This is a really good idea of the movie.
Lots of nice Australian nature and females being passive and pretty.
Actually several times. It's after all a girls school with female teachers.
V Mako Mori Test
It's really hard to tell, because there aren't many story arches at all.
V Sexy Lamp Test
When it comes to some characters, then with others, no. Miranda sure doesn't pass this test. Though it should be a special fairy sexy lamp with some post-its on it.
V Media Tests and “The Crystal Gems” Test
OK... four major female characters... Who would that be?
I suppose Mlle. de Poitiers can be considered one of the main characters.
I suppose Sarah.
Mrs Appleyard
and... let's take Edith.
They all pass Bechdel test, talking about not men with another female character.
Mademoiselle talks with a lot of other women, about things not men. Sarah speaks with various teachers about things. Mrs. Appleyard talks with teachers and Sarah. Edith speaks with the other girls.
I suppose they all pass the Mako Mori test, too. None of these is supporting a man. Mademoiselle is trying to understand what happened and support the girls, Sarah loved Miranda (who didn't), mrs. Appleyard tries to run the school and then she tries to save it, in vain. Edith had the traumatic experience of seeing how the girls went missing, and couldn't do anything about it. I mean, none of them is a story arch to speak about, they are not well told, nor do we get enough information about what happened before or after - but I suppose they are there.
And I suppose they all pass the Sexy Lamp test, as well.
But is this a feminist movie? HELL NO! Is it a decent representation of women? No.
image from Media Tests and “The Crystal Gems” Test
X It doesn't get F-Rating
X Sphinx Test
No. The females are stereotypical and passive, not one of them does anything to drive the story, except perhaps Miranda, Marion and Irma. But, they are removed from the story during the first half an hour. The most active thing anyone of them does is a suicide. And, come on...? Yeah, exactly.
Frankly, when I read the question "Is there a woman driving the action?" my answer was "what action?" Then I remembered all the guys doing things. Actively trying to find the girls, and other stuffs.
Also "Is the character compelling, complex and multidimensional?" Can't say they are. Any of them. I mean, there's PROMISE. The series might do better. The movie just tries to tell several stories and manages to tell none. Except that "some girls went missing and were never found. And a lot of people got hissyfits. The end."
94% at Rotten Tomatoes, 7.6 at IMDb
X The Feldman Score: 0
I'd love to hear from you if you think I'm not being fair. I really can't see whose story this is. Mademoiselle de Poitiers? Michael? Sarah? Mrs. Appleyard? Sergeant Pumpher? Who knows? I don't think even the manuscript writer or director knew. So I can't say there is a female protagonist. I don't even know there is a protagonist. None of the women determines the story's outcome, that's for sure. And they are all being stereotyped, so no points for that, either.
X Furiosa Test
I can't imagine it causes anyone any upset at all. Or anything else.
V The Roxane Gay Test
Actually I think this movie passes. Even though the women are stereotypical and passive, they are still intelligent women. They are not sidekicks, romantic interest or bit players. They have stories worth telling. I wish someone had told them. Now, there are women who don't compromise their sanity or common sense for love. I would say Sarah is romantically in love with Miranda, and she is not presented as "the queer person". She has her own personality, and she seems to be a wonderful, intelligent human being, and that's why I wish they had told more about her. Her brother seems also to be one of the sanest, smartest people in the movie. Her situation is at least somewhat realistic, even though it has not been explained how an orphan girl from orphanage gets a rich patron while her big brother has to go into service. The women are human beings.
The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows
X Gender Balance - Gender Representation:
It is fascinating, because at first sight it looks like most of the characters are female.
Cast: 27 F / 10 M
When watching the movie, it turns out that it's 11 speaking roles for women and 9 for men. About 50/50. So far so good.
But - In the first third of the movie, most words are spoken by a female. Last two thirds it's by a male.
The women speak of nothing important. It's just wishy-washy airy-fairy romantic philosophic babble. All the girls speak with this airy, light, high voice, dreamily, poetically, so artistic and fairy dovey The only one of the girls who doesn't speak like this is Edith. She isn't ethereal and beautiful.
The female speaking roles went to the headmistress, three teachers, 2 maids, the policeman's wife, the rich boy's mom and students. Not one of these people said anything worth hearing, except when they told a man what he wanted to know.
The male speaking roles went to the coach, the rich boy and Sarah's brother, their servant. Policemen. Doctor. The school's gardener and handyman. The rich boy's dad. The gardener found Sarah's body. The handyman was school's maid's lover or husband or something. We just know they slept together. Probably not husband, because maid's weren't allowed to marry.
Now, also, when the group came home from the picnic, all the girls and the teacher responsible for the group vanished inside in a cloud of caring servants, the coach, the only man who was there, had to tell the headmistress what had happened. Mademoiselle couldn't. A man had to do it.
