PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975)

Director: Peter Weir

Writer: Cliff Green

Anne-Louise Lambert as Miranda
Jackie Weaver as Minnie
Rachel Roberts as Mrs. Appleyard
Also Helen Morse, Tony Llewylyn-Jones, Karen Robson, Jane Vallis, John Jarrett

Australia's best film? Haunting and atmospheric, this film oozes class. It's adapted from the novel of the same name; itself based on true events. In 1900, a group of schoolgirls on an excursion wandered up Hanging Rock. They never returned. Sexuality, the landscape, and colonialism inform the rich subtext. No less than a masterpiece of cinema, it's a film about so much has been written, but really nothing in words can render quite adequately the feeling of gentle suspense that subtly builds throughout the story. See it on a big screen if you possibly can - you'll be well rewarded for the effort - but in either case, just see it.