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It's 1900 in Australia. A group of students from a girls' boarding school, brimming with the enthusiasm of youth, embark on what's supposed to be a carefree Valentine's Day outing at the iconic Hanging Rock. The ambience is idyllic, and the laughter is contagious. But as the day unfolds, this innocent trip takes a dark turn. Four girls, drawn inexplicably into the rock’s embrace, venture deeper. By sunset, only one returns, memory erased, and a teacher is mysteriously gone.
Behind this masterpiece is director Peter Weir, who, fresh from his first full-length feature film, The Cars That Ate Paris, crafts an atmosphere that is seen and felt. The cast, led by talents like Anne-Louise Lambert as the ethereal Miranda and Rachel Roberts as the stern Mrs Appleyard, breathe life into Joan Lindsay's iconic novel.
But this film isn't just about the mystery of the missing. At its core, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" delves into themes of nature versus civilisation. The untouched beauty of the Australian wilderness stands in stark contrast to the Victorian-era restraints and societal expectations the girls grapple with. Themes of time, both its palpable passage on that fateful day and the metaphysical aspects, play heavily throughout the film. It challenges us to consider sexuality, the mysteries of adolescence, and the clash between the known and the unknown.
This isn't just a movie; it's a mood, an atmosphere. It's a dreamlike state that lingers, asking viewers to grapple with the line between reality and the ethereal, the known and the unknowable. The haunting soundtrack and the Australian landscape's cinematic beauty craft a visceral and cerebral experience.
And today, as we traverse this intricate cinematic landscape, we're joined by Tab. With her unique insights and deep appreciation for film, we're set to embark on a deep dive into this masterpiece. So, listeners, join us as we explore, analyse, and celebrate the intricacies and enigmas of "Picnic at Hanging Rock."
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Please note that this podcast often explores topics and uses language from past eras. This means that some of the discussions may include attitudes, expressions, and viewpoints that were common in those times but may not align with the standards and expectations of our society today. We'd like to ask for your understanding as we navigate these historical contexts, which are important to appreciate the era we're discussing fully.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Monster Kid Podcast.
00:00:03
It's 1900 in Australia.
00:00:49
A group of students from a girls boarding school, brimming
00:00:53
with the enthusiasm of youth, embark on what's supposed to be
00:00:56
a carefree Valentine's Day outing at the iconic hanging
00:01:00
rock.
00:01:00
The ambience is idyllic and the laughter is contagious.
00:01:13
But as the day unfolds, this innocent trip takes a dark turn.
00:01:18
Four girls, drawn inexplicably to the rocks embrace, venture
00:01:23
deeper.
00:01:23
By sunset only one returns, her memory erased, and a teacher is
00:01:30
mysteriously gone.
00:01:39
Behind this masterpiece is director Peter Weir who, fresh
00:01:42
from his first full-length feature film, the Cars of Eight
00:01:45
Paris, crafts an atmosphere that is seen and felt.
00:01:48
The cast, led by talents like Ann Louise Lambert as the
00:01:52
ethereal Miranda and Rachel Roberts as the stern Mrs Appell
00:01:57
Yard, breathed life into Joan Lindsay's iconic novel.
00:02:00
But this film isn't just about the mystery of the missing.
00:02:07
At its core, picnic and hanging rock delves into the themes of
00:02:12
nature versus civilization.
00:02:13
The untouched beauty of the Australian wilderness stands in
00:02:17
stark contrast to the Victorian era restraints and social
00:02:21
expectations.
00:02:22
The girls grapple with Themes of time.
00:02:34
Both its palpable passage on that faithful day and the
00:02:38
metaphysical aspects play heavily into the film.
00:02:41
It challenges us to consider sexuality, the mysteries of
00:02:46
adolescence and the clash between the known and the
00:02:50
unknown.
00:02:50
This isn't just a movie, it's a mood, an atmosphere, it's a
00:03:09
dreamlike state that lingers, asking viewers to grapple with
00:03:12
the line between reality and the ethereal, the known and the
00:03:17
unknowable, the haunting soundtrack and the Australian
00:03:22
landscape.
00:03:22
Cinematic beauty, craft, a visceral and cerebral experience
00:03:27
.
00:03:27
And today, as we traverse this intricate cinematic landscape,
00:03:33
we're joined by Tab with her unique insights and deep
00:03:37
appreciation for film.
00:03:39
Were set to embark on a deep dive into this masterpiece.
00:03:42
So, listeners, join us as we explore, analyze and celebrate
00:03:48
the intricacies and enigmas of picnic and hanging rock.
00:03:52
G'day and welcome to a didn't go ate my movie, a podcast that
00:04:02
celebrates the weird and wonderful world of Australian
00:04:04
film from the 70s, 80s and beyond.
00:04:07
As ever, I'm your host, pete.
00:04:09
Today I'm joined by tab from the stiletto badges podcast to
00:04:13
discuss picnic and hanging rock.
00:04:15
How are you tab?
00:04:17
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
00:04:18
I'm great.
00:04:18
I'm excited to talk about this movie because I I feel like I
00:04:22
try to talk to people about it and they've never seen it before
00:04:25
.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny?
00:04:26
It's interesting, even just talking to like friends of mine.
00:04:30
We had some friends over last night and they were just asking
00:04:32
what we're going to coming up is it on doing a podcast recording
00:04:34
tomorrow?
00:04:35
And we're doing picnic from hanging rock and they're like oh
00:04:38
, we haven't watched that for years, I haven't seen that for a
00:04:42
long time and even myself I hadn't seen it for years.
00:04:46
Like I saw this.
00:04:47
The first time I ever saw this film I was.
00:04:50
It came out in 75.
00:04:52
I saw it I think in 77 or 76 on a school excursion and I think
00:04:59
at that age I was probably 13, 14, something like that.
00:05:05
It just went right over her head.
00:05:08
So I think for that age group they're not really gonna not
00:05:11
really gonna understand a lot of it, right?
00:05:14
Speaker 1: it's vibes.
00:05:14
The movie is how I described it to my friend Micah, because it
00:05:17
is very visual first of all, and it's about the atmosphere of it
00:05:22
.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: It has a loose plot, but it's not super dependent on
00:05:26
that no, I know, and much has been said about it, it has no
00:05:30
ending.
00:05:30
Nothing wraps up and there's a wrap up but there's no clear in.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: I don't think we're spoiling anything, because I
00:05:37
think at the very start you pretty much know that's gonna
00:05:40
happen yeah, I don't think you can really spoil this movie,
00:05:43
other than some girls on a school trip disappear, but that
00:05:49
happens at the beginning that's right.
00:05:51
Speaker 2: There's no spoiling this movie.
00:05:52
So anyway, picnic at Hang Rock was released in 1975 and was
00:05:57
directed by Peter Weir, film stars and Louise Lambert, rachel
00:06:01
Roberts, dominic Guard and Helen Morse.
00:06:03
It also features again in my podcast a very young John
00:06:08
Jarrett yeah what was his second film role?
00:06:11
Speaker 1: she's so young in this I think the youngest I had
00:06:13
seen him prior to this was next of kitten and he's probably in
00:06:17
his early 30s and that yeah, he's really young.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: I can't remember.
00:06:20
I was looking yesterday and I thought I've got to write down
00:06:23
the name of the first film and I forgot.
00:06:25
I'm sorry about that.
00:06:26
It's his second feature film and he said he's so young.
00:06:29
But you can see, he can see the talent in him in this movie.
