Mitch Matters: Picnic at Hanging Rock has Frankston foundations
THIS very famous Australian film had its roots firmly in Frankston, Peter Mitchell writes.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Australian film industry would not be what it is today were it not for the groundbreaking 1975 feature Picnic at Hanging Rock; directed by then rising star Peter Weir.
And yet the film would never have been made were it not for the book of the same name, published in 1967.
And the book was written at a home on the Mornington Peninsula.
MITCH MATTERS: JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER A SORRENTO SETTLER
MITCH MATTERS: HISTORY LITTERED WITH SHIP WRECKS
A renovated farmhouse called Mulberry Hill; at Langwarrin South is the place where Joan Lindsay sat down at her desk and in the space of less than four weeks, produced a novel that is still considered to be one of Australia’s finest.
Set in 1900, it tells the story of a group of students from a girls boarding school, who vanish while on a Valentine’s Day picnic at Hanging Rock in central Victoria.
The book examines the effects the disappearances have on the school and the local community.
Although the events depicted in the novel are entirely fictional, it is framed as though it is a true story.
Its ambiguous conclusion sparked significant public, critical and scholarly analysis, but Lindsay always said it was written as a mystery and remains a mystery.
Writing was not Joan’s first passion. She enrolled at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in 1916 to study painting.
It was there that she met fellow art student Daryl Lindsay and they married in 1922.
Sir Daryl later became Director of the NGV from 1941 to 1956 and was knighted in 1957 for his services to Australian art. He was also an accomplished painter and print maker.
He assisted in founding the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in 1956 and was its first President.
You don’t have to imagine how this remarkably creative couple lived and worked at Mulberry Hill.
Sir Daryl and Lady Joan bequeathed their house and its contents to the National Trust upon the latter’s death at Frankston in 1984. It is usually open to the public every Sunday from 11am to 4pm, though it pays to check.
MITCH MATTERS: WE MUST BE WATER WISE
MITCH MATTERS: OUR EARLY PIONEERS
Inside you will find a collection of Australian art, Georgian furniture and glassware and Staffordshire ceramics.
And what about that groundbreaking film?
Four years after the novel was published, film producer Pat Lovell read the book and thought it would make a great movie. (I’m of the generation who knew Pat very well in her earlier role on TV as Miss Pat; co-host of the ABC children’ program, Mr Squiggle)
In 1973, Pat optioned the film rights by paying $100.
She hired Peter Weir to direct, and Weir brought in Hal and Jim McElroy to help produce.
Joan Lindsay had final approval over the screen writing adaptation of her book.
The film also helped launch the career of internationally renowned cinematographer Russell Boyd, who said that he created the ethereal look of the picnic simply by placing bridal veil fabric over the camera lens.
Widely credited as a key work in the ‘Australian film renaissance’ of the mid-1970s, the movie starred Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse and Rachel Roberts.
Weir recalled that when the film was first shown in the US, one distributor threw his coffee cup at the screen at the final credits saying, “Great! A mystery without a goddamn solution!”
Despite this, the celluloid version of Joan Lindsay’s work became a critical success.
Twitter: Peter_Mitchell7
Instagram: @peter_mitchell7
Facebook: Peter Mitchell
MORE BY MITCH: