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Picnic At Hanging Rock

Analogue Boy said:
I’m not that bothered about the girls. What was in the picnic?
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That made me laugh out loud!

Sorry for the thread drift, but it reminds me of a personal experience with just such a piece of subversion humour.

2002, Budapest, and the wife and I are there for a short holiday, before and after a trip to the Formula 1.

Part of the package was a bus tour with our own guide. The guide was a lovely lady, native to the city who was enclyclopaedic in her knowledge.

However, it was hot. Damn hot. And tiring. We had all, a mix of mostly English and Irish, had about as much culture as we could take and the bus was very quiet apart from the guide.

She was regaling us with a particular tradition of celebrating independence. The details might be sketchy, but go with it.

She said that festivities start in the mid afternoon, not first thing in the morning. Then, all Hungarians celebrate with a mix of traditional food, family parties and street activities etc.

She went into a lot of detail to an exhausted, and largely unappreciative audience.

Then for dramatic effect she told us why things start at 3:18pm precisely: because that is when the last Russian soldier left his post, beginning a new era for a free Hungary.

After a dramatic pause, a voice came from the back of the bus:

"And what time did he get home at?"

Well, that was more than we could collectively take, and everyone fell about the place in hysterics, as the poor lady, realising her mistake, saw the funny side without taking offence for her culture or national pride.
 
I love the film Picnic At Hanging Rock - more so than than the book if I'm honest (though the book is excellent) - it's funny the things which resonate with you. Normally I prefer books to ther adaptations.
But the film is just... unnerving. It just seems somehow off-kilter somehow - the fact that that the 'climax' seems to come so early in the film - when the girls disappear (what is it, half an hour in?) - but Miranda seems to haunt the rest of the film - but why not so much Marion or Miss McCraw?
It always strikes me when watching the film, that Miranda knew what was going to happen, even before the picnic began, when she turned to Sara and said that she needed to find someone else to love, as she herself wouldn't be there for much longer. 'The pattern of the picnic' spreading backwards in time - which seems very fitting considering both the film and the book. It's not just the central mystery which echoes on - but others - like what was the 'dark, red cloud' that Edith saw? Why was Irma 'rejected' by the rock, and what do we mean by 'rejected' anyway?
After I watch the film, it tends to stay with me - like stepping into a shadow on a hot summery day - and the shadow somehow being too cool . There's a sense of loss to it all, and an inexplicable sense of regret - as if the whole thing was something that could have been very beautiful, but ended up going very wrong indeed.
There's a fantastic documentary - at least on the UK DVD release - which only seems to heighten the mystery and aura surrounding the film - the crew talking about things on set happening that happened in the film - such as the clocks stopping. An interview with Ann-Louise Lambert, the actress who plays Miranda, who looks and acts exactly like I imagined Miranda would have done had she not vanished on the rock years ago - (and again, I can't help but treat the film, the book, the events as something real - that happened - even though it has been revealed as fiction) Anyway, the similarity of Ann-Louise Lambert to Miranda is unnerving - often watching actresses and actors talk about the roles they played - and it seems like you are doing just that - watching actors and actresses talking about the roles they played. Watching Ann-Louise Lambert - it's like listening to Miranda speak about her own past, herself.
Rachel Roberts, the actress who played Mrs Appleyard, the headmistress - seems as - if not exactly unpleasant - then as frightening as the character she portrays. The cast were also worried about the actress who plays Sara, getting too caught up in her character, who eventually commits suicide at the end of the film. The pattern of the picnic spreading out into real life - or that's the impression I got from watching the documentary anyway.
Ann-Louise Lambert alsom recounts a time when she was on-set, when Joan Lindsay, the writer came on set, and on seeing her in character, put her arms around her, saying 'Oh Miranda, it's been such a long time' - or something similar - so it seems that something might have actually happened to Joan Lindsay back in her early years, which might have inspired her to write Picnic...
The various deleted scenes on Youtube are interesting too - a scene of the four girls circling around a rock has a ritual feel to it - and the 'lost ending' where Mrs Appleyard see (or hallucinates) the ghost of Sara before falling to her death - is almost a very traditional 'ghost story' ending - but nonetheless, there's still something quite satisfying about Sara ending up at the rock in the end anyway, when she was the one pupil not allowed to go.
 
