"After his directorial debut “The Cars That Ate Paris” (1974), Australian New Wave director Peter Weir`s second feature film, which was adapted from Australian author Joan Lindsay`s novel “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1967) by Cliff Green, became one of the first australian films to reach an international audience in 1975 and one of the most influential films in Australian film history.

On St. Valentine`s day Saturday 14th February in the summer of 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard college went on a picnic at Hanging Rock near Mount Macedon in the state of Victoria under the supervision of French teacher Mademoiselle de Portiers and mathematics mistress Greta McGraw. During that blissful and radiant day the schoolgirls Marion, Irma, Miranda and Edith decided against their headmistress Mrs Appleyard`s advice to explore Hanging Rock further. The girls left the rest of the party after being allowed to do so by Mademoiselle de Portiers and mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

This enigmatic coming-of-age drama which begins at a distant Victorian girl`s school in Australia, is a dialog-driven period film and a lyrical mystery thriller with an impressively convincing ensemble cast, which

is characterized by Peter Weir`s acute camera movements, frequent and weighty close ups, versatile perspectives, the bright and credible milieu depictions and the quiet pace within the long takes which accentuates the experience of time. Russel Boyd`s shining and compelling photography, the crucial theme song performed by Gheorghe Zamfir on pan pipe and Marcel Cellier on organ, Bruce Smeaton`s electronical and exalting music and the recurring use of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Johann Sebastian Bach, gives this substantially auditive and visual Australian production a throughout alluring and hypnotic atmosphere.

“Picnic at Hanging Rock” was entirely shoot at Australian and South Australian locations such as Adelaide Hills, Woodend in Victoria, Mount Macedon in Victoria, Hanging Rock in central Victoria, Martindale Hall near Mintaro in Clare Valley and Marbury School in Aldgate. Most of the actresses in this film where previously known from Australian television series and soap operas, but Welsh actress Rachel Roberts (1927-1980) who played the role of Mrs Appleyard had gained wide recognition for her roles in Karel Reiz`s “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (1960) and Lindsay Anderson`s “This Sporting Life” (1963), which were central films from the British New Wave. This sensual independent film which was produced by Hal McElroy and Jim McElroy is a mysterious and somewhat mythical horror tale which is magnified by it`s ethereal aura.

A timeless masterpiece."