Peter Weir’s 1975 adaptation Joan Lindsay’s surreal 1967 novel Picnic At Hanging Rock is the very definition of cult classic. Or perhaps just a classic with a cult following, performing quite well in the box office, both in its native Australia as well as abroad. It also won numerous awards. It’s inspired several fashion designers, from Alexander McQueen to a Gucci print ad campaign. It’s been graced with a Criterion edition. Sofia Coppola claims it among her favorite films and its influence can be seen in both The Virgin Suicides and The Beguiled. Both serve as a useful introduction to Picnic At Hanging Rock, in all its incarnations, with its nearly-Gothic exploration of girlhood in the late Victorian age through the lens of an Australian girl’s boarding school.
For those who don’t know (or if you need a refresher), Picnic At Hanging Rock is the story of three young women who disappear in the early 1900s in a primordial wilderness called Hanging Rock. It’s based on true events. Peter Weir’s version is perhaps the penultimate ethereal 70s arthouse film, what this amazing Letterboxd list refers to as Pressed Flowers And Amethyst Glass.
So what does the new Picnic At Hanging Rock miniseries from Amazon Studios bring to the table, especially with such an iconic original? Is 2018’s Picnic At Hanging Rock a fresh take or simply another reboot, another attempt to sexify a cult classic for a CW world?
It’s not. So far, at least.
We’re going to be digging into the new Amazon streaming series, episode by episode, recapping and summarizing. We’ll offer a pithy little preview, at the top, for those simply looking for a synapsis. Detailed discussion will occur below the jump, however, so expect spoilers!
Now to Appleyard College!
Picnic At Hanging Rock Episode 1 Synopsis And Review
We begin with an enigmatic figure, a veiled woman dressed in black, touring a sprawling estate. The woman is Mrs. Appleyard, played by the razor-sharp Natalie Dormer from Game Of Thrones, she of the winsome smirk, whom we take to be a widow.
The year is 1900. The setting is the Australian countryside outside of Melbourne. “The ass-end of the world,” thinks Mrs. Applewood to herself after purchasing the estate following a fierce-but-understated negotiation. Curiously, Mrs. Applewood’s drops her posh society accent in her inner monologues. It’s the first sense that there’s perhaps more to Mrs. Applewood than we might take at first glance.
Natalie Dormer’s Mrs. Applewood is the first departure from both Peter Weir’s cult classic as well as Joan Lindsay’s original material. Both portray Mrs. Applewood as an older woman, hinting that she is widowed and has moved to Australia for a fresh start. 2018’s Mrs. Applewood is a young, beautiful woman who plays at being a widow, but seemingly to keep the outside world at bay. Mrs. Applewood seems to be on the run, from something.
Rather than being a victim to life’s circumstances, she seems to be creating her own.
This subtle detail makes all the difference in the world, as the story immediately speaks to both women’s agency in the year 1900 as well as their current social standing (or lack thereof.) It also gives a psychological underpinning to Mrs. Applewood’s behavior and treatment of the girls. She can at times seem cruel almost to the point of sadism. This subtext makes us wonder if she herself has been hurt and disappointed by the world and is trying to spare these young girls from making the same mistakes.
Most of Episode 1 of Picnic At Hanging Rock takes place on St. Valentine’s Day 1900, although there is some build-up to introduce us to the characters. There is a wide cast of precocious, talented young actresses, but most of the action follows the spirited Miranda Reid, played by Lily Sullivan; the glamorous socialite Irma Leopold, depicted by the resplendent Samara Weaving; and Marion Quade, played by Madeleine Madden, the only indigenous character, offering some insights into the racial politics of Australia along with the gender roles.
The slightly pitiable Sara Waybourne, portrayed by the waif-like Inez Currõ, also plays a prominent role. Sara worships Miranda Reid almost to the point of romantic love. She even recites her a lovely poem on St. Valentine’s Day.
Sara’s devotion to Miranda automatically bring some of the interpersonal relationships into focus, as the characters are pitted against one another following an unpleasant incident.
