GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

jfgfny The scenes of the Australian outback were stunning, The acting was overly theatrical and punctuated with bizarre hand gestures. The characters never develop any depth so your reaction is purely based on visuals - Headmistress; Callous, French teacher; Fake, Dance teacher; Simpering, Miranda; Queen Bee Flake with the usual followers. The older couple having a picnic sitting like wooden dummies? The boy driven to attempt to find the girls - driven by what? The glimpse of a black clad ankle? The token LUG? Kept waiting for something - anything to happen. Yawn.

Woodyanders 1990. Several students from an all-female college inexplicably vanish into thin air while spending a St. Valentine's Day outing in the Australian wilderness.Director Peter Weir ably crafts a hypnotically dreamy atmosphere that's in equal degrees ethereal, enigmatic, and sinister, vividly captures the suffocating repressiveness of the early 20th century Victorian era, lets the compelling story unfold at a leisurely pace, and makes excellent and evocative use of the titular ugly and uninviting main location. Cliff Green's oblique, yet still intriguing script offers plenty of pungent criticism of the stifling zeitgeist of the Victorian period and the deep-seated need to escape from sexual and social repression into a better more permissive world.Moreover, it's superbly acted by a top-rate cast, with especially stand-out contributions from Rachel Roberts as stern headmistress Mrs. Appleseed, Anne-Louise Lambert as the sensual and entrancing Miranda, Karen Robson as the perky and fetching Irma, Jane Vallis as the nerdy Marion, Dominic Guard as the smitten Michael Fitzhubert, Christine Schuler as annoying whiny frump Edith, Kirsty Child as compassionate teacher Miss Lumley, and Margaret Nelson as rebellious troublemaker Sara. Russell Boyd's sumptuous cinematography delivers a wealth of stunning and beautiful visuals. Best of all, Weir's admirable refusal to provide some kind of explanation for the disappearances gives this film its own singularly arresting cinematic allure.

adrijdin This is a soft, dreamy showcase of life in rural Australia at the turn of the last century, centred around a group of girls and teachers at a prim boarding school, while it is also an excellent mystery and also a meditation. FYI: It is available on youtube, as are many classic Australian films :)I've always loved movies and books that take place at all-girls schools. I'm kind of a junkie for that kind of thing, so as soon as I learned the premise, I was in. However, this movie goes far beyond just being that. If you are interested in Aboriginal spirituality and have certain ideas and theories about the sacred land of Australia, this movie definitely gives you something to think about. There is a lot of talk on these boards and around the internet about the "secret" behind the mystery, but for me it isn't unresolved at all. It was very obvious to me, being interested in what different spiritual traditions have to say about the nature of time, what happened in this movie. I think it will affect people on different levels depending on how you choose to experience movies in general as well as your capacity for abstract thought. For the record, I don't like movies that deliberately offer no resolve to the mysteries they weave, I really am one for solutions, but it was natural and enjoyable for me to reach my own personal conclusions about what exactly was going on in this movie. It was wonderfully subtle but rich in meaning. The movie is extremely atmospheric and I almost felt myself go into a bit of a trance while watching! I especially love the scene that occurs right before the girls go off for their exploration, while they are sitting in the grass. At this point in the movie, do listen to the wondrous sounds of nature! Crickets and birdsong, the wind in the trees, sounds like that. We need to get out in the natural areas of our own corners of this earth and feel that. It is necessary for our health and wellbeing. This is also a film for nature enthusiasts! In addition, I adored the recitation of poetry and a glimpse of the life of a schoolgirl before the technology age, and outside the hustle bustle of the city. It really makes you realize that it is seriously a shame how addicted young people are to their gadgets, and how wonderfully simple life was at that time. It truly facilitated a love of poetry in the young student that I believe has been lost to modern society. Scary. Finally, I must say that I (like countless others) fell under the spell of the lead girl, Miranda, who is likened just before her disappearance to a Bodicelli Angel. She really is a lovely and special girl.

inioi The film seems to be a simple story of a group of students going to a rural picnic in Hanging Rock (a lava geological formation with rock pinnacles).But the movie goes far beyond.It's pure existentialismBehind the usual situations, seems to be a mysterious power operating on the girls (and on the viewer) whom are dragged into an eerie maze. The perceptions begin to experience relevant changes. Everything feels differently: comments and opinions do not seem to come from any teenager girl, but from an ancient wisdom knowledge related with spiritualism and non-dualism. For instance:-Marion:"A surprising number of human beings are without purpose, though it is probable that they are performing some function unknown to themselves".-Miranda: "What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream".-Miranda: "Everything begins and ends at the exactly right time and place".They seem to have entered into a dreamland dimension, suspended in time. An ethereal energy which makes all acts are led by a high level of awareness and absolute sense of freedom.However, according to Sara, Miranda predicted her own fate: she would not return. So she could have had a prior intuition about her predestination. Her ethereal mood, mystery and beauty are perfectly portrayed by Anne-Louise Lambert.We have a story in which fate and power of nature are intertwined. In the end, the most relevant fact is the feeling that remains in some viewers long after having seen the movie: the feeling of void, nothingness, the inexplicable, the beyond...10/10