Much of Australian cinema lives in the shadow of Peter Weir, and perhaps nothing of his own looms larger than Picnic at Hanging Rock. I’m sure the film is quite beautiful, but––having only seen it on a less-than-ideal DVD––its power has long been subdued. Which makes particularly necessary a new 4K restoration which Janus is beginning to roll out ahead of an inevitable Criterion upgrade. Ahead of a January 31 debut at New York’s IFC Center, there’s a new trailer that, even with YouTube compression, exceeds any easily accessible material by leaps and bounds.
Here’s the synopsis (in case you somehow don’t know what this film’s about): “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.”
Find preview and poster below:
