Picnic at the Hanging Rock 1975

Fig 1. Movie Poster.

Peter Weir's faithful 1975 adaptation of Picnic at the Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967) explores sexual transformation for females following a young women's academy's trip to the hanging rock set in 1900 Victorian Era. From the very first scene the camera is very intimate with these young women, peeping in on their privacy as we watch them get ready, in a row bent over one another as they do up each others corsets (see fig 2), not only does perversion come to mind but restriction as well, when they are all dressed the neckline of their dresses are done right to the neck in addition to wearing gloves and stocking - completely covered, forbidden for female flesh to be exposed. 

Fig 2. Corset Restriction.

Fig 3. Dress Code.

This is their uniform a constant imprisonment/protection from any sexual nature. (See fig 3). The first shot on screen tells us which day it is - St Valentines Day, immediately the day dedicated to love and making love is evoked, the closest thing to a couple we see that day is Sara's longing for Miranda which alongside ethereal camera shots display Miranda as desired and a goddess. So when she disappears and doesn’t come back and throughout this mystery we are given hints and leads that go no where. Students are angry that their goddess is gone and the audience is left frustrated as we get so invested in this story only to have no answers or solutions - but why do we get so frustrated? This film is open to various interpretations, and Freud’s theory is one of them, as Megan Abbott explains in her essay 'Picnic at Hanging Rock: What We See and What We Seem' she explains: 

"In his lecture “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming” (1907), Freud writes that when we reach adulthood, we are told we must abandon childhood play, but the impulse for fantasy remains, and thus we substitute the more private act of daydreaming as a means of wish fulfillment. In our private thoughts, we indulge the wishes we repress in life, but the practice feels shameful. The power of fiction, Freud argues, is that it gives us an acceptable vehicle by which to indulge these hidden desires. The writer (or filmmaker) tacitly assures us that, however perverse and titillating the story we are enjoying is, we need feel no guilt because it is the creator’s fantasy, not ours, “enabling us . . . to enjoy our own day-dreams without self-reproach or shame.” Our unconscious wishes are dramatized, investing us in the story and allowing us an ecstatic release. But what happens if we are given no release?" (Abbott, 2014). The answer to her question could be the story lives on in our minds consciously or not until we find that release - the stories that are least conclusive often give the most meaning, leaving us, the viewers to find our own meaning and to venture through our own hanging rock.

This photo of Hanging Rock Reserve is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Fig 4. Faces in the Hanging Rocks.

The hanging rock is a volcano as well as the ultimate God of this film expressed in several ways starting with how the rock looks down on its subjects and how admired it is expressed by characters upon their arrival. It has been said that faces can be seen in the hanging rock (see fig 4) the reason is ambiguous it could be the many faces of this god, it could be ghostly/unclear faces of those who have offered themselves upon the rock previously or it could be the different faces for different lifetimes this God - volcano has lived changing over time. When the girls arrive at the picnic, the rock watching over them and calls out to three girls: Miranda, Irma and Marion, using diegetic sounds and vibrations. However four girls venture off, the fourth one Edith goes as a tag along not because she was attracted, she was the only one not to lose the gloves, corset or stockings, she was not undressed by this nature. The volcano is a metaphor for sexuality, like these virgins' pre sexual energy, the volcano's energy is ready to erupt. 

"If, for many of the girls, the rock seems to whisper, tantalizingly, of the secrets of sexuality, it is no less meaningful a symbol for the adult characters. It is telling that the “old maid” Miss McCraw asserts that the rock may seem old but is “quite young, geologically speaking,” and bears the promise of sexual release, with lava “forced up from deep down below.”" (Abbott, 2014).

Fig 5. Edith's screaming hysteria.

To explore the rocks is really to explore their sexuality, they were ready which is why the rock called out to them and not Edith supported by her hysterical screaming reaction (see fig 5). Virginity is something you only have once - once it's gone it's gone, there's no return or coming back from it so when these young women that have a load of pre-sexual energy, the rock provides an opportunity for them to eagerly explore it or to use it, to pass through innocence - one life, a child life and into another life of adult sexuality from which they cannot return from - just like they don't return from the rocks. Yet Irma comes back from this adventure so it seems or maybe she was never there in the first place which is why she doesn’t know anything. More ideas can be interpreted as none are given. In fig 6 we see Irma dressed in red among the innocents in white. Red is a sign of danger which causes conflict with the peaceful white, passion red makes the purity of white open to infection of another colour as white is the easiest colour to stain. Red the colour of periods - the sign from the female body that you're ready to have sex and a child, would make any girl feel frightened especially when unexpected like Irma's arrival that day.

Fig 7. Irma's Return - White vs Red

Miranda foreshadows that she won't be back from the hanging rock when she tells Sara that she must learn to love someone other than Miranda, symbolism is well used for example, when the other girls tie Sara up, the bondage is a symbol that she's imprisoned in her longing she will never get to explore, she will constantly live in white supported by her fate in the film when she dies, (and because we don’t know if Miranda is even dead), Sara will never be with Miranda.  Another symbol used to tell the story is when Michael is day dreaming of Miranda the image fades into a swan gliding across water, swans are a symbol of grace and beauty echoed by soft visuals used to convey the heat - together it all create beautiful imagery it's about how we gaze at the images presented to us.

Fig 7. Sara.

But in the end we'll never know what really happened ... "There are, after all, things within our own minds about which we know far less than about disappearances at Hanging Rock." (Weir, 1976).

Bibliography:

Abbott, Megan. (2014) "Picnic At Hanging Rock: What We See And What We Seem”. [online] The Criterion Collection. Available at: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3202-picnic-at-hanging-rock-what-we-see-and-what-we-seem (Accessed on: 6 May 2017).



Illustration List:

Figure 1. Movie Poster. (1975) [Poster] At: http://www.impawards.com/1975/picnic_at_hanging_rock_ver1.html (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 2. Corset Restriction. (1975) At: https://gladtobeunhappy.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/schoolgirl-eroticism-and-the-end-of-colonial-rule-in-australia-reiterating-the-brilliance-of-picnic-at-hanging-rock/ l (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 3. Dress Code. (1975) At: https://gladtobeunhappy.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/schoolgirl-eroticism-and-the-end-of-colonial-rule-in-australia-reiterating-the-brilliance-of-picnic-at-hanging-rock/ l (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 4. Faces in the Hanging Rocks. (1975) At: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g552275-d2413022-i160719769-Hanging_Rock_Reserve-Woodend_Macedon_Ranges_Victoria.html (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 5. Edith’s screaming hysteria. (1975) At: http://basementrejects.com/review/picnic-at-hanging-rock-1975/ (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 6. Irma’s Return - Red vs White. (1975) At: http://s4291987.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/picnic-at-hanging-rock.html (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)

Figure 7. Sara. (1975) At: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2010/picnic-at-hanging-rock-1975-director%E2%80%99s-cut-1998/572/ (Accessed on: 6 May 2017)