00:06:33
He's not yeah, billing but he's he's quite good in this film, I
00:06:37
think and I think he's.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: His character is supposed to stick out this way,
00:06:41
but everyone else is so like posh and upper-crust, and that's
00:06:46
really sets him apart from yeah from everyone else, and I think
00:06:50
it's supposed to, because yeah like a servant or a worker for
00:06:54
one of the rich families he's the larrican Aussie guy in the
00:06:58
movie.
00:06:59
Speaker 2: So the movie was based on the book of the same
00:07:01
name written by Joan Lindsay, and it was first published in
00:07:04
1967.
00:07:06
I've not read it.
00:07:06
I actually just bought it on Apple Books last week and I try
00:07:12
and read it and I knew I wouldn't get through it before
00:07:14
this, so I started to read it.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: It's very similar, it's very have you read it?
00:07:18
Speaker 2: have you read it?
00:07:19
Speaker 1: yeah, a small copy came with my criterion, dvd so I
00:07:24
read it several years ago so.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to reading it and I think, if I
00:07:28
think about the start of the book, even I think she writes at
00:07:32
the start of the book that she says because the big thing about
00:07:35
this movie is, they kept asking her all the time is this a true
00:07:38
story or is?
00:07:39
This something you made up and she never really answered the
00:07:42
question and she was told she used to tell people.
00:07:46
I think when Pb we first went to meet her, he was told by her
00:07:51
publicist or publisher not to ask her whether it was a true
00:07:55
story or not.
00:07:55
But he couldn't help himself and did, and at first she said to
00:07:59
him I hope you're not gonna ask that question again.
00:08:01
But then she said it's she didn't really.
00:08:04
Say she didn't really answer it straight and the start of the
00:08:06
start of the book.
00:08:07
It actually basically says it doesn't matter whether this is
00:08:12
true or not, because so much time has passed.
00:08:14
Speaker 1: The people in this book are dead yeah, it's
00:08:17
presented almost like a true crime book in the way that it's
00:08:21
written.
00:08:21
It's written as if it is a real thing that people talk about,
00:08:25
at least yeah not everything in, it, is true, but urban legend
00:08:28
kind of.
00:08:29
Speaker 2: Thing so I'm looking forward to getting into it and
00:08:31
reading it.
00:08:32
It'll be really good.
00:08:33
So where to watch it?
00:08:34
So it's a weird one, because in Australia I didn't find it on
00:08:39
any streaming service for such a seminal Australian film.
00:08:42
Yeah it's almost it's really.
00:08:45
I looked on places where I looked in all the regular places
00:08:48
, but then I looked in places where I thought I'll absolutely
00:08:51
be on ABC I view, but no it's not there and then I thought
00:08:55
I'll be on the SPS one.
00:08:58
So ABC is like our national broadcast and.
00:09:02
SPS is like a.
00:09:03
It used to be mostly always foreign films and foreign TV and
00:09:08
stuff like that, and it's still like that.
00:09:09
But they have a lot of Australian content as well and I
00:09:12
thought it'd be on their streaming service for sure
00:09:15
because they have a lot to Australian stuff and so does the
00:09:17
ABC and I thought I'll be on there for sure.
00:09:19
So I don't know if there's a rights thing in Australia at the
00:09:22
moment, but it's not an any streaming service.
00:09:25
You can buy it, like on Apple I think, and things like that, or
00:09:28
rent it right there's.
00:09:29
I ended up having to order a DVD from a cellar on eBay and wow,
00:09:37
because I was gonna order it through Amazon.
00:09:39
But it might have been a bit, might not have made it in time
00:09:42
and I know there's a 4k on Amazon, I think that's second
00:09:45
site released which looks interesting, and there's a
00:09:49
couple of other few versions.
00:09:50
Funnily enough, I only found out the second viewing and
00:09:55
watching a documentary, because the DVD I got is Super Bear
00:10:00
Bones.
00:10:00
It's the movie, it's the trailer and that's it and
00:10:06
there's nothing else on it.
00:10:07
So I found a documentary on YouTube that's split into two
00:10:11
parts, which I think is off one of the later umbrella releases,
00:10:15
and I found out that the version I watched that I got on DVD was
00:10:20
a director's cut when he had a second go at the movie a few
00:10:22
years later.
00:10:23
Oh, wow, okay and took some scenes out and things like that.
00:10:27
So, yeah, so it's.
00:10:28
There's not really much there.
00:10:30
There's a rumor that umbrella are releasing a new, fully
00:10:35
restored 4k before the end of the year.
00:10:37
There was a an interview I watched with one of the guys
00:10:40
from umbrella it was last week and he mentioned that they're
00:10:44
working on a 4k of a beloved Australian film.
00:10:47
So I'm thinking maybe it's that .
00:10:49
So if that comes to fruition, I'll definitely pick that up as
00:10:53
well so where have you been?
00:10:55
Speaker 1: able to watch it so I noticed that it is currently in
00:10:58
the US at least on max, which would be HBO max.
00:11:02
So, yeah, I saw that it was on max or HBO max.
00:11:05
When I was trying to, I was actually trying to find the mini
00:11:08
series to look at and then I have it as a criterion DVD and I
00:11:13
checked the criterion website and they do have a blu-ray
00:11:16
available, but that may only be.
00:11:17
I think it would be region A for the US so it would probably
00:11:21
be region locked, unfortunately yeah, yeah but if you're a US
00:11:25
listener, there's a couple different ways you can get it,
00:11:28
which is surprising.
00:11:29
Usually it's the other way around.
00:11:30
Usually.
00:11:31
Speaker 2: Europe or.
00:11:32
Speaker 1: Australia has it when we don't.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're an Australian listener and you do
00:11:37
want to get something from Europe.
00:11:38
So if you get something, I think anything from Britain uses
00:11:43
the same region as we do, so you can safely buy stuff, I
00:11:47
think that's from the UK.
00:11:48
So if you get it off the Amazon UK store or something like,
00:11:51
that.
00:11:51
So, yeah, it's funny because, as an aside, when I was looking
00:11:54
for this movie I was looking on ABC I found this Nick Cave and
00:11:59
Warren Ellis concert at Hanging Rock.
00:12:01
Speaker 1: Oh nice.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: And it was really cool, and so I ended up getting
00:12:05
totally sidetracked for 30 minutes.
00:12:07
Speaker 1: It's watching that we just went and saw Nick Cave in
00:12:10
Milwaukee a week ago.
00:12:10
I know.
00:12:12
Speaker 2: I saw Micah mention.
00:12:13
That Was it great.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: Oh, he was awesome.
00:12:16
It was on the level of I imagine seeing somebody like
00:12:19
David Bowie or.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Tom.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Weitz or Leonard Cohen, and unfortunately, like
00:12:24
Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, I wouldn't be able to see them
00:12:26
because they're from now.
00:12:28
Speaker 2: But Nick Cave was amazing.
00:12:30
Speaker 1: It was just him and a piano, and then the bass player
00:12:32
from Radiohead was accompanying him.
00:12:35
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that would have been good.
00:12:36
Yeah, it would have been excellent.
00:12:37
So the movie had a budget I think I missed.
00:12:42
I mistyped this.
00:12:45
I put $443 million to get it.
00:12:47
It was $443.
00:12:52
And its box offers.
00:12:54
It made $5.12 million in the show.
00:12:57
It's actually not too bad theatrically.
00:12:59
Yeah, I don't think it cost $443 million.
00:13:02
Imagine a copy.
00:13:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker 2: It'd be quite extravagant.
00:13:04
On Rotten Tomatoes it's 91% and the audience score is 83, which
00:13:10
is really high, which is great, and the IMDB rating is 7.4.
