Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 61: Mon Mar 3

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1975): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 7.10pm

This 35mm presetnation is on an extended run at BFI Southbank. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Returning to the big screen to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Peter Weir’s adaption of Joan Lindsay’s novel has lost none of its mystique or mesmerising power. On Valentine’s Day 1900, students from Appleyard College, a girls’ private school in Victoria, Australia, embark on a field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, several of the girls wander off. It’s not until the end of the day that the group realise that some of their party have mysteriously disappeared. Weir’s wonderfully enigmatic film, with its ethereal cinematography, is possessed of a ghostly, foreboding atmosphere. A significant influence on the work of Sofia Coppola, Picnic at Hanging Rock has become a landmark for its dreamlike exploration of the intensely romantic, yet profoundly unsettling, experience of girlhood and burgeoning sexuality.
Kimberley Sheehan, Lead Programmer

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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