Whoa I thought that the film was based sketchily as they sometimes are on an actual event. Not true?
 
Rachel Roberts was a seriously ill woman (look up how she died if you're feeling brave), but she was perfectly cast for the psychosis of Picnic at Hanging Rock. It is a film that taps into the elemental, like a lot of Australian films set in their countryside. Also, the hysterical, blaring music is one of the scariest parts of it!
 
Coastaljames said:
@Mr_Hermolle Great post, thank you.
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Agreed.

For me, PaHR is an example of how fiction creates the non-fiction. People who are touched by works (I don't mean is a sentimental way) are changed by the experience. The line between real and not-real becomes blurred. Minds open to possibilities. Our antennae are trained and primed to watch for something similar.

I also wonder if something that has this effect on so many people isn't encouraging us to create a tulpa of some sort?
 
I think one of the underlying themes of the story is about an Edwardian society/culture with its values and mores being transplanted to an ancient landscape at the other end of the world. The girls and teachers at the school are caught between the strictures of their native culture and that of the land in which they find themselves. That and burgeoning teenage sexuality creates a powerful, overwhelming tension.

I've read the short, suppressed final chapter and for me it brought the aboriginal dreamtime 'reality' of the land finally crashing through. It's what had been behind the whole experience all the time and, in my opinion, makes the story more Fortean.
 
Frideswide said:
For me, PaHR is an example of how fiction creates the non-fiction.
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Fiction expresses the non-fiction, as does all art. It can't do anything else. We only only have our own experiences and our interpretation of others' lives to draw on.

As @pandacracker says, the story explores a class of cultures; one is modern and apparently sophisticated and the other is so ancient it arises from the land itself. A powerful metaphor for, well, nearly everything we humans have to face at some time or another.
No wonder it 'feels' true!
 
Frideswide said:
Agreed.

For me, PaHR is an example of how fiction creates the non-fiction. People who are touched by works (I don't mean is a sentimental way) are changed by the experience. The line between real and not-real becomes blurred. Minds open to possibilities. Our antennae are trained and primed to watch for something similar.

I also wonder if something that has this effect on so many people isn't encouraging us to create a tulpa of some sort?
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I do like the idea of creating a tulpa based on Picnic at hanging Rock - a sentience based on a kind of absence, of soemthing missing perhaps - which is the odd kind of melancholic feel the film gives me...
 
pandacracker said:
I think one of the underlying themes of the story is about an Edwardian society/culture with its values and mores being transplanted to an ancient landscape at the other end of the world. The girls and teachers at the school are caught between the strictures of their native culture and that of the land in which they find themselves. That and burgeoning teenage sexuality creates a powerful, overwhelming tension.

I've read the short, suppressed final chapter and for me it brought the aboriginal dreamtime 'reality' of the land finally crashing through. It's what had been behind the whole experience all the time and, in my opinion, makes the story more Fortean.
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I've never read the final chapter - though have read a synopsis of it though... I tend to 'veer' towards a more Fortean explanation of events (ie no slave traders etc) - but I find with the last chapter missing, it gives me the feeling that whatever happened to the three people who vanished, it would somehow be... inexpressible. Even in fiction.
 
I found out yesterday that one of my customers was the First Assistant Director on this film! He was telling me that he'd had a phone call from America wanting to talk about the film (I'd guess that someone is writing something to time with the fiftieth anniversary in a couple of years' time). He's fairly elderly, and he was telling me about the hard time he had remembering anything about it!
 
