Peter Weir

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: a haunting masterpiece on TV

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PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

Tomorrow night, Turner Classic Movies will air the enigmatic Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir.  An Australian girls school goes on an outing to a striking geological formation – and some of the girls and a teacher disappear.  What happened to them? It’s beautiful and hypnotic and haunting.  It’s a film masterpiece, but if you can’t handle ambiguous endings – this ain’t for you.

Weir has gone on to make high quality hits (The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Master and Commander), but Picnic at Hanging Rock – the movie that he made at age 31 – is his most original work.  Besides playing periodically on TCM, Picnic at Hanging Rock is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant and Hulu Plus.

The Way Back

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The Way Back is inspired by the story of a 1940 escape from a Siberian prison; three men slipped out of the gulag and walked out of Siberia, across Mongolia, across China’s Gobi Desert, through Tibet and over the Himalayas to freedom in India – a trek of 4000 miles.  This is not a spoiler, because, at the very beginning of the movie, we are told that three men make it from the gulags to India.  The remaining dramatic tension is in finding out which three of the seven who start the journey will finish it.

Of course, director Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Master and Commander) knows how to make a movie, and it is beautifully shot on locations chosen to illustrate the magnitude of the distances and the challenges.  It is well acted, especially by Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan and Colin Farrell.

It’s a tremendous survival tale that results in a good, but not great movie.  It comes down to this:  eleven months of trudging through dangerous, unfamiliar territory while suffering from starvation and exposure is really impressive, but not that engaging.

Movies I'm Looking Forward To: Late December Edition

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Now we’re at the time of year when the award-aspiring movies are released just in time for Oscar eligibility.  Trailers and descriptions are on my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page.

We’ll start on December 22 with  Sofia Coppola’s (Lost in Translation) semiautographical Somewhere.  On Christmas Day, the Coen Brothers open their version of True Grit.  The King’s Speech, with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter,  will finally get its wide release.

On the 29th, I’ll be awaiting Another Year, a potential masterpiece by one of my favorite directors, Mike Leigh.  We’ll also have a flashy performance by Javier Bardem in a contemporary Job story – Biutiful. Kevin Spacey will star in a real life story of political corruption in Casino Jack.   Peter Weir (Master and Commander, Picnic at Hanging Rock) will showcase The Way Back.

The year’s final release will be the offbeat un-romance Blue Valentine, with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.  Festival critics loved and hated this film.  The trailer, which depicts the beginning of a relationship that falls apart during the movie, is quite charming.

See my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page for descriptions, image and trailers.

Here’s the trailer for True Grit.

More Movies I'm Looking Forward To

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September is approaching, and so is the Fall movie season, when the studios push their Oscar contenders.  So I have updated my Movies I’m Looking Forward To page with new titles and new trailers.

There are films by Clint Eastwood, Mike Leigh, Terrence Malick, Peter Weir, Sophia Coppola, Julie Taymor and the Coen Brothers.  Two of my favorite lesser-known directors, Suzanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding, Things We Lost in the Fire) of Denmark and Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) of France, have new movies.  Darren Aronofsky will release his newest film after hitting it big with The Wrestler – Black Swan with Natalie Portman.

Helen Mirren will star in three movies: The Debt, Brighton Rock and The Tempest.

The Oscar Bait includes The Town, The Fighter, Another Year, Somewhere, Hereafter, True Grit, Howl, The Way Back and The Tree of Life.  Wall Street: The Money Never Sleeps and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest look to me like the surest Fall hits.   Another Year, The Town, Hereafter and The Way Back look like they will be the best movies.  We should have a better feel for the buzz after Toronto’s film fest in mid-September.

Visit Movies I’m Looking Forward To for more descriptions and trailers.