Picnic at Hanging Rock

Rating:
Summary: A haunting and enigmatic tale
Review: Having seen Peter Weir's film before reading Joan Lindsay's novel it
is difficult for me to review the book without referring to the film.
The film leaves out some details from the novel but both convey the
same sense of beauty, horror and loss, longing and haunting. We are
told on the book's cover that the story is based around a St
Valentine's day picnic in 1900, and the disappearance of some of the
picnic party.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is Joan Lindsay's only work of
fiction, although its many themes are firmly based on reality. The
story covers the loss of youth, beauty and innocence; love and
sexuality; discrimination, prejudice and class privilege; fear,
passion and the breakdown of order; the English Empire in a foreign
environment, the clash of alien cultures, and the end of an era;
beliefs and life's purpose; life's myriad web and coincidences;
destiny and fate; and Time itself, reflected in Miranda's favourite
quote "Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and
place".

Joan Lindsay's descriptions of the Australian bush and
wildlife are as evocative as Russell Boyd's cinematography. The style
and language of her writing is deliberate to emulate turn-of-the 20th
century writers.

The girls images were already imprinted on my mind
when I read the book and the casting in the film seemed to me perfect,
especially that of Anne Louise Lambert as Miranda and Karen Robson as
Irma. Joan Lindsay described Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers, the
French teacher and the girls' confidante, as having blond hair, yet
the casting of the excellent Helen Morse was inspired.

Joan Lindsay
describes Miranda as a Botticelli Angel from the Galleria Degli Uffizi
in Florence, and Peter Weir specifically uses the image of the birth
of Venus. Miranda is all knowing and shows compassion to Sara and
Edith the least popular girl's at the school. Anne Louise Lambert's
portrayal of Miranda with her ethereal beauty and enigmatic smile
captures the vision perfectly, and is reminiscent of the knowing smile
on the death mask of the famous "L'Inconnue de la Seine", who
coincidentally died around 1900 in Paris.

The story's many strands
are reflected by the girl's layers of virginal white dress
representing suppression and restriction, with gloves, stockings and
shoes being shed by the more enlightened girls on their ascent of the
rock. Peter Weir used several techniques to convey the many layers of
the story including shots into mirrors as into another
dimension.

Joan Lindsay made a literary mistake which Cliff Green
repeated in the film script - Felicia Hemanes' famous Victorian
recital piece is "Casabianca" (about the Battle of The Nile),
and not "The Wreck of the Hesperus" (the captain ties his
daughter to the mast to save her from the storm which eventually sinks
the ship) which is by Henry Longfellow. Discrimination is shown by
Mrs Appleyard against Sara (an orphan) who is punished for not
learning the poem, by being kept back from the picnic, whereas clearly
Irma cannot remember it (on the picnic she can only quote the first
line) but her family's wealth and her position as heiress obviously
carry influence.

The importance of time and place are shown in that
Joan Lindsay based the location of her story on Hanging Rock near
mount Macedon in Victoria, which is a sacred Aboriginal site. To
provide added authenticity Peter Weir filmed at the rock during the
same six weeks of summer. Aboriginals believe time is not linear and
Joan Lindsay refused to have clocks in her home, hence the title of
her autobiography "Time Without Clocks". At Hanging Rock both
Mr Hussey's and Miss McCraw's watches stopped at twelve o'clock.
14 February 1900 actually fell on a Wednesday, not a Saturday, unless =
Joan Lindsay used the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian, so that =
the eleven days were not lost? The open endedness of the novel
is deliberate to mirror life where we may learn or uncover some
secrets but never understand the mystery. Plenty of clues and
coincidences are related, together with unexplained details such as
the absence of scratches to Irma's bare feet, yet identical injuries
appear on her and Michael's heads, very reminiscent of the
X-Files.

This is a very thought provoking and inspiring story that
will haunt you. I find the book and the film compliment each other
exceptionally well, so if you haven't already done so I urge you to
also seek out the film.


Rating:
Summary: Peter Weir's genius is perhaps best displayed
Review: in his ability to perceive that a masterpiece of a film could be made from this very mediocre book. The prose oscillates between florid and wooden; the characters are almost all stick figures; the hints of transcendence, mystery, raging currents beneath a calm surface that make the film so powerful are completely absent.

Don't waste your time. Go reread Jane Austen or Patrick O'Brian.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Evocation of an Era and a Landscape
Review: One of the most elegant, evocative novels in Australian literature. Lindsay's prose is exquisite, as is her reconstruction of this era in Australian history. Both the landscape and the figures that move in it, like those stiff individuals in the original painting that inspired the work, make this a striking work. Even minor characters are clearly delineated and highly believable in their interaction (or non-interaction) with the natural world. As in Weir's excellent movie adaptation, the bush becomes a character. Just as fascinating as the inexplicable events themselves are the unfolding patterns that extend outwards from the day of the picnic. Lindsay has an superb eye for detail, and the novel's remarkable intricacy only becomes apparent upon reading and rereading. A quick note, though - this book is most certainly fiction, and anyone searching through newspaper coverage, police records or secondary sources for the 'real' story is bound for disappointment. It never happened (take this from someone who was convinced of its authenticity for years). If in any doubt read the excellent book written about the novel 'The Murders at Hanging Rock' by Yvonne Rousseau who also wrote an essay interpreting the missing chapter in 'The Secret at Hanging Rock'. Rousseau examines the story from several angles and offers interpretations ranging from the mystical to the forensic. She also traces any notable historical events that did happen at the Rock for the period around the turn of the century - about the only mysterious event was the death of a man in a fall (from memory, the mystery was what happened to his pocketbook).