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Post by dem bones on Dec 6, 2010 19:51:13 GMT
Joan Lindsay - Picnic At Hanging Rock (Penguin, 1975: this edition, 1977) It's a great flick - that's Anne Lambert on the cover - she was stunning as the ethereal Miranda. Evidently she was stalked by a nutter for a while and didn't do much afterwards. In the the early noughties some guy tried to trace everyone associated with the film - he found everyone except Margaret Nelson, who was excellent as the orphan - nobody has been able to find out what happened to her. And Rachel Roberts committed suicide in 1980. On the other hand, Peter Weir and various others have gone on to great things. "It's nasty here. I never thought it would be so nasty or I wouldn't have come."February 14th 1900, and a party consisting of coach driver Mr. Hussey, the teachers Mlle. de Poitiers and Ms. McCraw, and nineteen pupils from Mount Macedon's Appleyard College For Young Ladies, head out in the sweltering heat for their Valentine's Day picnic. The Headmistress, Mrs Appleyard, a widow recently arrived from England, remains behind to supervise the detention of a dense 14 year old. Mrs Appleyard detests valentine's day, and it doesn't help that she's the only person in the school who doesn't receive any cards. Even pudgy, "plain as a frog" Edith Horton, unkindly listed in the cast as "the College dunce", racks up a respectable eleven. Prior to their departure, the Head reminded her charges that the rock is the habitat of venomous snakes and poisonous ants, so they must keep their wits about them and not go wandering off. The first tiny hint that there's something uncanny about Hanging Rock is when both the coachman and Ms. McCraw (Maths) discover their trusty timepieces have stopped at twelve midday. This might be a problem as she who must be obeyed has ordered them to have the girls back in time for supper. Senior pupils Miranda, Marion Quade and Irma Leopold, request of nice young Mlle. de Poitiers (French and Dancing) that they be allowed to follow the trail a little further up the rock as research for their essays, and kind-hearted Miranda (who everybody has a crush on) even invites poor little Edith along with them, though she's sure to be a nuisance. The climb proves exhausting and on reaching a monolithic slab, the girls fall asleep. They're not far from the coach so it shouldn't be difficult for the adults to find them, but ... The senior girls awaken as one, rise to their feet and, without exchanging a word, progress zombie-like up Hanging Rock leaving the now screaming Edith behind. In blind panic, she tears back down the trail, shredding her clothes in the brush. When she reaches the coach, she's an incoherent wreck, now weeping, now laughing hysterically ... Inexplicably, the obsessively fastidious Miss McCraw has also gone missing! Having organised a search of the vicinity to no avail, a dejected Mr. Hussey opts to drive the remaining girls back safely and raise the alarm at the police station. Which brings us to p.51 (of 213) and already Picnic ... is living up to expectation. i like that Joan Lindsay has added footnotes and other seemingly 'authentic' touches to convince the reader this is a factual account of multiple mysterious disappearances, and the characters are extremely well drawn (like her teachers and fellow pupils, i am already smitten by lovely Miranda). As entirely superficial comparisons go, this must rank among my top five worst, but, so help me, the creepy feel of the thing thus far has something of The Willows-in-broad-daylight about it.
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Post by noose on Dec 6, 2010 20:05:49 GMT
I've been watching the recently released blu-ray - and my god it's a stunning, stunning film. Very jealous you have that book Dem - might have to ask Santa for a copy!
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Post by weirdmonger on Dec 6, 2010 22:41:54 GMT
I've been watching the recently released blu-ray - and my god it's a stunning, stunning film. You are not wrong there. And for me very Aickman-like.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 7, 2010 3:52:19 GMT
I'll be interested to hear what you think of the book compared to the film, Dem. The flick is rightly regarded as a classic, but you never hear much about the book - the usual horror references don't mention it at all. And the book didn't become a bestseller until the film appeared in 1975. My copy of the book is a penguin paperback of 1977. The printing history tells me it was first published in Melbourne in 1967, by Chatto and Windus in the UK in the following year, and by Penguin in 1970. Penguin reissued the book in 1975, in which year it was reprinted five times, and three times in 1976. I guess the same thing happened with Carrie, which became a bestseller after Brian De Palmer’s 1976 film. So, you could argue that, like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and Carrie, the impact of the book was to inspire a seminal and influential horror film - and that it didn't do much beyond that. In fact, the book is something of a forgotten or neglected classic of supernatural fiction – it's got real literary merit. And the supernatural element is there, hinted at throughout the book. It provokes a real feeling of mystery and awe without resorting to the sort of gimmickry you get in a lot of horror fiction - same with the film. It's in the dreamlike quality - that quote from Poe at the start, the faces in the rocks, and so on. Also, the book is grounded in themes and subjects that go back a long way in Australian writing and which lend themselves to horror/supernatural stories – the malevolent/sentient bush, kids lost in the outback, the helplessness of transplanted Europeans in an unforgiving environment (witness generations of touring English cricketers ). The English character Michael Fitzhubert is alert to this: “He reminded himself that he was in Australia now: Australia, where anything might happen.” And it's worth mentioing that the book works because the publishers had the excellent sense to remove the final chapter, which came up with a stupid explanation for the whole thing. It was published later in a separate chapbook. Keeping the nature of the disappearances a mystery is central to the success of the book.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2010 10:14:01 GMT
In fact, the book is something of a forgotten or neglected classic of supernatural fiction – it's got real literary merit. And the supernatural element is there, hinted at throughout the book. It provokes a real feeling of mystery and awe without resorting to the sort of gimmickry you get in a lot of horror fiction - same with the film. It's in the dreamlike quality - that quote from Poe at the start, the faces in the rocks, and so on. Also, the book is grounded in themes and subjects that go back a long way in Australian writing and which lend themselves to horror/supernatural stories – the malevolent/sentient bush, kids lost in the outback, the helplessness of transplanted Europeans in an unforgiving environment (witness generations of touring English cricketers ). The English character Michael Fitzhubert is alert to this: “He reminded himself that he was in Australia now: Australia, where anything might happen.” whatever i find to say about it will pale into insignificance against your insightful post, a top notch, proper review in itself! But just prior to starting Picnic ... i was noting down some titles for the usual 'best of year' round-up and before i've even finished it, Joan Lindsay's book has stolen in at the last. Thank goodness the publishers persuaded her to ditch the last chapter and leave it open as nobody seems to have a kind word for the intended denouement which, i gather, was later issued separately? Was dead lucky to land my copy - and on Halloween, of all days. Making for the Zardoz Book fair, i decided to detour via Brick Lane market to see if Mark & I's mate, the man with the blue van, was touting his wares. He was, and i vacuumed up this and Peter Haining's The Hero for 25p each! Trader even wished me all the best at the "fancy dress party" he figured i was off to. So i did my best business of the day before i even made Liverpool Street station!
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