Every time I hear/think about Picnic At Hanging Rock, I am reminded of a running sketch on the Comedy Company during the late eighties - parents in the front seat (father driving, always silent), mother in the front passenger kids (played by adults) in the back, always arguing, mother snappish.
Daughter - Mum! You have to sign this excursion form!
Mother - When's the excursion?
Daughter Today! We're going on a picnic!
Mother - Where?
Daughter - Hanging Rock!
Son - Let her go, Mum! She might not come back!
Mother signs form.
 
Tigerhawk said:
Every time I hear/think about Picnic At Hanging Rock, I am reminded of a running sketch on the Comedy Company during the late eighties - parents in the front seat (father driving, always silent), mother in the front passenger kids (played by adults) in the back, always arguing, mother snappish.
Daughter - Mum! You have to sign this excursion form!
Mother - When's the excursion?
Daughter Today! We're going on a picnic!
Mother - Where?
Daughter - Hanging Rock!
Son - Let her go, Mum! She might not come back!
Mother signs form.
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That would work for Meg on Family Guy.

Had never read that 18th Chapter until now. It is a truly Fortean novel and will now watch the film. Do wish Hollywood would learn from this and the concept of 'less is more' with paranormal themes as all too often they go overboard with the special effects.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
That would work for Meg on Family Guy.

Had never read that 18th Chapter until now. It is a truly Fortean novel and will now watch the film. Do wish Hollywood would learn from this and the concept of 'less is more' with paranormal themes as all too often they go overboard with the special effects.
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I did have to admit to Mark that I've never seen Picnic at Hanging Rock. He didn't seem offended.

In another strange co incidental twist of something-or-other, he grew up in my village, in the house that had a poltergeist. I'll have to ask him about that (but I'll let him forget that I haven't seen his film first).
 
Wonder if the authoress Joan Lindsay was influenced, subconsciously or not, by a very strange article in a 1940 National Geographic Magazine?
Miss Lois Jessop was a schoolmistress on Malta and took a class of primary school children on a field trip to the Hypogeum archaeological site.
Back in the 30's when the incident allegedly occurred, visits to the Hypogeum weren't controlled as strictly as they are today and Miss Jessop and the children wandered off into a tunnel on the lowest level, where a cave-in occurred and they were not see again. People did, however hear wailing and screaming from underground for a while but excavation attempts were unsuccessful in locating Miss Jessop or the children.
It's unclear whether it is a true account or a cautionary tale/urban legend invented by Maltese parents to warn children off from exploring the tunnels that are commonplace on Malta. It does share a certain vibe with Picnic though.

hypo.png


https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2004-04-11/local-news/The-Mystery-of-the-Hypogeum-65879
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Wonder if the authoress Joan Lindsay was influenced, subconsciously or not, by a very strange article in a 1940 National Geographic Magazine?
Miss Lois Jessop was a schoolmistress on Malta and took a class of primary school children on a field trip to the Hypogeum archaeological site.
Back in the 30's when the incident allegedly occurred, visits to the Hypogeum weren't controlled as strictly as they are today and Miss Jessop and the children wandered off into a tunnel on the lowest level, where a cave-in occurred and they were not see again. People did, however hear wailing and screaming from underground for a while but excavation attempts were unsuccessful in locating Miss Jessop or the children.
It's unclear whether it is a true account or a cautionary tale/urban legend invented by Maltese parents to warn children off from exploring the tunnels that are commonplace on Malta. It does share a certain vibe with Picnic though.

View attachment 76396

https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2004-04-11/local-news/The-Mystery-of-the-Hypogeum-65879
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(Much) more info on Jessop/Jessup and her alleged underground adventure:

https://archaeotravel.eu/inhabitants-of-the-subterranean-passageways-of-malta/

maximus otter
 
This is on an aside, but it has a slightly spooky resonance with the missing in the landscape motif - and the Malta reference reminded me of it.

In the mid 1920's my grandfather was stationed in Malta with the Royal Engineers.

