Picnic at Hanging Rock | |
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Original 1975 Australian theatrical poster
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Directed by | Peter Weir |
Produced by | Hal and Jim McElroy |
Written by | Cliff Green |
Based on |
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay |
Starring | |
Music by | Bruce Smeaton (credited for the additional original music of the film) |
Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
Edited by | Max Lemon |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | British Empire Films (Australia) G.T.O. Films (United Kingdom) Atlantic Releasing (United States, original distributor) Janus Films (United States, current distributor) |
Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | AU$443,000 |
Box office | AU$5,120,000 (Aust) |
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery drama film directed by Peter Weir and starring Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse, Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray and Dominic Guard. The film was adapted by Cliff Green from the 1967 novel of the same name by Joan Lindsay, who was deliberately ambiguous about whether the events really took place, although her book is in fact entirely fictional.
The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine's Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community. Picnic at Hanging Rock was a commercial and critical success. On September 6, 2016, it was announced that Fremantle Media and pay-TV broadcaster, Foxtel will be producing a six-part miniseries, to be broadcast in 2017.
At Appleyard College, a girls' private school, near the town of Woodend, Victoria, Australia, the students are dressing on the morning of St. Valentine's Day, 1900. Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert), Irma (Karen Robson), Marion (Jane Vallis), Rosamund (Ingrid Mason), waifish Sara (Margaret Nelson), and outsider Edith (Christine Schuler) read poetry and Valentine's Day cards.
The group prepares for a picnic to a local geological formation known as Hanging Rock, accompanied by the mathematics mistress Miss Greta McCraw (Vivean Gray) and the young and beautiful Mlle. de Poitiers (Helen Morse). On the authority of the stern headmistress Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts), jittery teacher Miss Lumley (Kirsty Child) advises Sara that she is not allowed to attend.