Review of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Luca V — 06 Jun 2009

The second film made by the director of -Carpe Diem- and -The Truman show-. Do these three have something in common? I think Carpe Diem and the Rock are similar, because of the age and environment of the various characters: high school college.

Also there is death. Even if in the Rock death is more a like a mystery. Carpe Diem is more -hard fought-, when Hanging Rock is more silent (remember, the British education the girls receive). The ideals of these girls are more alike the Italian Dolce Stil Novo.

In fact, Miranda, the leader of the explorative girls, is compared by her French teacher to the Venus of Botticelli, which belongs to the city of Dante and Boccaccio (Petrarca was from another city, if I well remember).

It is harder to find analogies in Truman. It may be the fight against the Authority (in this case a TV producer), some element of magic which derives from the adolescence for CD and HR, and from the crystallized life of Truman + the influence of mass media.

Hanging Rock is something obscure, yep, and time stops there. It is a primordial nature. My personal solution to the mystery is that the Math teacher, envious of the youth of the girls and angry because they mocked her sending her a Valentine card with equations on it, made her revenge throwing Miranda and company to the crevice.

but they could also have gone to another dimension, because Miranda is a girl from MARS. Irma is the only one who survives, and fortunately she cannot remember. Sara is also a predestinated: she ideally follows Miranda, even if in a more cruel/ touching way.

I think if the boys in Carpe Diem had known the girls of Hanging Rock they would have never done the stupid things they did. I mean they would have fallen in love.