Ep. 109 - Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Movie Discussion

[@Camille_Anderson]

its an ethereal masterpiece. Its mystery, its haunting soundtrack & the novel. itself have intrigued & beguiled many people for over 40yrs. I am still so enchanted with it since childhood and find reading the novel in my garden during summer is still my little indulgence. life is but a dream.

[@donna25871]

I can’t believe this film is 50 years old next year.

[@TheWaynos73]

The success of this film is the fact that you guys argue about it and have different points of view. Brilliant. Weir did his job in investing you in the mystery to the point where you are trying to piece together yourself.

[@1964Rennie]

I have had the privilege a number of times of watching an evening outdoor screening of this movie at the Rock on Valentines Day. It is amazing to watch with the whole rock as a backdrop, with it’s trees and wildlife and shadows. The audience is so quiet watching it … until Ethel runs screaming down the hill. The actual hanging rock is a rock inside the monolith that looks like it is hanging horizontally, which you walk under. It’s original European name is Mount Diogenes. It is a place of significance for local Aboriginals. It is a truly weird and unique place.

[@GlynDwr-d4h]

This is a great movie. I've seen it several times now, but it's not for everybody. You either connect to it or you don't. What's great about it is intangible and difficult to explain. It's a vibe. Also, I'm fairly certain this movie had a huge influence on David Lynch. The Miranda character in this movie gives off Laura Palmer vibes and the basic concept behind it is that it's a mystery film that can never be solved, which is really what Lynch was doing in any number of films. Like many of Lynch's films, if you watch Hanging Rock a second or third time, you start to notice weird details in it that are like clues and the film just becomes more mysterious with each viewing and the answer to the mystery seems to grow ever more distant and obscure the harder you look for it.

[@stephennyangau5959]

Just from the start, it can tell how lovely this movies keeps on being. The more you watch, the more you love it.

[@edwarddavis3436]

The Weird, eerier vocal choir sounds that brings the music to a haunting crescendo was from a tape based keyboard instrument called a Mellotron. I didn’t hear any synthesizer sounds but could be wrong. Also, low notes from a pipe organ along with a pan flute are played throughout the film.

[@douglascollier7767]

Just found your channel because of your discussion of this film. What a wonderful post! It caused me to subscribe. I look forward to watching more.

[@larrydirtybird]

I’m stopping watching this video because the woman off screen who is making so many stupid comments is really annoying me. I can’t deal with her anymore. What is this uniquely American expectation that every single aspect of a movie spelled out to them like they’re a five-year-old? The whole genius of this movie is the mysterious mood that it creates and how vague and inexplicable it is. It used to be on cable TV in the 1980s when I was in middle school, and this movie haunted me then and it haunts me now, 40 years later. So, anybody who hasn’t watched this movie: turn off your phone, turn off the lights, keep your mind open, not closed, and let this film carry you away.

[@seansmith8661]

The movie looks visually appealing from the inserted scene. I loved the discussion back and forth... will have to find.

[@ReelShame]

We can always count on you for a comment! Not sure where you're located, but it's currently streaming on HBO Max. Shoot us an email if you can't find it! It was a weird movie for sure but I love how we can have an informative dialog while not feeling the same way about the movie. Would love to know how you feel once you find it!

[@mathewkelly9968]

I'm from Victoria , we did the book , the movie and actually went to Hanging Rock in high school

[@greenman4946]

I am firmly in the ”love this movie” camp. There were lots of interesting observations made here, and the offscreen lady is funny - she just doesn’t have an ear for foreign accents... There’s nothing Italian about miss de Poitiers’s accent IMHO, even if it is phony.

[@johannahulten]

This movie is magical!

[@Industrialist2015ofUk]

the Las Vegas guy has it figured out... the others don't have the atmospheric / ambience taste or mentality😄 each to their own.

[@louisecrowther1176]

I have always been obsessed with this movie I live in Sydney Australia hope to read the novel soon and visit hanging rock

[@ReelShame]

Would love to know what you think happens to the girls! Clearly we can't come a final conclusion.