00:13:14
So I forgot the letter box, but I'm assuming it's pretty high,
00:13:18
so it's a very well loved film.
00:13:20
I even watched a Siskel and Ebert review of it yesterday and
00:13:26
I can't tell them apart which ones were, but one of them
00:13:29
really loved it.
00:13:30
The bigger guy Is that Siskel.
00:13:32
That's Ebert Ebert right, he really loved it and Siskel
00:13:37
didn't really.
00:13:38
He liked cinematography, loved everything else about it, but he
00:13:40
hated the fact and I guess we'll probably come back to this
00:13:43
again that there was no ending to the movie.
00:13:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:13:48
Speaker 2: He described it as like having somebody give him a
00:13:51
present in a beautifully wrapped box, and when he opens the box
00:13:54
up, there's nothing in it, and yeah, I feel like Americans are
00:13:59
very literal and so if you don't have a set, three act, story
00:14:05
structure and an unambiguous ending.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: They're like what is this?
00:14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, if you look at the documentary on
00:14:12
YouTube or on one of the DVDs or Blu-ray releases which I'm sure
00:14:17
it's on I think it's one of the McElroy's one of the producers
00:14:20
basically says when they sold it into the US, a lot of the
00:14:23
reaction they got was what the hell's is?
00:14:25
It doesn't have an ending?
00:14:26
Yeah, and so, yeah, it's very interesting.
00:14:30
I think that's what really makes the movie, though, is the fact
00:14:34
that it's so open-ended, because you end up watching the movie
00:14:37
and again and I've said this before on this podcast there's
00:14:41
you watch this movie and then for the next few days it's
00:14:44
actually milling around in your head.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: And you're sort of going, oh, what did happen, what
00:14:48
actually did happen to these people?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: So and it's not that it's a realistic movie, because
00:14:53
I don't think that's the intention, but in real life
00:14:57
there are just things that don't have an ending or don't get
00:15:01
solved.
00:15:01
It's super common, so why wouldn't you have a story that
00:15:07
doesn't?
00:15:07
It's a mystery that it's not solved.
00:15:09
Yeah, that's more realistic than mysteries that are solved
00:15:13
in some respect.
00:15:14
Speaker 2: True, and the only logical ending this movie could
00:15:17
have is they find the bodies, or they come back, or something
00:15:24
like one of them did right, but you know they're going to happen
00:15:27
.
00:15:27
I think I like it.
00:15:28
For that reason it's good.
00:15:29
The novel was originally published in 1967.
00:15:34
And after reading the book four years after it's released, pat
00:15:38
Lovell who at the time was an actress she did daytime TV and
00:15:41
other sorts of things and soapies and stuff she thought it
00:15:44
would be great, would make a great movie and eventually
00:15:47
secure the rights for a total of $300 in 1973.
00:15:51
I think she paid.
00:15:52
I think I read that she paid $100 a month for three months or
00:15:55
something and that got her the rights to the book.
00:15:57
And then she hired Peter Weir to direct it and he bought with
00:16:01
him Jim McElroy to help produce the film.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: That team.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: I think one of them in particular has produced a lot
00:16:07
of these films in Australia, Like I think Razorback was one
00:16:10
that they produced as well, so they've got a long history with
00:16:13
these sort of movies.
00:16:15
So Pat Lovell originally wanted David Williamson screenwriter
00:16:19
David Williamson, very well known in Australia as a writer
00:16:22
of screen and stage to write the adaptation.
00:16:25
However, he could never get his schedule to sort of match up,
00:16:28
so he suggested Cliff Green, who was a noted TV writer, and he
00:16:33
ended up writing the screenplay, and I think it's a good
00:16:35
screenplay, yeah would have been interesting trying to adapt the
00:16:39
book right.
00:16:40
Speaker 1: Exactly.
00:16:41
I read an interview with Pat Lovell where she talks about how
00:16:45
she had to go to Hanging Rock for the shooting of the film and
00:16:50
she said it was so eerie that she hated being there.
00:16:53
And I think she said she wouldn't one other time.
00:16:55
And it was.
00:16:55
She felt the same and she's never been back and she's
00:16:58
actually very scared to be there .
00:17:00
Speaker 2: That's really interesting.
00:17:01
I'd love to go there one day, I think, next time I get on.
00:17:04
Melbourne for a holiday or something.
00:17:06
It'd be really good to go check it out, Because it looks
00:17:08
fantastic, like just the rocks itself.
00:17:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's the perfect place for something
00:17:14
that feels otherworldly, because it does.
00:17:16
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, but the rock is very imposing yeah
00:17:20
yeah, they started filming in February 1975 and principal
00:17:24
photography last around six weeks.
00:17:26
The locations for the film included Hanging Rock in
00:17:29
Victoria, Martindale Hall near Mentaro in South Australia and
00:17:34
the studio of the South Australian Film Corporation in
00:17:37
Adelaide.
00:17:37
So bits here and bits there, and because South Australia is a
00:17:42
different state to Victoria, obviously and so they moved
00:17:45
between the two.
00:17:46
But yeah, it's an interesting shoot.
00:17:48
The part of Miranda was originally given to Ingrid Mason
00:17:53
.
00:17:53
However, after a few weeks of rehearsal we decided that it
00:17:57
wasn't working out, so he cast Anne Louise Lambert in the
00:18:01
pivotal role.
00:18:02
From what I recall, from the documentary as well, he
00:18:05
mentioned that he originally was going to hire Anne Louise
00:18:11
Lambert to play the part, but he felt she was a bit too worldly
00:18:15
and he wanted them all to be very innocent and when they
00:18:18
started rehearsals and whatnot, he was thinking back to her and
00:18:22
actually thought that she would be a better fit in the way that
00:18:25
she was that worldly sort of person.
00:18:28
And because when you look at that character with the other
00:18:32
girls on the college she is completely different in a way in
00:18:37
regards to she seems more worldly and she seems she's
00:18:40
almost like the I don't know the probably the wrong word to say,
00:18:47
but the alpha woman, alpha girl of the whole group sort of
00:18:52
thing.
00:18:52
She's someone they all look up to, someone they all like and
00:18:55
that sort of thing.
00:18:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, even the French teacher seems to be sort of
00:18:58
fascinated.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly Right, and so she ended up
00:19:04
getting the role.
00:19:05
When I think about the film, it often looks like an
00:19:09
impressionist painting.
00:19:10
It is certainly a lot of scenes , especially that scene with the
00:19:14
girls all just sitting, that long shot with the girls all
00:19:17
just sitting around the rock, the base rock.
00:19:19
That reminds me of a few pieces of art I've seen over the years
00:19:23
, and Peter Weir and cinematographer Russell Boyd
00:19:28
achieved this kind of dream like look by just draping very
00:19:32
thicknesses of bridal veil fabric over the camera lens,
00:19:36
which is quite I'm not sure exactly how that works, but it
00:19:40
certainly makes a difference.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've read that as well and I was like I.
00:19:43
They must have just been able to focus the right, where we
00:19:47
were creates almost like an interglow for everything, and
00:19:51
not actually see the lace.
00:19:52
But I was really impressed by that.
00:19:54
Speaker 2: Yes, great.
00:19:55
What are your general thoughts on the film?
00:19:58
Speaker 1: So this movie is so beautiful I'm a big fan of Anne
00:20:03
of Green Gables and particularly there was a Canadian miniseries
00:20:07
that they did several of the books and smashed them together,
00:20:11
and the way everyone was dressed really reminded me of
00:20:14
that.