One day off he and a group of friends went swimming in a local bay. It was a known bathing spot, and they'd been many times - the waters were clear and considered safe. No serious stuff, no long point to point swims, just a bit of R+R - a bunch of lads splashing around on a hot afternoon.

At some point one of my grandad's comrades took a very short dive off a low boulder into the clear waters. And never came back up.

There was the initial pause, when everyone assumed he was just messing around and would pop his head out of the water any moment. Then a realisation that the pause had gone on way too long. Then a kind of semi organised panic as everyone heads back into the water to look for him. An alarm was raised, on-duty soldiers joined the search and a couple of motor launches were detailed to help. He was never found, and no body ever washed up on shore.

My grandfather always maintained that the little bay was safe, the waters clear, the seabed visible - a perfect swimming spot. Even after many decades the experience affected him - as you'd expect it would. But I don't think it was just the tragedy of losing a colleague - I think there was an air of mystery about it that really unsettled him.

My own view is that the sea is an apex predator - and it doesn't need to leave explanations. But still, sudden and unexplained absence is always unsettling.
 
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Coming up to the centenary of the death of Mallory and Irvine on Everest, and I wonder if one reason that story was so gripping for so many people - not just the mystery of whether they summitted, but also that feeling of small, vulnerable figures being swallowed by/into the landscape, and being disappeared? Something very evocative in there.

And maybe it was inspired by an old news story like the Malta one but also there's a very 20thc feel to it - the looking for frontiers and places that cultures see as the ultimate in "wild", and the way they seem to swallow people up..? (Not just Mallory, but Scott and other stories that have their roots at the start of the century).
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Coming up to the centenary of the death of Mallory and Irvine on Everest, and I wonder if one reason that story was so gripping for so many people - not just the mystery of whether they summitted, but also that feeling of small, vulnerable figures being swallowed by/into the landscape, and being disappeared? Something very evocative in there.

And maybe it was inspired by an old news story like the Malta one but also there's a very 20thc feel to it - the looking for frontiers and places that cultures see as the ultimate in "wild", and the way they seem to swallow people up..? (Not just Mallory, but Scott and other stories that have their roots at the start of the century).
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I got a similar feeling (one that, surely, the artist intended to convey) when seeing the controversial Landseer painting Man Proposes, God Disposes:

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Wikipedia: 'Man Proposes, God Disposes is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The work was inspired by the search for Franklin's lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845. The painting is in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the subject of superstitious urban myth that the painting is haunted.'
 
Steven said:
I got a similar feeling (one that, surely, the artist intended to convey) when seeing the controversial Landseer painting Man Proposes, God Disposes:

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Wikipedia: 'Man Proposes, God Disposes is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The work was inspired by the search for Franklin's lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845. The painting is in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the subject of superstitious urban myth that the painting is haunted.'
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Had Landseer ever seen a polar bear when he painted that? He makes them look like dogs.

<misses point catastrophically>
 
catseye said:
Had Landseer ever seen a polar bear when he painted that? He makes them look like dogs.

<misses point catastrophically>
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It's highly unlikely that he'd ever seen one. Perhaps a badly-stuffed one done by a dodgy taxidermist.
 
Steven said:
I got a similar feeling (one that, surely, the artist intended to convey) when seeing the controversial Landseer painting Man Proposes, God Disposes:

View attachment 76438

Wikipedia: 'Man Proposes, God Disposes is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The work was inspired by the search for Franklin's lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845. The painting is in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the subject of superstitious urban myth that the painting is haunted.'
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Every now and then I go down a Franklin Expedition rabbithole - although unlike Franklin, I get to emerge again.

I've never heard of that painting, but defo going to look up about the urban myth. Thanks for posting this!
 
"My own view is that the sea is an apex predator - and it doesn't need to leave explanations. But still, sudden and unexplained absence is always unsettling."
Spookdaddy my Father told me the story of when he was young of someone who jumped off the St. Kilda pier right into the mouth of a shark .
 
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