[@MsAppassionata]

Isn’t this based on a true story?

[@catherinewindow6157]

You also should visit Martindale Hall in mintaro which was the school

[@shaundgb7367]

@@MsAppassionata I think only the author would know and I think she has passed away. Seems like the characters in the story were real to her in some sense. Apparently she visited the actress that played Miranda, on set one day and hugged her and said something along the lines, I have missed you so much Miranda.

[@AllThingsFoolish]

Wonderful review of a beautifully composed movie.

[@clemdane]

I love this move beyond reason. I can't explain it. I saw it in 1986 and it's never let go of me.

[@tombombadill22]

Peter Weir in his director's cut of 2004, cut out a lot of the post disappearance school trauma elements that one of you referred to as something they would like to see - it WAS in the original 117 minute release, but not in Weir's 104 minute cut, and it pissed a lot of people off, to this day, including the real Miranda! Thankfully, the new 2023 4K box set includes the original release.

[@keelbyman]

I have the dvd release with both versions and the extras; Yup she was pissed off.

[@toffeenut1336]

I loved this movie, especially the original, without the extras cut out. Sara wasn’t killed tho - she committed suicide. Mrs. Appleyard was confronted by Sara (dead now) on Hanging Rock, where she fell to her death, her head being impaled on a jagged rock.

[@donna25871]

It’s ambiguous whether Sara was murdered or committed suicide. Mrs Appleyard’s behaviour is questionable as well as her lying about Sara’s whereabouts.

[@ffggcvcfcgvcf492]

It's a movie to allow the viewer to be enveloped in the mood of it. It's not rational.

[@vohqzz8822]

gonna check this movie out !

[@ReelShame]

Thanks! It's streaming on HBO Max currently. We also love movies suggestions!

[@sirako]

such a heavy movie, it's weird but I think I will not watch it again soon but I'm sure intrigued a lot by it's metaphors and all the ultra weird acting, I really liked your input, the whole thing, such a healthy conversation. I subscribed as soon as I realized you were so awesome.

[@RobertSlover]

the obvious parallel between miranda and laura palmer is fascinating.

[@shaundgb7367]

I doubt it was a conscious thing by David Lynch but there certainly fascinating to think how hypnotic in nature both this movie was and Fire Walk With Me. They are also both movies people either hate or are transfixed by, it seems.

[@RobertSlover]

@@shaundgb7367 the mythological/archetype certainly predates both examples.

[@clemdane]

He's referring to The Ascent Music by Bruce Smeaton.

[@deltasingh4284]

Nice review the movie. Honestly after seeing your review watched the movie. Enjoyed very much. sub you

[@eala9800]

These sorts of stories are known in Oz as 'pioneer or bush stories' and often emphasis how the settlers didn't belong and had no connection to the land like the native people. The land is often portrayed as being alive and often malevolent to those that don't understand it. This is further emphasised in the movie by those being taken being Australian born and the one who is rejected is French. I live near Hanging Rock and it really is a spooky place with a strange energy and that weird rumble music in the movie is similar to the sound of the wind up there since it is a rock in the middle of a flat plain.

[@jordanthelion]

Nice review. I will definitely check out this movie..

[@ReelShame]

Thanks man! We also love movies suggestions!

[@christinecoombs3536]

If you’re Australian it’s much more evocative. There is a special , almost spiritual feeling at some locations in the Australian bush and outback. Everyone I know ( whether Australian or not) has commented on it.

[@shaundgb7367]

I remember seeing this movie as a little kid and it was eerie and did not understand it, which obviously in some ways is how it designed to be in style. Still, for some reason still makes me not want to visit Hanging Rock. I assume it around Mount Macedon somewhere. Probably only an hours drive but still think I will give it a miss...

[@imnotabotrlyimnot]

Slowdive and Miranda go well together->kzbin.info/www/bejne/ooLMfKCaorSUbtk

[@DollarMotivationClub]

Due to the lockdowns, they are actually shooting more stuff here in Aus in recent months and a few celebs have started moving here.