00:20:14
So I was instantly on board because, oh, I know this time
00:20:19
period through other things that I've watched.
00:20:20
But it was just beautiful and the way that they were all sort
00:20:26
of reading poetry to each other I think it was from Valentine's
00:20:30
Day cards that really set the atmosphere right away.
00:20:35
It was very dreamlike and I think it sets it up to be like
00:20:39
there's something off about what's happening right away
00:20:43
before they even get to the rock .
00:20:44
So I felt like the atmosphere and the setting were really well
00:20:49
established.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: I think there's also a lot of themes in this movie,
00:20:53
like there's this sort of overarching, almost not sense of
00:20:57
dread, but there's that bit of putting, there's it feels a bit
00:21:01
strange.
00:21:02
There's also a lot of reaching forwards here, like looking at
00:21:08
relationships between the girls.
00:21:10
Sarah's relationship or infatuation with Miranda is
00:21:14
really interesting part of the movie as well.
00:21:17
There's a lot of that going on in the film and I think it's
00:21:21
quite interesting.
00:21:21
And the teachers that are there and then, of course, the what
00:21:26
would she call like the headmistress.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: Oh, mrs.
00:21:29
Speaker 2: Avilio, yes, it's really interesting watching her
00:21:33
character go from very uptight, upright sort of in control
00:21:40
headmistress at the start of the movie and just watching her
00:21:44
descent into kind of not madness , but just like this massive
00:21:48
descent into, just like disrepair.
00:21:50
She's out of control and doesn't really know what's going
00:21:54
on by the end of the movie.
00:21:55
It's just amazing, and she's really well played as well.
00:22:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and her relationship with Sarah too.
00:22:03
Just the almost like sadistic kind of relationship she has to
00:22:09
Sarah, where she's punishing for her for things, but it seems
00:22:13
more like she is offended by the fact that she's lower class
00:22:17
than the other girls.
00:22:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I took from it.
00:22:19
That's really what's motivating it.
00:22:21
Yeah, I took that as well because I think all the other
00:22:24
girls seem to come from fairly well to do families and she's a,
00:22:29
you know, an orphan.
00:22:31
And I think the sadness, one of the sadnesses in this movie
00:22:35
that I never picked up until my second viewing, is that her
00:22:39
brother is actually close by and neither of them know.
00:22:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, neither of them know.
00:22:45
Speaker 2: They just never cross paths.
00:22:47
Speaker 1: I thought that was so cool because basically it seems
00:22:50
like she comes to him in a dream after she's died, yeah,
00:22:53
and that was really heartbreaking.
00:22:55
And they are so close.
00:22:56
If she had gone to the picnic she would have been within like
00:22:59
feet of him.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:23:00
Speaker 1: But also I loved the way that they distinguished her
00:23:03
from the other girls using an Australian accent, because the
00:23:07
other girls have more English sounding accent, at least to me.
00:23:11
And then she was really the only girl that had an actual
00:23:15
Australian accent and that sort of seemed like the way they were
00:23:19
indicating that she was possibly of a lower class or
00:23:22
separate from that.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: So I thought that was really interesting.
00:23:24
She's such a tragic figure too, through the whole thing yeah,
00:23:28
it's so sunny.
00:23:28
So there's a whole lot going on in this film that's good of
00:23:31
like in parallel with the main storyline.
00:23:35
To me, that really struck and I couldn't believe it.
00:23:37
I didn't pick it up at first viewing.
00:23:38
I obviously didn't pick it up when I was a 14 year old kid.
00:23:43
Speaker 1: Right.
00:23:44
Speaker 2: Back in, whatever.
00:23:45
I was back in 1976 or whatever it was.
00:23:48
And even the first time I watched it, I didn't really pick
00:23:51
it up and I was like, hang on, what's going on here?
00:23:54
Oh, it's his sister.
00:23:55
And I was like, oh my God, this is so sad and tragic.
00:23:58
Speaker 1: And it's really sad.
00:23:59
What was sad to me also was that she was so defiant and
00:24:04
clearly wanted to be an individual and she was just
00:24:06
being like squashed down and they indicate that she may have
00:24:10
died by suicide.
00:24:11
But I also read that there's a theory that Mrs Appley Yard
00:24:14
killed her because she clearly didn't go away with her guardian
00:24:19
the way that Mrs Appley Yard said.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: I'm not sure about that, because I thought, because
00:24:26
to me what I took from it is she was so infatuated with
00:24:30
Miranda and Miranda goes missing .
00:24:31
When Mrs Appley Yard says to her that we're basically kicking
00:24:36
you out of here and you have to go back to the orphanage, there
00:24:39
was almost like to me, almost like a little smile.
00:24:45
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah.
00:24:46
Speaker 2: From her when she was told and I was like, okay, this
00:24:49
is where she made the decision that she was going to kill
00:24:52
herself to be with Miranda, and that was where she got the smile
00:24:56
and I think that's my take.
00:24:57
But this is a great thing about this film is you can see it so
00:25:00
many different ways.
00:25:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's open to interpretation, for sure.
00:25:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, such a tragic figure.
00:25:07
The other character I really liked was the French teacher
00:25:11
played by Helen Morse.
00:25:12
She was a great character and where Mrs Applebee was firm with
00:25:19
the kids that were there, the girls that were there, she was
00:25:22
almost like their friend more than anything, and she was very
00:25:25
close to them and nurtured them and was a really good sort of
00:25:29
character.
00:25:31
Speaker 1: I felt like that.
00:25:31
A lot of that was because she was so much closer and aged to
00:25:34
them.
00:25:34
And then she's also.
00:25:35
She looks right Like she looks like she should be sitting with
00:25:38
them, where they even have Miss McCraw in a dress that is very
00:25:45
richly colored, so it sets her apart from everyone wearing
00:25:48
white.
00:25:48
She looks like she's in the wrong picture.
00:25:51
Yeah.
00:25:51
When they're moving the camera across everyone, like she really
00:25:54
stands out because she's wearing red.
00:25:57
And isn't this beautiful young girl?
00:26:01
Speaker 2: And it's also interesting that she goes
00:26:03
missing as well.
00:26:04
But you mostly just concentrate on the three girls that are
00:26:07
missing.
00:26:07
There's a couple of times in the movie where you forget that
00:26:10
she went missing as well.
00:26:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I did laugh when they were.
00:26:15
When Edith says, oh, I saw her, but something was wrong, and
00:26:19
then she can't say to the police directly that she was only
00:26:22
wearing her underclothes.
00:26:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite the whole thing's very strange.
00:26:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:26:29
Speaker 2: I guess we start talking about this.
00:26:30
One of the features of the movies that's very open-ended,
00:26:34
the theories and the was it supernatural or logical, like I
00:26:38
think.
00:26:38
In the movie, one of the characters I think one of the
00:26:41
gardeners or groundsmen says oh, maybe they just fell down a
00:26:45
hole or something like that.
00:26:46
And you don't know what happened.
00:26:48
I'm like, well, did they just pass into some other realm?
00:26:51
Or was it as simple as there was some big hole there that
00:26:54
they fell down, or something like that?
00:26:56
But one of them came back?
00:27:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, to me, I think, especially like the first time
00:27:02
I watched it, I just assumed that it was sort of a like a
00:27:07
gateway place to maybe another dimension or some kind of
00:27:11
supernatural realm, and the way that they were sort of in a
00:27:17
trance walking to it, and then the humming that the rocks made,
00:27:22
and then the way that they reacted when they got to that
00:27:25
circular area where they all fell asleep and then walked up
00:27:29
into the crevice and that Edith is the only one that's like what
00:27:33
are you doing?
