Picnic at Hanging Rock
This sensual and striking chronicle of a disappearance and its aftermath put director Peter Weir on the map and helped usher in a new era of Australian cinema. Based on an acclaimed 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock is set at the turn of the twentieth century and concerns a small group of students from an all- female college who vanish, along with a chaperone, while on a St. Valentine’s Day outing. Less a mystery than a journey into the mystic, as well as an inquiry into issues of class and sexual repression in Australian society, Weir’s gorgeous, disquieting film is a work of poetic horror whose secrets haunt viewers to this day.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Remastered high-definition digital film transfer, supervised by director Peter Weir, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Extended interview with Weir
- New piece on the making of the film, featuring interviews from 2003 with executive producer Patricia Lovell, producers Hal McElroy and Jim McElroy, and cast members
- New introduction by film scholar David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
- A Recollection . . . Hanging Rock 1900 (1975), an on-set documentary hosted by Lovell and featuring interviews with Weir, actor Rachel Roberts, and source novel author Joan Lindsay
- Homesdale (1971), an award-winning black comedy by Weir
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Megan Abbott and an excerpt from film scholar Marek Haltof’s 1996 book Peter Weir: When Cultures Collide
New cover by Eric Skillman
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Remastered high-definition digital film transfer, supervised by director Peter Weir, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Extended interview with Weir
- New piece on the making of the film, featuring interviews from 2003 with executive producer Patricia Lovell, producers Hal McElroy and Jim McElroy, and cast members
- New introduction by film scholar David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
- A Recollection . . . Hanging Rock 1900 (1975), an on-set documentary hosted by Lovell and featuring interviews with Weir, actor Rachel Roberts, and source novel author Joan Lindsay
- Homesdale (1971), an award-winning black comedy by Weir
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Megan Abbott and an excerpt from film scholar Marek Haltof’s 1996 book Peter Weir: When Cultures Collide
New cover by Eric Skillman
Cast
- Rachel Roberts
- Mrs. Appleyard
- Vivean Gray
- Miss McCraw
- Helen Morse
- Mlle. de Poitiers
- Kirsty Child
- Miss Lumley
- Anthony Llewellyn-Jones
- Tom
- Jacki Weaver
- Minnie
- Frank Gunnell
- Mr. Whitehead
- Anne Lambert
- Miranda
- Karen Robson
- Irma
- Jane Vallis
- Marion
- Christine Schuler
- Edith
- Margaret Nelson
- Sara
- Ingrid Mason
- Rosamund
- Jenny Lovell
- Blanche
- Janet Murray
- Juliana
- Wyn Roberts
- Sergeant Bumpher
- Kay Taylor
- Mrs. Bumpher
- Garry McDonald
- Constable Jones
- Martin Vaughan
- Ben Hussey
- Jack Fegan
- Dr. McKenzie
- Peter Collingwood
- Colonel Fitzhubert
- Olga Dickie
- Mrs. Fitzhubert
- Dominic Guard
- Michael Fitzhubert
- John Jarrett
- Albert Crundall
Credits
- Director
- Peter Weir
- Produced by
- Hal McElroy
- Produced by
- Jim McElroy
- Executive producer
- Patricia Lovell
- Executive producer for the South Australian Film Corporation
- John Graves
- Screenplay
- Cliff Green
- From the novel by
- Joan Lindsay
- Director of photography
- Russell Boyd
- Art director
- David Copping
- Artistic adviser to the director
- Martin Sharp
- Editor
- Max Lemon
- Flûte de Pan played by
- Gheorghe Zamfir
- Additional original music composed by
- Bruce Smeaton
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