Picnic At Hanging Rock Psychology

The film revolves around the mysterious disappearance of 3 girls at Hanging Rock. Yet, although the film revolves around the disappearance, the film is not about the disappearance; the mystery remains unsolved. Instead, the film focuses on how the disappearance affects people associated with it and progress the film from what could have been a thriller or mystery into a deeply psychological drama.
Picnic at Hanging Rock’s dates its events to the year 1900. It sets them shortly before the foundation of the Federation of Australia with the country under English rule. It was filmed at hanging rock in the Macedon ranges in Australia, Victoria. It is also set at a boarding school called, Appleyard College some distance from the beginning town of

Woodend. They used horse and carriages for transportation. Hanging rock has not changed significantly but has become a huge tourist attraction after the film’s success. Picnic at Hanging Rock is of a time long ago and women especially are very different. The costumes in the film were great insights into the life of teenage women in the 1900s. One, we had to wear these ridiculously tight corsets and layers of clothing totally unnecessary to cover everything up. Two, we would of been restricted to learning subjects that we have privilege to today. Most of the subjects they learnt were domestic duties including things like the arts, sewing and poetry. Three, there was definitely no “tomboy foolishness”. There was a lot expected from us at the college and our manner was one of them. We always had to be proper and formal.
Who are the main characters and how do their experiences change them? How do their experiences differ from today? The disappearance remains unexplained, opening up fault lines in the community, worsening insecurities and instigating further tragedy.
Sara’s experience was at the hands of Mrs. Appleyard. She had been tormented and tortured and ripped away from her brother. The orphanage had done horrible things to her (the place she is threatened to return to). The girl she loves Miranda has disappeared and there is no one left she can turn to. Although these attacks on Sara are initially and primarily psychological, Sara’s physical health is affected. Sara becomes weaker and weaker throughout the film and basically becomes bedridden.
Albert (Sara’s brother) Albert’s experience is a little different compared to his sister’s. After the girl’s disappearance his English friend is desperate to go look for them. Albert at this stage couldn’t care a “donkey’s ass”. But throughout the film as the plot thickens he finds Michael traumatized at the rock and one of the missing girls. It’s in this experience that he grows more thoughtful and sympathetic.
Irma’s experience was from another perspective. She was one of the missing girls that was found. At the beginning of the film Irma is a bit of a spoilt and rich English girl at Appleyard College. When they find her she is so traumatized that it lead her to some sort of amnesia. This makes her feel so helpless. As she says goodbye to her peers they attack her with questions and hate. Through all these experiences Irma learns not to take everything she has for granted and changes.
What is the film’s central theme (the main idea or message)? How are we, as the audience, changed by the film? What do we learn? There are 2 prominent themes in the film: secrecy and psychological responses to crisis and confusion.
Everyone seemed to be hiding something, not telling the full story. Everything was not as it seemed. Just as the movie begins with, “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” Mrs. Appleyard always had to look prim, proper and pristine and as the principle of the college there was a lot to be expected. No one knew that within the elegant walls of the college there was corruption where Appleyard would torment and torture poor Sara. No one knew she would be capable of such a thing because of her height in authority and good nature that was shown on the outside. It was also seen in the geological features, like, Hanging Rock. Hanging Rock is a most beautiful rock formation and so magnificent at every angle but as the schoolgirls walked inside there was something dark and bad shown in Edith’s scream of horror. So I think, what we, the audience get from this film is that covers can be deceiving but what we also find is that sometimes you have to tell people what you have done or think or feel not hide behind the shadows of secrecy, because, when you do it can lead to some devastating consequences like your own isolation and unhappiness.
There are many examples of this behavior but the most significant is the relationship between Sara and Mrs.

Appleyard. Mrs. Appleyard has always been tough on Sara to get her to obey. However, after the disappearances, when tension, panic, and uncertainty mount, the stress begins to get to Mrs. Appleyard and her toughness on Sara turns more into torture. Though these characters, Lindsay explores the biggest mystery of all: the way the mind operates under stress and chaos. It drove Mrs. Appleyard so insane she killed Sara. What we the audience learn from this theme is perhaps more curious than what happened so quickly to the women on Hanging Rock is how slowly and unconsciously the mind can

unravel.
Real or Fiction that is the question… It is all dependent on the novel’s historical accuracy. Lindsay helped fuel the mystery surrounding this classic tale by never fully revealing her inspiration. She simply said: "Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year 1900, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important."
Adding to the mystery is that fact that Hanging Rock is a real place in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria.

However, sleuths have pointed out that 14 February 1900, was a Wednesday when in the book it's said to be a Saturday.
Crane shot. A film technique used in the film is when we see the girls for the last time. It's one of the moments in which the director brilliantly weakens the film's realism with a creeping sense of the unexplainable. Edith, the young and geeky member of the group, watches her companions shuffle off like robots, as if they're being led by a supernatural force. The camera switches to a shaky crane shot as she screams – the rest of them never to be seen again. (Play video)
Colours/Lighting. The colour and lighting used in the film help builds atmosphere one detail and lingering shot at a time. The cluttered, shadowy interiors of the school contrast with the open spaces and welcoming sight of Appleyard College and hanging rock but still making neither feel like a safe place. Every moment feels designed to be unsettling, mysterious and full of secrecy which helps try to show what Lindsay was trying to display in her novel.

(Pictures)
Music. The 'Ascent Music’ in the film assists in telling the story very well. It is backed by a ghostly choir to create mysticism of the events. Initially you only hear the mournful sound of a harpsichord. Its use and sound helps evokes the past being an old instrument (just as the film looks back to an earlier era). Gradually the rest of the orchestra joins in until the piece ends with a dramatic flourish just as in the movie where we find Sara dead pushed from her window. (Play music)