Picnic At Hanging Rock - Deluxe 3 Disc Edition [1975]

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker is a critically acclaimed classic of Australian cinema. With BAFTA-winning photography and a memorably haunting score Picnic At Hanging Rock remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made. Features Director's Cut and Original version (currently unavailable anywhere else). Packed with bonus features - A Dream Within A Dream (120 min doc), A Recollection - Hanging Rock 1900, Joan Lindsay Interview, Hanging Rock and Martindale Hall - Then and Now, The Day of St Valentine, Audio Interviews, Stills and Poster Gallery, Director's Cut deleted scenes, Director's Cut 5.1 audio, Engish SDH subtitles

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Special Features
Director’s Cut and longer Original Version (currently unavailable in any territory)

‘A Dream Within A Dream’ (120 min documentary)

‘A Recollection – Hanging Rock 1900’

Joan Lindsay interview

Hanging Rock and Martindale Hall – Then and Now’

‘The Day of St Valentine’ (1st screen adaptation)

Audio Interviews, Stills and Poster Gallery

The Director’s Cut deleted scenes

Director’s Cut 5.1 audio

English SDH subtitles

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Synopsis
When a group of schoolgirls from an elite Victorian finishing school embark on a Valentine's day excursion to an unusual outcropping of volcanic rock, four members of the party are drawn towards the summit, where they experience powerful forces of time, nature, and eroticism, and vanish into thin air. This meticulously crafted Australian film displays a remarkable sense of eerie foreboding and lush surrealist sensibility, which have earned it a rabid cult following.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-07-02 rating:
New Picnic at Hanging Rock Three Dvd Set
I am sorry to say this isn't the perfect set I hoped for,The picture
of this 16x9 Directors Cut isn't as good as the Non 16x9 Criterion
version,The extras are the reason to get this set,the Original version
is a star lower in PQ ,but is the only dvd version,the third dvd apears the same as the region 4 dvd ,which was fantastic!!
The Movie gets 5 Stars,this set is 4

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review by: Excessional date: 2008-06-17 rating:
A Languid and Sensual Masterpiece - Restored!!
I wonder if perhaps it's a bit cheeky to review something before its official release - but of course the film has been out for years and I've certainly seen it enough times as to offer an opinion - I just hope the reader will forgive the rest but I experienced a keen sense of anticipation when I first read that this edition was going to be released (if that doesn't sound too nerdy!). I was a young teen when I first saw this film when it debuted on British tv. Perhaps it was because I was at an impressionable age what with the constant images of (largely) beautiful young ladies dressed in white against the dramatic and foreboding backdrop of a strange and alien landscape. Certainly the film made an impression that has stayed with me since.

The plot as such is that on a school valentines day outing in the year 1900 to Hanging Rock (in Australia), three pupils and a teacher mysteriously disappear. Search parties are organised and one pupil is found though she has no memory of what happened. Meanwhile the school and authorities have to try and deal with both their own sense of loss and the unwelcome attention this tragedy brings especially as there are no answers as to what happened.

The story outline though does not serve justice to the brooding presence of Hanging Rock itself - a natural rock formation that is filmed in such a way as to be as important as any of the characters and dominates over the entire film as a mysterious and malevalent landscape. The musical use of panpipes heightens this moodpiece.

This new edition on dvd will be particularly welcome as, when I bought my current version dvd a few years ago, I had a memory of a couple of scenes that now seemed to be missing. I still had a VHS recording off the tv of the film so scanned through it and I was right - Michael's growing friendship with Irma, the rescued girl, had all but disappeared and (spoiler alert!) so had the scene whereby Mrs Appleyard went into Sara's room at night and took some things, suggestive as this was before it was discovered that Sara had killed herself! There may well be other scenes too - so the opportunity to see the film properly restored is a welcome one as is the prospect of additional extras as my current dvd has none (I don't count 'Scene Access' as a special feature even if the dvd case does!) So what better reason do we need to own this extraordinary film.

Additional - I have since bought this edition and had time to view the films and extras and I still stand by my original comments above. The original (longer) version is still the better film although the print quality is not quite as good - though to be honest, neither film is pristine. On the extras there are a few interviews and featurettes but the main attraction is a near 2-hr making of which is quite informative, providing anecdotes and interviews on most aspects of the film.


review by: date: 2008-05-30 rating:
Finally, an edition that does this film justice
This is a MUST HAVE for anyone who likes Australian films, Peter Weir films or World Cinema in general. The extras alone make this boxset a necessity for any DVD collection:
"Dream Within A Dream" - making of featurette; "A Recollection - Hanging Rock 1900"; "Joan Lindsay Interview"; "Audio Interview with Karen Robson"; "Hanging Rock & Martindale - Then and Now"; "The Day Of St Valentine" and "Deleted Scenes".

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