and they wonder why they climbed hanging rock without corsets.it's hard to pick out the scene of an essentially inscrutable film but one thing that's stuck with me is the brief introduction of the fitzhuberts, a wealthy couple with a rather sallow nephew. we're introduced to them sitting at the bottom of hanging rock, their parasols and lacy tables meant to protect them from mother nature. their valet points out that they always eat lunch too early. it's not like they have anything else to do.wealthy women and rich boys wander through hanging rock and seem to accept that it will open for them, because their money has paved the way for so much else of their life. they do not accept the wilderness so much as arrogantly trample through it. the three girls were warned of the dangers and they disappear because they laughed it off. a boy is cautioned that he shouldn't go looking for them and he nearly dies.class seems to permeate the movie like a rancid fog. the headmistress treats an orphan girl like she's an ant under her shoe, a fly buzzing around the picnic- just another inconvenience to get rid of. her roommate blithely dismisses this girl and tells her to learn to love someone else, because they will not be in the same worlds for long. had a poor young women disappeared, would the entire community care? or was it because they were angels in flowery dresses with perfect smiles?with class comes repression. the boys who watch the girls cross the creek seem more and more predatory as i think of them. one of the girls who vanishes is a swan but yet, when he thinks of her, he thinks of the blonde tresses and long legs. the orphan girl is in love with her roommate and she knows this is wrong because girls should not love other girls in a passionate way. young women throng around the only survivor and scream at her, because they have been told to stuff it inside and dance listlessly for their teacher.how sweltering it must all be. how limited and narrow. how presumptuous to think your money and your manners and your dresses and your stoic silence will save you against the power of hanging rock.
