This movie, the video for which was already out-of-print when I first purchased a VCR in the mid to late 1980s, was the impetus for starting a video collection to avoid the same thing happening again. When...FINALLY...Peter Weir released his director's cut at the theaters and that became the version with which most viewers are probably now familiar, I took one disappointed look and ultimately headed for eBay to scout for a seller offering the VHS original. For more money than I have ever paid in my life for a video, an aging copy arrived.
What was issued at the Australian box offices in 1975, and in the United States four years later, is an absolute gem. The 1998 director's cut ruins much of it. There are no parishioners singing "Rock of Ages." There is very little footage of the unremarked-on matching cuts on the foreheads of Michael and...well, no use giving anything away...one of the other characters. I forget the rest.
In summary, I've discovered that the editing personnel who are listed on movie credits fulfill a very important function. And I'm very much a Peter Weir fan. St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 2000, would have been an opportune time for a re-release of the original. But it seems to have disappeared.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is my favorite Helen Morse movie. It's too bad there have not been, for American audiences, other prominent films featuring Anne Lambert or Karen Robson. Ditto, Dominic Guard, except for a bit part in Gandhi.
Ask yourself some questions: Why is it called "hanging" rock? It seems more like a protruding formation, reaching up from below rather than hanging from anything above. And what's with this circle superimposed on the triangle in Miss McCraw's mathematics book, when she glances up at the sky? Edith said something about a red...what was it, exactly, she mentioned?
At least there are still a few preserved curiosities.
What was issued at the Australian box offices in 1975, and in the United States four years later, is an absolute gem. The 1998 director's cut ruins much of it. There are no parishioners singing "Rock of Ages." There is very little footage of the unremarked-on matching cuts on the foreheads of Michael and...well, no use giving anything away...one of the other characters. I forget the rest.
In summary, I've discovered that the editing personnel who are listed on movie credits fulfill a very important function. And I'm very much a Peter Weir fan. St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 2000, would have been an opportune time for a re-release of the original. But it seems to have disappeared.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is my favorite Helen Morse movie. It's too bad there have not been, for American audiences, other prominent films featuring Anne Lambert or Karen Robson. Ditto, Dominic Guard, except for a bit part in Gandhi.
Ask yourself some questions: Why is it called "hanging" rock? It seems more like a protruding formation, reaching up from below rather than hanging from anything above. And what's with this circle superimposed on the triangle in Miss McCraw's mathematics book, when she glances up at the sky? Edith said something about a red...what was it, exactly, she mentioned?
At least there are still a few preserved curiosities.