Australian Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows four young schoolgirls leaving a school picnic at Hanging Rock, a local landmark in Victoria, after asking permission to explore the Rock. One of the teachers watches the girls as they leave and then examines a book with images by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli. She realises that Miranda (Anne Lambert) resembles one of the Botticelli angels in the book. Pan-pipe music accompanies the action as the girls run along the track towards the Rock. They walk past a woman holding a parasol and a man, both sitting near a picnic table, and then cross a stream where they are observed by two young men. The camera lingers on Miranda as she looks towards the Rock.

Educational value points

• The clip is from a film based on the novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by the Australian author Joan Lindsay. The novel is Lindsay’s best-known work and follows themes that she also explored elsewhere in her writing concerning the people and places she knew well. Lindsay (1896–1984) was born in East St Kilda and studied at the National Gallery School of Art in Melbourne. She intended to be a professional artist and her sensitivity as a visual artist is evident in her writing. Following the publication of the novel she encouraged the resulting speculation about whether or not the story was based on true events.

• The film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) established Peter Weir’s reputation as a film director. He made his first feature-length film, The Cars that Ate Paris (1974), after film study overseas followed by work at the Commonwealth Film Unit. Picnic at Hanging Rock gained national and international acclaim and Weir’s next major hit was Gallipoli (1981). Weir headed for Hollywood and gained success with Witness (1985). Since then his international success has continued with films such as Dead Poet’s Society (1989), The Truman Show (1998) and Master and Commander (2003).

• The pan-pipe music supports and intensifies the visual images and helps to sustain the eerie sense of mystery that pervades the film. The film score was composed by Bruce Smeaton and featured mesmeric pan-pipe music played by Romanian Gheorghe Zamfir, considered at the time to be the finest pan flute player in the world. The successful musical collaboration was a hit in its own right, marking an important moment in the history of musical scoring for Australian films. It was Smeaton’s second film score. Since then he has provided the musical score for many well-known films including The Devil’s Playground (1976), Plenty (1985), Evil Angels (1988) and The Missing (2002).

• The clip features the Australian bush and focuses on the landmark Hanging Rock in a way that projects the Rock as a mysterious and threatening presence. Hanging Rock is the colloquial name for Mount Diogenes, a volcanic outcrop situated in the Hesket plains near the townships of Mount Macedon and Woodend in Victoria. It was the setting for a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, upon which the film of the same name was based.

• The careers of a number of Australians were launched by the success of this film. Both director Peter Weir and the cinematographer Russell Boyd went on to internationally recognised careers in their fields. Picnic at Hanging Rock was also producer Patricia Lovell’s first major success, and actors Helen Morse and Anne Lambert became well known after their roles in the film.

• The central character in the clip is Miranda, played by the actor Anne Lambert (1956–), who was a television actor in the well-known Number 96 series prior to gaining the part of Miranda. After Picnic at Hanging Rock she travelled to the UK where she took a leading role in Peter Greenaway’s first film, The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982). She also appeared on stage playing opposite Lauren Bacall in Sweet Bird of Youth.