Miranda doesn’t care much for restriction. She’s a country girl, the only daughter of a prominent station owner. Her love of horses and her rebellious nature causes her to wander into the stables during an outing. A brutish stablehand tries to take advantage of her, in a particularly repugnant way. He gets what’s coming, as Miranda proves she’s no shrinking violet. She puts a pitchfork through his foot. This has consequences.
Mrs. Appleway’s particularly strict and controlling of the girls who attend her college. Amazon’s update makes it seem that she’s afraid of people looking into her affairs too much. It’s also due to the insanely rigid roles on women during the Victorian Age. A woman who’d lost her purity was almost as good as dead.
Mrs. Appleway comes upon a shaken-but-intact Miranda and helps her clean and collect herself, while also tending to the wounded stablehand. The following day would be St. Valentine’s Day, when most of the action transpires.
A good chunk of Picnic At Hanging Rock is comprised of young girls trading Valentine’s in gauzy sleepwear. If that sounds dull or boring to you, this is decidedly not the series for you. For one, it’s a feast for the eyes, from the lavish Edwardian fashion to the vintage Victorian Valentine’s, which are almost ludicrous in their ornateness. Secondly, it also offers a window into what St. Valentine’s Day means to young girls and women, which is one of the most prominent themes of the series and film. You can watch social dynamics play out as the most popular girls, Irma and Madeleine, have girls line up to offer gifts to their queen.
These rituals of girlhood and young womanhood are pivotal to both the plot of Picnic At Hanging Rock and why it ultimately succeeds. It’s a magickal time, full of yearning and longing and self-discovery. Friendships are so close and intimate, in a way they will never be again once adulthood sets in. It’s no wonder that young girls and women are often accused of being witches. And also lesbians.
To punish Miranda for her transgressions, Mrs. Appleway keeps Sara from attending the picnic at Hanging Rock, knowing this will hurt Miranda more than simply keeping her from going. This offers us an insight into what a cold, calculating, sometimes cruel woman Mrs. Appleway can be. She punishes Sara while her classmates are away, while simultaneously grilling her to find out more about a secret revealed earlier in the episode. Mrs. Appleway’s past is catching up with her. “Retribution is coming,” she mutters to herself, in the scene’s final, apocalyptic moments.
During the lazing, idyllic picnic, most of the girls drift off, in the ethereal, otherworldliness of Hanging Rock. Irma, Madeleine, and Marion do not, instead going to explore the rock, followed by the dowdy Myrtle. Myrtle would be the one to sound the alarm after the three young girls simply vanish without a trace.
We’re left to wonder what might have happened. We’ve already seen that Hanging Rock is a strange place, indeed. Watches stop. Compasses don’t work. The wind whispers like windchimes, casting a strange faerie magick.
The underpinnings of a Gothic murder mystery also seem to be manifesting. We wonder which it might turn out to be?
These shifting tones are part of what makes Episode 1 of Picnic At Hanging Rock such a bonkers surreal trip. Which brings us back to the original question: what does Amazon’s remake of Picnic At Hanging Rock improve upon from the original?
We wouldn’t say ‘improve upon,’ per se. More like ‘occupying a similar cultural niche.’ Peter Weir’s 1975 epitomized the soft focus, subjective, eerie, earthy glamour of the 1970s. Amazon’s update shows us stylish, feminist, arthouse psychedelia in 2018. Any scene could be tailor-made for a Lana Del Rey video, as one reviewer pointed out, while the hyper-saturated colors make you feel you’re on a lot of drugs, slightly burning your retinas in the most delicious way imaginable.
Other visual elements – notably the costumery and camera angles – are quite in keeping with the original. Both feature wonky camera angles, to add to the uncanniness and surreality, as well as high shots, low shots, distant shots framing the girls in the landscape like a tableaux. It’s a stylish look that will make you want to pause and screenshot every other second (as well as take notes for your moodboards) but it also serves the story, seeming to hint at the role that girls and women play in late-Victorian Australia.
So far, style and substance are evenly played, making us eager to see what happens next.
Outstanding performances, killer set design, interesting characters with lots of socian dynamics, and lavish attention to period detail which is also overlooked when need be, prevent this from being yet another stodgy period piece.]
Watch Season 1 Of Picnic At Hanging Rock on Amazon Prime.
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