[@ReelShame]

I feel like everyone is moving to AUS recently. Seems like all of the Marvel Universe! If only I could crash the set...

[@DollarMotivationClub]

@@ReelShame Where they film a lot of the studio stuff, you can study at a college that sort of has access to it in general-probably enough to crash a set...

[@shaundgb7367]

Should see the sequel. Barbeque at Mount Disappointment.

[@treypointgames3582]

You guys are brave to be on camera... I haven't gotten brave enough like that :)... great review.

[@kurbgang5709]

that's sick they mention the truman show 3:52 i had no idea.. this movie looks interesting, such a classic film 0.0

[@siaeva]

The guy on the left is the smartest in the room ^^

[@c-rt-b1357]

Very unique channel name, a very good one, awesome video and production as well my friend

[@primesyndicate7567]

Your video is not a competent review - it is an obtuse discussion amongst people who seem to have completely missed the point of this spectacular film. Let me explain a few things - The film is set in 1900. In 1901 Queen Victoria would die, and her namesake colony, Victoria, where Hanging Rock is set, would become part of the new country, Australia. One of the central themes of the film is the anachronism of transplanting Victorian England to Australia, and Australia and Australians emerging distinctly. The girls represent that journey. The story is told through a filter of their sensual "awakening". They are all clearly born in Australia, but speak with English-accents and attend a school that is an improbable recreated slice of England in harsh rural Australia. They live in tights corsets and are ruled by order and convention (note the ever present sound of ticking clocks.) This was true of wealthy Australia at that time - every effort was made to emulate England, right down to wearing wooden suits in summer. But all of that falls away at the rock. Hanging Rock represents both time and Australia itself - "standing for millions of years just waiting for us" - not ticking time time, but time in the sense of a force that changes everything around it without actually doing anything - notice how the conventional clocks stop at the rock. Other conventions also fall away - the young gent drinks from the bottle, the girls take off some of their clothes. Most starkly, Ms McCray takes off her skirt when she goes looking for the girls, who have seemingly been swallowed by the place itself. Miranda, the dream within the dream, is both the corseted Victorian lady in an imagined slice of another country, as well as the sensual angel seemingly so at home in the deadly outdoors. But she is a fantasy that must disappear and give way to reality. The reality was that the Victorian age was ending, free-thinking women could not bear that kind of life much longer (as the movie shows with the suicide) and that the skills the girls were acquiring at "finishing" schools would not help them succeed in the changing world. Australia and time were going to swallow that all up. Similarly, the English aristocrat is not the man who will succeed in Australia, his skills only allow him to save a scrap of lace and he almost dies in the effort. It is the straight-talking colonial with the "ugly" accent who is able to find and rescue one of the girls. But the women (note she is now wearing red) who survive in Australia are not welcome in the circle of Victorian ladies (as starkly shown when the girls in white turn on her). At the end, the grand Victorian lady falls and dies. So much is stated, but the girls are only "presumed" dead. They remain the dream within a dream, the girls teetering on the edge an awakening. So - that's what happened to the girls. If you want to title your video a "reaction" then fair enough. To call this a "review" belittles yourselves and only highlights the shallowness of your channel.

[@ReelShame]

@Prime Syndicate thanks for commenting. You make some good and valid points about Picnic at Hanging Rock. I appreciate the time and thought that went into what you wrote. As for the semantics of wether or not this constitutes a “review” or not. I don’t know. It really depends on what your definition of a review is. Maybe our style of reviewing isn’t to your taste? And if that’s the case that is perfectly fine. I don’t feel like it's a reaction because what I’ve seen of reaction videos it’s pretty much in real time as the host is watching or listening to it. Should we call it something other than a review? I don’t know the answer but it’ll be something mull over and see how I feel about it. So I’ve been listening to movie podcasts pretty much since there were podcasts and I feel like there are two buckets movie review podcasts fall into there’s the informative more critical ones and then there’s the host discuss the movies and it feels like you are just hanging out with them. For this show we’re striving for the later. So as long as people have fun watching us review movies and maybe get a little tidbit of knowledge I’ll call that a win. If not, there are plenty of other reviewers out there and maybe one of them will resonate with that person. Thanks again for your time and your comment. - Adam