00:27:34
We can't go up there.
00:27:35
So I felt like it was Definitely.
00:27:38
Yes, there was some sort of supernatural element, but it
00:27:41
seems to be something.
00:27:42
It's tied to Miranda too, because she, where they leave,
00:27:46
she's I'm not coming back.
00:27:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a few times where she says things in
00:27:52
the film and it's almost like foreshadowing.
00:27:56
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah.
00:27:58
Speaker 2: I think early.
00:27:58
I'm trying to remember what she says.
00:27:59
She says something very early in the film.
00:28:01
I think she says to Sarah that she's not gonna be here for long
00:28:05
.
00:28:05
There's one thing.
00:28:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:28:07
She says you're gonna have to find a new love because I won't
00:28:09
be here much longer.
00:28:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and does that mean she's leaving the school or
00:28:13
does that mean she knows that she's about to pass into
00:28:15
something?
00:28:15
And Then the way that she waves when they're leaving to go on?
00:28:19
Speaker 1: the walk.
00:28:20
Speaker 2: It's all very it's all very interesting and, yeah,
00:28:24
it's great how it's open for that interpretation.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, even the thing that she says about all things
00:28:30
begin and end at the right time, or something like that, that
00:28:33
felt very tied to some sort of unconscious knowledge of what
00:28:39
they were going into and then when Michael's searching for her
00:28:43
later which is was a really good scene as well he almost
00:28:46
gets taken as well, I think, because he does the same thing.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: he comes to the circular area and falls asleep,
00:28:53
and he gets found eventually by what's the guy?
00:28:55
What's John Jarrett's character's name?
00:28:57
Speaker 1: Is it?
00:28:58
Speaker 2: No, I forgot the name .
00:29:00
Speaker 1: He gets Albert.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: Albert, that's right, yeah, I think that's right and
00:29:04
he gets found by John Jarrett or Albert and he looks like he's
00:29:08
in some sort of comatose state.
00:29:10
Right, he's had a very close in-game encounter with this
00:29:13
thing, whatever it is.
00:29:14
Yeah, but it's shown that he's got a piece of one of the the
00:29:19
dresses in his hand and so he got very close and obviously we
00:29:23
find out later that when Albert goes back and Finds one of the
00:29:28
girls and brings her out and they don't know what happened to
00:29:31
her, she doesn't remember anything.
00:29:33
She's really interesting.
00:29:34
And then the connection with Miranda and the swans.
00:29:39
All the time, did you remember that bit?
00:29:42
You see, when Michael's looking at different times and he'll
00:29:46
see Miranda, we'll have a thought of Miranda and then
00:29:49
he'll see a swan.
00:29:50
I'm like, is there some sort of connection here, or I?
00:29:53
Speaker 1: thought maybe it was just because swans are
00:29:57
considered really beautiful and sort of regal and aloof birds.
00:30:04
I don't know.
00:30:04
I guess it fit that way.
00:30:06
I don't like birds, so I I don't like swans, and swans are
00:30:11
mean.
00:30:12
Speaker 2: So, I never think of them as being really graceful
00:30:15
things, but I think that's the way they're viewed by everybody
00:30:17
else with those scenes as well, I believe, because the version I
00:30:22
saw there's scenes.
00:30:24
Is there scenes existing when Michael is interacting with
00:30:29
Miranda, because it seems like he knows her more than just
00:30:34
infatuated with her, just seeing her on the day, because in the
00:30:38
version I watched all he's doing is sitting with Albert having a
00:30:42
drink and he sees the girls crossing the little bit of river
00:30:45
.
00:30:47
Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's the version that I watched and
00:30:50
he, like imagines her being at his house Looking over her
00:30:55
shoulder.
00:30:56
Yeah she's not really there, obviously any sort of has these
00:31:01
Almost, as if he is in touch with her telepathically, where
00:31:04
he has these memories of things that were said the day that she
00:31:08
was at the rock, but that's more when he's in that circular area
00:31:10
.
00:31:10
So there's some sort of supernatural Connection there.
00:31:14
I just know that, like Sophia Coppola was inspired by this
00:31:17
movie to make virgin suicides and there's a the big plot point
00:31:20
of that is that there's these boys that watch a group of
00:31:24
sisters that live across the street and they've never talked
00:31:27
to them, but they create this fantasy version of them and
00:31:31
their heads based on the little bit that they do see, and I
00:31:34
almost think he's doing that.
00:31:35
I think he's he's creating this fantasy version of her based on
00:31:40
seeing her that for that brief period of time.
00:31:44
Speaker 2: So he's, he's actually looking for her at the
00:31:46
rock, obviously, and he's obsessed with that kind of thing
00:31:48
, or Fractuated, probably a better word, obsessed is
00:31:51
probably a pro word.
00:31:52
But yeah, and the same way they're crossing the river is
00:31:55
quite funny because it's got that line From John Jarrett
00:31:59
where they're crossing over and John Jarrett says something
00:32:01
about their legs going right up to their butt or something Like
00:32:04
that, and Michael says zoom, oh, I wish you wouldn't talk like
00:32:06
that.
00:32:07
And he says I talk if you just think it, or something like
00:32:10
right.
00:32:11
Yeah, and the other thing, when there's a lot of themes of
00:32:15
femininity in this film, yeah, which I think is really
00:32:18
interesting, which obviously as a as a older bloke, I probably
00:32:23
don't really understand as much, but from this I see there's
00:32:28
Themes that run through it.
00:32:30
They're quite interesting in the whole femininity side of
00:32:33
things.
00:32:33
There's a first, obviously there's that Infatuation Sarah
00:32:37
has with Miranda and then, and the way the girls Turn on one of
00:32:43
their own when she comes back and sees them again.
00:32:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some interesting stuff there, because
00:32:48
I think that the hanging rock location itself represents a
00:32:55
sense of freedom for them, literal freedom from the school,
00:32:58
because they're in a different location and their headmistress
00:33:02
isn't there.
00:33:02
And Then also, like she makes a comment like once you get past
00:33:06
this point, you can take off your gloves.
00:33:08
You're having, where these are, heavy white cotton gloves in the
00:33:11
middle of summer, I imagine and they get to take those gloves
00:33:14
off once they're away from society, which they're very
00:33:17
excited about, and I would be too, because that doesn't look
00:33:19
fun.
00:33:19
And then, when the girls go up to the actual rock once they are
00:33:24
sort of In the trance that they're going to go through the
00:33:30
crevice, they take off their stockings and shoes, yeah, and
00:33:33
tie them around their waist, and Edith is horrified by this.
00:33:36
But it is like this sense of freedom, like where we're going,
00:33:39
we don't need this stuff, and we can also just be ourselves
00:33:42
and we don't have to cover up.
00:33:44
So yeah.
00:33:44
I think there's elements of that .
00:33:46
I also think that somehow the the rock represents this Lack of
00:33:54
oppression that they've been feeling at the school or just in
00:33:57
society in general.
00:33:57
When Irma comes back and To say goodbye to everyone, she is
00:34:03
dressed like a grown-up, like she has her hair pinned up and
00:34:05
she's wearing very grown-up clothes and they're in a very
00:34:07
rich red.
00:34:08
And the rest of the girls are wearing their school uniforms
00:34:12
and look much younger.
00:34:13
So that struck me when they were.
00:34:15
What happened?
00:34:16
Where are they?
00:34:16
And they attack her.
00:34:18
Yeah she is, she physically looks separate from them too.
00:34:23
Speaker 2: That scene is amazing because like she comes back and
00:34:27
I think she's half expecting them to just be happy that she's
00:34:30
back.
