A mesmerising film about colonialism, sexual repression and Antonioni-esque alienation, Picnic at Hanging Rock's dreamlike aesthetic is haunting.
Originally the novel concluded with a chapter that her editor reasonably rejected, one that teeters between the baffling and the bizarre, finally landing with a supernatural thud. Lindsay (who died in 1984) had willingly agreed to omit it.
— Thom Delapa (Cineaste, Fall 2024)
As the film goes on, there’s an increasing displeasure in the acts of those who stunt creation and fantasy in the name of history and rules, which are here wielded as weapons of restraint by the Appleyard School.[…]
Whatever happened to the missing young women is effectively haunting and strange, but it’s ultimately not nearly as bewildering as the way the other schoolgirls (and teachers) turn on Irma, who’s tied up and persecuted for information by her classmates.
— Chris Cabin (Slant Magazine)
Hanging Rock has echoes of L’Avventura and Psycho, two movies that create an existential void when a main character vanishes less than midway through. It is more genteel yet more erotically charged than either — “both spooky and sexy,” Vincent Canby wrote in his 1979 New York Times review.
— J. Hoberman (New York Times)
Synopsis: In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.