peter Weir had a lot of discussions about how the film would look with his cinematographer, Russell Boyd. Russell created an ethereal look for the picnic by placing simple bridal veil fabric over the camera lens. Russell looked through a lot of wedding vow material at a store for that fabric. There’s also times where it look warm.
Peter thought it would be a good idea if there were close up shots of the actors and ask them not to blink so it could have an unconscious feel to it. The first thing Peter and his crew shot was Hanging Rock from different spots, positions and angles. The landscape is like another character in the film. A lot of people who were involved with this project had been to Hanging Rock and each person had their own opinion on how they felt about the location. Some say it’s a powerful place to be, some say it feels mysterious, others say it can be scary and they also feel it’s alive. To go back and work on a film at Hanging Rock felt personal for everyone who had been there before. Russell realized there was perfect lighting on the rock between 12 PM and 1:30 in the afternoon and they could use that for the scene where all the girls are picnicking. They would spend an hour one day at a time shooting the picnic scene so they could have the right lighting for the shot. The whole picnic sequence took more than a week to shoot. They found a place in South Australia to shoot the school. It was Martindale Hall. The story on Martindale Hall was the man who built it did it for a woman he loved. He built the Martindale Hall so she could move to Australia and live with him, but she never turned up. And then he lost the building in a gambling game.
It was difficult to figure out the theme music for the film. The music needed to sound like something freeing. Producer Jim McElroy watched a documentary on abc and he liked the music playing in the background. Jim managed to find out who did the music and it was Gheorghe Zamfir, a Romanian pan flute musician. Jim bought one of Gheorghe’s albums and shared it with Peter. They met with Gheorghe and he wasn’t interested in playing the flute for the film, but he gave Peter and Jim the permission to use the music from one of his albums.
Peter Weir and the producers knew that everyone would ask what happened to those three girls. One of them, Irma, is found, and I’m not sure if this is in the book or not. Irma doesn’t know where the other two have gone. There isn’t an answer because it will forever be an unsolved mystery.
During the film’s premiere in Sydney, Australia, one of audience members told one of the producers that “Picnic at Hanging Rock” was waste of time because he found it boring. Another threw his coffee cup at the screen. That didn’t bother the producer though because he thought it was unique. Other than that, “Picnic at Hanging Rock" did well with it’s international release. Australian films were not known in America during the 70s and they weren’t taken seriously. “Picnic at Hanging Rock” didn’t get a U.S. release until ’79.
My rating on “Picnic at Hanging Rock” is four and a half out of five stars