00:34:30
Yeah to fauna over her and yeah , and really what happens is
00:34:35
they kind of Sounds like they blame her for what happened or
00:34:39
they just want to know what happened and there's like this
00:34:42
hysteria, yeah there's like the shot of one of the girls
00:34:45
screaming and shaking her head like in a real hysterical way.
00:34:48
Speaker 1: I Think it is the not knowing.
00:34:51
I think they're like we have to know.
00:34:54
You can't you were there tell us what happened?
00:34:57
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it's great .
00:34:58
And then there's that whole scene once again, that that
00:35:01
scene is topped off With seeing Sarah basically tied to this
00:35:06
apparatus that's supposed to help us stand straight, or
00:35:09
something, it's just so terrible the whole.
00:35:11
Speaker 1: thing, yeah, oh yeah, and I think we get a glimpse
00:35:14
that maybe she's been other eyes from the other girls the whole
00:35:17
time yeah because clearly this is not the first time she's been
00:35:20
tied to that thing.
00:35:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
00:35:23
Speaker 1: And she also.
00:35:23
She's one of the few girls that have dark hair.
00:35:26
Most of the other girls are blonde or have lighter hair and
00:35:29
she has very dark hair, and so that really sets her apart
00:35:32
visually as well the music in this movie is fantastic.
00:35:35
Yes, yeah, it was beautiful score.
00:35:38
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the score that the George Sanfair Pan-Pied
00:35:42
piece.
00:35:43
It's so tied to this film in Australia, If you hear that
00:35:46
piece of music in Australia the first thing you think of most
00:35:48
people, especially my generation the first thing they think of
00:35:51
is this movie and Because it's just was it's so Connected to
00:35:56
this film.
00:35:56
But the music is fantastic.
00:35:58
There's bits of music where the girls are climbing the rock.
00:36:02
And some of the music to me is almost goblin.
00:36:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:36:06
Speaker 2: Dawn of the dead.
00:36:07
This there's that string that's kind of string sound that do
00:36:11
and the boob that goes underneath.
00:36:13
All that I was like yeah just like goblin right.
00:36:18
Speaker 1: It reminded me almost a come of a combination of that
00:36:20
.
00:36:20
And then the score for haunting of Julia is a really early
00:36:24
synth score I can so it sounds very otherworldly because it's
00:36:28
not quite the synth that you're used to, you from the 80s.
00:36:31
Yeah but it's got elements of that.
00:36:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fantastic.
00:36:35
The sounds just amazing and the music's night.
00:36:38
The piano pieces are really nice and there is a lot of stock
00:36:42
music.
00:36:42
There's some some classical music in there that they use,
00:36:45
but it's.
00:36:46
The soundtrack to this film is great.
00:36:48
I really like it.
00:36:49
I've been.
00:36:49
Actually there's no soundtrack for this film officially.
00:36:52
There's a playlist on Spotify that's called picnic of man rock
00:36:56
and it's got most of the pieces in it.
00:36:58
And it's really no.
00:36:59
It's really nice to listen to where you're working actually.
00:37:03
Speaker 1: I watched a movie again last night and I had it on
00:37:06
the surround sound and turned up really loud and I'm like man,
00:37:08
this score rule.
00:37:09
Yeah, the score is great, it's really good.
00:37:12
I love the score.
00:37:13
It's just a really good film.
00:37:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, what else was I gonna talk about?
00:37:17
Like I said, it just the whole movie is just so open for
00:37:22
interpretation, the whole thing, there's so many questions in
00:37:25
this movie it's actually, in a way, almost not difficult to
00:37:29
talk about.
00:37:30
It's easy to have this conversation, but it's difficult
00:37:33
because you there is no end to the movie, and I think that's
00:37:37
the big thing, right.
00:37:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the story structure is very loose too,
00:37:42
like beyond the girls going to the rock and then going missing,
00:37:46
everything else is sort of just Like what is happening to to
00:37:53
the people at the school and, yeah, the folks and yeah the
00:37:56
fallout from that, but it's very nebulous, I think.
00:37:58
I think it is hard to talk about because so much of the
00:38:01
storytelling is really visual.
00:38:03
Do you have an idea of what you think happened at the end?
00:38:08
Speaker 2: I don't really know.
00:38:08
And then there's the whole bit with Mrs Appleby right.
00:38:11
What happened?
00:38:12
Because there's a whole ending that isn't in the version I
00:38:15
watch, which was in the original , where she actually walks up
00:38:19
the up to the the rock as well.
00:38:21
Did you have that ending in yours?
00:38:23
Speaker 1: The ending that I had ends with her sort of in what
00:38:26
looks like morning clothes, yeah , and then a voiceover comes
00:38:29
over and that's what I had as well, but yeah, original
00:38:32
apparently had her going up the rock Herself, like you see her
00:38:37
going up the rock and oh wow, top, and then they have the
00:38:40
voice over.
00:38:41
Speaker 2: At the end there's like a free swing.
00:38:42
But I think the ending on obviously what's like the
00:38:45
director's cart is much better, because that look on her face Is
00:38:49
just just amazing and because it's and this is where I think
00:38:53
you get the idea of did Sarah jump or was she pushed, kind of
00:38:56
thing- because, she knows what's about to happen and she got all
00:39:00
the bags packed and everything, because obviously everyone yeah
00:39:02
.
00:39:03
And all the bags are packed, she knows that Sarah is dead.
00:39:06
She must know, right, because she was she told everyone she
00:39:10
saw her go off and she obviously didn't go off right.
00:39:14
Yeah and she's just sitting there in these morning clothes
00:39:17
and it's just, and it's a great last scene and I can see why,
00:39:22
peter, we Changed it to that and because it looks I don't know
00:39:27
it's just like in the voice over , where it explains what
00:39:31
happened to her, and it's a really good ending.
00:39:35
And there's a screaming outside the door before yes, yeah the
00:39:39
guy comes in.
00:39:39
I'm wondering who that screaming is, whether it's I.
00:39:43
Speaker 1: I assumed it was one of the teachers.
00:39:44
Yeah, he came and said hey, I just found this girl outside and
00:39:48
it's her reaction.
00:39:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that whole lead up to that scene where the
00:39:53
guy the, the green keeper.
00:39:54
Goes into his greenhouse and sees the broken glass first and
00:39:59
then sees the bit of wood.
00:40:01
Eventually they just see her body there and it's really well
00:40:05
put together.
00:40:05
But that last scene is great.
00:40:07
It's really good, love it.
00:40:08
Yeah, there's really I don't know.
00:40:11
You just got to see the movie.
00:40:13
I think if you haven't seen this movie, it's definitely
00:40:16
worth checking out.
00:40:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and I think, especially for if you're
00:40:20
in the US, it's on max and if you have a subscription it's
00:40:24
right there for you.
00:40:25
And then also the criterion Criterion also always package
00:40:30
things beautifully.
00:40:31
I think there is a little making a feature out on the
00:40:34
second disc of the one I got and mine came with the book that
00:40:37
that's a pretty good deal.
00:40:38
It is a good.
00:40:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good.
00:40:41
I'm really liking it.
00:40:42
I'm liking Looking at some of these films.
00:40:45
When I think about where my podcast started, where I am now,
00:40:47
I was like I would never have thought of doing picnic at here,
00:40:50
right, because right at the start I was like, oh, I'm just
00:40:53
gonna do all these hospitalization stuff and blah,
00:40:55
blah, blah and all this Other stuff, and I'm like, yeah, you
00:40:58
get to a point where you go, well, I would just want to
00:40:59
expand things a little bit.