[@lindsaydoke9308]

The Aborigines are a culture way ahead of their time. They like the native Indians understand that everything has life even the rock itself. It is a dream. For when Mirranda and the others decide to leave they are pursuing their freedom. I truly believe locals helped them escape and then to give them time to assume new lives and identities they turned it into a murder investigation. This drew attention to the school which is what Mirranda wanted. Yes they left the picnic to explore the rock but then were met by locals who helped them escape and find new lives away from the disciplinary way of life they were raised in.

[@RobertSlover]

whats with the off camera yacking?

[@MsAppassionata]

Yeah. Why doesn’t she just join them on camera.

[@RobertSlover]

@@MsAppassionata or not.

[@olhavladyka9215]

wow, cool video! dont stop, man! i am sure it will be very popular soon

[@XltraGaming]

Cool video!!

[@ReelShame]

Thanks man! We also love movies suggestions!

[@zakshak]

Nice

[@stanleyrogouski]

Miranda is the villain. First she tells Sarah "would you like to meet my family." Then 2 seconds later she says "you have to learn not to be so dependent on me Sarah. I might not be around." Sarah ends up paying the price for the disappearance. She's a misfit. Miranda embodies the corrupt ideal of womanhood fo settler colonial Australia on "stolen land."

[@thine3989]

nice review men =)

[@bzegaming9616]

Good Stuff!

[@comodcultgeneral5284]

This is actually mad professional

[@Scotdod24]

The woman talking is SO annoying, she definitely didn't get the movie. It a beautifully made film dealing with different themes, not to be taken literally as the annoying woman took it 😅😅😅😅

[@adamwelch8047]

great vid

[@deegee6091]

With all due respect I can’t believe how much of this movie went over these reviewers heads. Sorry.

[@dashcamstation]

You guys know a lot about film!

[@RoyalZealots]

The lady in the background is hilarious! I enjoyed the review!

[@ReelShame]

Man, that girl is the STAR of the whole movie. Three girls go missing and that one is clearly the most popular. The other two are just collateral damage. haha!

[@ReelShame]

SO it just occurred to us that you might have been talking about the voice in the background of the episode. Out of curiosity, did you mean the voice or the girl in the thumbnail?

[@peregrinusfatum3069]

yall crack me up

[@brenae4234]

I think your intro is so unique lol

[@thetwisteduchiha5973]

nice

[@halraza14]

Wow

[@ReelShame]

Thanks! We also love movies suggestions!

[@clemdane]

I've always thought Sara committed suicide

[@usdxshootz4540]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@catherinewindow6157]

The remake was horrendous They made it dirty It ruined the purity and ethereal vibe this beautiful film creates.

[@michaelhawk-fitz7563]

this was a 35 minute "movie" drawn out into like 2 hours..I JUST watched this..I want to just jump off hanging rock headfirst right about now..

[@plasticweapon]

i'll give you a push if you want.

[@michaelhawk-fitz7563]

@@plasticweapon like I wouldn't grab you, pivot off the rock so you're facing down and super hero land on top of you with my fist in your throat.. I'd probably dislocate my hip and tear a hamstring and break several bones in the hand.. I'll pass..

[@GlynDwr-d4h]

@@plasticweapon lol

[@WackyWebWizard]

E

[@muhammetveagalar9023]

F

[@ReelShame]

I hope that is not what you rank our show....unless it's F for FUNNY FANTASTIC FILM FANCY

[@christinahall2587]

⛰I feel that Miss McCraw removed her skirt for practical reasons… it was easier to climb the Rock without her cumbersome skirt ! But, she had to be desperate to do that as she had kept her gloves on, even while she was eating. There is another scene where we see a group of ants climbing all over a slice of the Valentine’s Day cake, but they know how to navigate their ‘ Rock’…..one bite at a time 🍰.

[@FusionYT.]

Nice

[@EFHITMAN]

Nice