00:41:00
Then you expand it a bit further and be further, and then
00:41:03
we end up talking about young Einstein and we talk about, yeah
00:41:06
, rock and what's next?
00:41:08
Crocodile and not at the moment I don't think.
00:41:10
Yeah, it's a really interesting bit of the few ten.
00:41:15
It's not ospoitation as such, but it's been that the style of
00:41:20
that like new wave sort of.
00:41:23
Speaker 1: Australian art house, which was definitely something
00:41:27
that was a big deal in the 70s and 80s.
00:41:30
Speaker 2: Like that's where Mad .
00:41:31
Speaker 1: Max comes from and all.
00:41:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they call this there's a lot of people
00:41:34
that call this a strain gothic, this film.
00:41:36
Speaker 1: Oh, really.
00:41:37
Oh, that's good, yeah it feels, very much like a gothic story.
00:41:42
Speaker 2: The other thing I didn't realize until I was
00:41:44
having a look around just they looking at some different things
00:41:46
is there was a stage production of this back in 1970.
00:41:49
Really I wonder how they would do that 27, 8, 20, 18, they
00:41:54
showed bits of it.
00:41:54
It was like a little promo thing of people's reaction to it
00:41:58
.
00:41:58
It looked really interesting how it was done.
00:42:00
But most people they were interviewing when they were
00:42:02
coming out of the play was saying that it was eerie and it
00:42:06
was like quite scary and it wasn't what they expected.
00:42:09
And I was like, oh, this would have been really good to see at
00:42:11
the time yeah, that's cool, that sounds cool.
00:42:14
And that was back in 2017.
00:42:15
So there must be a.
00:42:16
There's obviously a treatment for stage for this hanging
00:42:18
around.
00:42:19
Speaker 1: It'd be interesting to see some revive it, or and
00:42:22
there's also a mini series from 2018, although I think it has a
00:42:26
very different feel, like I started watching it, just to
00:42:29
compare.
00:42:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:42:30
Speaker 1: And it's.
00:42:30
I think what works about the movie is that it is this sort of
00:42:35
brief snapshot, yeah, into this area and these girls' lives,
00:42:41
and the mini series obviously because it's longer goes much
00:42:45
more into Mrs Affleard's backstory and the backstory of
00:42:49
some of the girls.
00:42:50
I don't even know if you need that, I think the way that it
00:42:54
works as a mystery is that you don't really know anything, and
00:42:58
that's what makes it interesting , right, that's what makes it
00:43:00
good.
00:43:00
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think sometimes that's a scene of
00:43:03
remaking or turning things into longer series.
00:43:07
Yes, yeah Is that you get too much information and you're like
00:43:11
I don't need all this and it doesn't ruin it because the
00:43:13
original movie is always there to return to, right, but it
00:43:17
takes away something about the film.
00:43:19
And to me, when you go too deep into these sort of things I
00:43:23
know some do it well, like I remember seeing Bates Motel,
00:43:26
which I thought was quite good, yeah, but because I think in
00:43:31
that case the story of what happens with Norman Bates and
00:43:36
this is the lead up to see how he got there, so there's always
00:43:39
an interest to see, ok, how do we get to this point?
00:43:41
But with and like I said, I haven't seen it, you've seen a
00:43:46
bit of it but with a remake or a series for this movie and
00:43:52
they're going to start looking deeply into each of the
00:43:55
characters.
00:43:55
To me that's a bit of a turn off.
00:43:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially the way that they present Mrs
00:44:00
Afflehard she's.
00:44:00
I don't want to give anything away in case people want to
00:44:03
watch it, but she's almost presented like a con woman.
00:44:06
She's not who she says she is.
00:44:08
Speaker 2: Right yeah.
00:44:09
And, and so the mystery becomes more about who she is than like
00:44:14
the central mystery of the girls disappearing and once
00:44:18
again I don't think it's a film that would be Worth remaking.
00:44:23
I'm sure one day someone's going to go, let's remake Picnic
00:44:26
and Hanging Rock.
00:44:27
I don't know how you Get that the feeling and the atmosphere
00:44:34
from the original and put it with.
00:44:37
I don't know.
00:44:38
Sometimes when I look at these older movies and they remake
00:44:41
them, the biggest problem to me is the equipment they're using
00:44:45
now versus what they're using then.
00:44:46
That's true, yeah, and that's what gives it a lot of the feel,
00:44:49
especially those 70s movies and the 80s movies.
00:44:52
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:44:53
Speaker 2: And they remake them and they're all made with
00:44:55
digital cameras and digital this and digital that, and to me
00:44:58
that just makes it Just like a plastic toy.
00:45:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't have the same atmosphere, for sure,
00:45:07
but I think it's like Suspiria.
00:45:09
I never thought they could remake Suspiria, because it's
00:45:12
such a singular thing and really the only way they were able to
00:45:16
remake it as successfully as they did is they changed.
00:45:19
They kept the basic story and they changed almost everything
00:45:23
else.
00:45:23
Like it's not the same feel or the same atmosphere and they
00:45:29
took it a different way and all this stuff.
00:45:30
I think you almost have to do that, because with something as
00:45:35
iconic as Suspiria or a picnic hanging rock, if you try to
00:45:39
remake it exactly it's, you're always going to have it being
00:45:42
compared to the original, because the original did it
00:45:44
right the first time.
00:45:45
Speaker 2: Exactly Like when they remade Psycho.
00:45:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:45:51
Speaker 2: The summary makes it work and I know we're getting
00:45:53
off the subject here, but you know, when I look at genre
00:45:56
remakes, that for me worked.
00:45:58
With things like Evil Dead worked because I think they
00:46:01
tried, they took a slightly different bent and different
00:46:05
look at it.
00:46:05
But that really wasn't a remake .
00:46:07
Speaker 1: That was definitely just like a reimagining or a
00:46:11
Right or something like this might not be a popular opinion,
00:46:15
but I thought the Fright Night remake did some interesting
00:46:18
things with the Fright Night story.
00:46:20
I don't think it was better, but at least it felt like a
00:46:23
successful remake.
00:46:26
Speaker 2: But back to this movie.
00:46:27
For me it's definitely a must watch If you've got access to it
00:46:32
.
00:46:32
It's really worth watching.
00:46:33
If you're expecting it to be like a scary movie, it's not a
00:46:36
scary movie, definitely unsettling right.
00:46:39
Speaker 1: There's lots of unsettling and there are sort of
00:46:44
horror elements to it, but I would not say it's a horror
00:46:46
movie.
00:46:46
It's not even really a thriller .
00:46:47
It's like an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.
00:46:50
It's a drama right, it's a drama.
00:46:53
Yeah, it's a drama, with supernatural overturned.
00:46:57
Speaker 2: That's the way I'd put it, and it seems like people
00:46:59
have been trying to figure out what's going on, figure out what
00:47:03
is the ending.
00:47:04
Speaker 1: Because there was a book in 1980 written by a woman
00:47:08
named Yvonne Rousseau, called the Murders at Hanging Rock,
00:47:11
where she explores the different theories people have put out
00:47:14
about what happened to the girls and there's a parallel universe
00:47:17
UFO abduction, the fact that they were murdered by two men
00:47:21
and their bodies are still there somewhere.
00:47:23
And then the actual author of Picnic at Hanging Rock wrote a
00:47:27
book called the Secret of Hanging Rock.
00:47:30
It was actually the last chapter that her publishers made her
00:47:33
cut off the end, and if you want to know what the ending would
00:47:38
be some people just want to preserve the mystery you want to
00:47:41
know what the ending would be.
00:47:42
I would look that up because it explains how Joan Lindsey
00:47:45
thought the book should end.
00:47:46
Speaker 2: OK, that's interesting.
00:47:48
I might have to check that out.
00:47:49
Maybe, I don't know, some part of me doesn't want to know.
00:47:53
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
00:47:55
Speaker 2: That's what.
00:47:56
Speaker 1: I had it written out.
00:47:56
But I was like I don't know if I want to tell people because
00:47:58
some people might not want to know.
00:48:00
Speaker 2: Anyway.
00:48:01
So that's Picnic at Hanging Rock.
00:48:02
I hope you enjoyed listening to that.
00:48:04
It was like I said, it's an interesting one to talk about.
00:48:06
It's definitely not one of those movies we can sit here and
00:48:09
talk beat by beat, because I think we just get really boring.
00:48:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and it would never do it justice, so you
00:48:14
just got to watch it, you just got to watch it.
00:48:16
Speaker 2: So tell me a little bit what's going on with you,
00:48:19
Tab, and where people can find you.
00:48:21
Speaker 1: Okay, if you want to listen to me talk about horror
00:48:23
movies, I have a podcast called test pattern.
00:48:26
That just ended last year, but there's tons and tons of
00:48:29
episodes, so it's the back log of that.
00:48:33
And then I currently have a panel podcast with a bunch of
00:48:36
other people where we talk about femme representation in media
00:48:40
and we're a intersectional feminist podcast.
00:48:43
So we have a lot of different viewpoints in that and that's
00:48:47
called the stiletto banshees and it's been really fun.
00:48:50
We only have a couple episodes out right now, but we're putting
00:48:53
out more and we're also hosting monster kid marathon this year.
00:48:56
So we're doing a lot of horror movie lists.
00:48:59
But, yeah, you can find me at horror flick tab on Instagram
00:49:04
and you can find the slido banshees at the stiletto
00:49:07
banshees on Instagram and threads.
00:49:08
And then we just got on blue sky, thanks to Pete, and I think
00:49:13
we're just slido banshees on that.
00:49:16
Speaker 2: So it's a bit quiet over there, but I'm hoping it'll
00:49:18
pick up.
00:49:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, because it's invite, only it's
00:49:21
hard, yeah, they haven't really opened it to everyone.
00:49:25
Speaker 2: I only got in through an invite and it seems like
00:49:28
once you've been it almost seems , once you start interacting and
00:49:31
doing things, after a few weeks you usually get an invite to
00:49:34
hand out to someone.
00:49:35
But yeah, I hope it takes off or hope it works, because
00:49:40
Twitter, or whatever it's called these days, is like a cesspool
00:49:45
and I'm only on there because it's full day.
00:49:49
I'm only on there because you have to be in a way to do some
00:49:53
promotion.
00:49:54
I still do a favorite through Facebook with the page, but it's
00:49:59
hard and all the monster kids have gone, or there's only a few
00:50:03
left and there's not much conversation there anymore, like
00:50:06
it used to be.
00:50:07
Speaker 1: Right, it's sad.
00:50:09
Speaker 2: So I think when I sent you the invite I was like
00:50:11
I'd be great if we could eventually get everyone over
00:50:12
there again and, yeah, if that community happening again,
00:50:15
because yeah, exactly.
00:50:17
It was really great.
00:50:18
Yeah, I love the stiletto.
00:50:19
Banshees is great.
00:50:20
I'm probably most the way through the carry episode of the
00:50:25
movie.
00:50:25
Oh yeah, so that's really good.
00:50:27
I'm really enjoying that.
00:50:28
Speaker 1: Oh, good yeah.
00:50:30
Speaker 2: So it's interesting because the way you position the
00:50:32
podcast, it's almost you would think and don't take this the
00:50:36
wrong way, please that it's just for women.
00:50:39
Speaker 1: Right.
00:50:40
Speaker 2: But it's not.
00:50:40
If you're a bloke, you can get a lot out of this.
00:50:43
And it's really good getting, like you said, this feminist
00:50:48
perspective on things Right yeah .
00:50:50
Which and this is part of the thing that's wrong with Twitter
00:50:54
there's nothing wrong with having these perspectives that
00:50:57
are not your own right.
00:50:59
Speaker 1: I understand Exactly it's exactly how you learn.
00:51:02
Yeah.
00:51:04
Speaker 2: And all these people have put that stuff down and
00:51:06
really bugged me.
00:51:06
But yeah, it's really good and just listening to you guys talk
00:51:10
about Carrie is really great.
00:51:12
Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, we are just talking about the films
00:51:16
the way we would on test pattern to.
00:51:17
We just all happen to be fun people or have an experience
00:51:22
being perceived as a FM person.
00:51:24
We also have a trans man on the show, so it's more just about
00:51:29
like how we see these things as women within a conversation
00:51:35
overall about whatever we're talking about.
00:51:37
Speaker 2: It's really good.
00:51:38
I really enjoy it.
00:51:39
It's great fun, yeah, yeah.
00:51:42
Speaker 1: I'm hoping we get a very large audience.
00:51:43
So, like you said, it's not just for women, it's for anybody
00:51:46
who wants to see things from a different perspective and hear a
00:51:49
bunch of FM people talk about movies.
00:51:52
Speaker 2: So what do you give you?
00:51:53
Got anything interesting coming up that you can talk about?
00:51:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, we just recorded an episode on the
00:51:58
lesbian vampire trope, so we talked about Daughters of
00:52:02
Darkness, the hunger, and a movie that came out more
00:52:05
recently called bit.
00:52:06
And so with our trope episodes we usually talk about the trope
00:52:10
as a whole and then we do a deeper dive using a couple of
00:52:14
examples, and so that was a really fun episode and we got to
00:52:18
talk a lot about.
00:52:19
A lot of it was just gushing about how beautiful the movies
00:52:22
were, like picnic hanging rock.
00:52:24
So, that was really fun.
00:52:26
Speaker 2: Great, excellent.
00:52:27
It's always great having you on .
00:52:29
It's always so good having your perspective and I know you put
00:52:32
a lot of.
00:52:32
Even when I asked you to come on to this show, you put a lot
00:52:34
of work in the background, so I really appreciate that.
00:52:37
It's fantastic.
00:52:38
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
00:52:39
Speaker 2: I love talking about movies, so now not to say that
00:52:44
all my other guests don't prepare.
00:52:45
It's very obvious with you.
00:52:47
I share the notes with you and there's always extra bits in
00:52:50
there and things like that.
00:52:51
It's really good, all right.
00:52:54
So thanks so much for coming on .
00:52:56
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for having me.
00:53:02
Speaker 2: Thank you for taking the time to listen to this
00:53:04
episode.
00:53:04
Thank you to all my guests who give their time to make this
00:53:07
podcast possible.
00:53:08
A special thanks to you for listening.
00:53:10
Don't forget you can follow a dingo eight, my movie, on social
00:53:14
media.
00:53:14
We're a dingo movie on Twitter, dingo movie pod on Facebook and
00:53:20
Instagram and we're on the web at dingo movie podcom.
00:53:24
If you'd like to support the show, leave us a rating or
00:53:28
review on Apple podcasts or share the show with your friends
00:53:31
.
00:53:31
Of course, you can always buy me a coffee over at.
00:53:34
Buy me a coffeecom slash dingo movie pod.
00:53:38
Once again, thanks for listening, stay safe and I'll
00:53:42
see you on the next episode of a dingo eight, my movie.
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