I mean, who the heck leaves the responsibility to an airhead like that? No wonder the school went to hell.
Which BTW is another thing that bothered me. When things go bad, she starts drinking and her hairdo, which she seems to even sleep in, starts disheveling. Geesh. It's obvious she's a bitch, because, hey, she's the headmaster, that's what power does to women. And because she's a woman, she can't handle it when things start going wrong.
There is no narrator. The movie starts with a female voice reading a poem. The movie ends with a male voice reading a newspaper article. Typical, huh.
X The Uphold Test
X The Rees Davies Test
X The White Test
X The Hagen Test
Most one-scene roles went to men.
Most of the crowd were male.
When showing the crowd, men were active, women were just standing or sitting or lounging. Or doing domestic stuff, like serving tea.
V The Koeze-Dottle Test
I suppose it passes. There were a lot of schoolgirls.
XGender Freedom:
Boys and girls do not get to do the same things. Everyone has a very stereotypical, traditional gender role.
X The Peirce Test
I really can't tell who's a protagonist or antagonist in this movie. But - dramatic action? Understandable motives, desires and actions? Not really.
X The Villarreal Test
The movie opens showing these teenaged girls in their underwear, like members of some cult or something. Later we find out that it indeed is a cult. Miranda cult.
Miranda tells her best friend that she would like to introduce her to her family, but Sarah has to find someone else to love, because Miranda won't be around for long. Er... what? Sarah obviously loves Miranda, she worships her, there might even be lesbian undertones here. Or she just really loves her, like everyone else. Miranda doesn't seem to care about anything or anyone. She's just beautiful and loved and adored by everyone, she's SO beautiful!
And then a teacher tells Sarah that she may not go, and that the teacher may not go either. And then we are shown Mademoiselle, in that she shows her engagement ring to a group of girls. And then we see the headmistress, who seems to be a stereotypical dragon.
So, no, I don't think this movie passes.
X The Landau Test
Two primary female characters end up dead, three end up missing, presumably dead, and one causes serious plot problems to a male character. Doesn't pass.
X The Tauriel Test
X The Willis Test
Come on. Can you imagine a girl fall for this fairy like young man she sees in the forest, so much so, that when he disappears in a mountain, she can't sleep until he is found and hallucinates about him beckoning her to follow him? It's so hard I keep writing "he" when I should write "she".
Can you imagine boys idolizing a male teacher and wanting to admire his engagement ring?
Can you imagine a boys' school headmaster loose it when some students go missing and people start saying their son won't attend the school any more?
Can you imagine all the women of the town go searching for the missing people and all the men stay at home sewing and cooking?
No.
So, no pass.
It would be fun, though.
"almost all female characters were stereotypes, often portrayed as romantic, frail and concerned about their appearance."
Could be about this movie.
X the MacGyver Test
X the Raleigh Becket Test
Gender Safety:
Also,
"With the all important central parts cast he (Peter Weir) conducted auditions across Australia for young girls to fill the secondary role of the school girls. Finding the professional young actors he auditioned too modern and worldly looking, he went to great pains to find unknowns who matched his perception of upper class girls of the Victorian era as being unworldly and innocent. Their ability to act irrelevant, he could tailor scenes to fit their individual strengths. However using amateurs meant their dialogue had to be kept to a bare minimum, looking pretty on camera eating cake. Sitting to attention in a classroom or prancing down stairs in a flowing muslin dress was one thing but delivering believable lines is somewhere professionalism comes in and it was decided to dub the voices of professional actors over those of the amateurs."
Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Unseen Voices
Mrs Appleyard 48
McCrab 51
Mademoiselle 28
Miranda 20
Sara unknown, but probably around 20
Michael 19
Albert 24
Irma 18
I suppose people are being treated respectfully, except for the fat girl. She is being bullied, mocked, insulted and slapped. And she is presented in a way that she "deserves" all that.
Now, the teacher responsible for this trip is not the one in red. It's the one in white, first row, left, having an umbrella. Mademoiselle de Poitiers. She has just been engaged. We get to see her diamond ring. The girls like her. She's just as dumb as they are, and as pretty and ethereal.
When the girls are gathering for the picnic, they come down the stairs all in white and chattering enthusiastically - and then we see the group of turkeys, all in white and chattering, on the lawn.
Yeah... this is a real feminist pearl.
And sexualisation? Sure.
Here's the 18 years old Karen Robson's butt in bloomers in a totally unnecessary washing scene that lasted quite some time...
Miranda poses when she's crossing the brook... she lifts her skirt higher than necessary and then leaps like a ballet dancer, letting go of her skirt, making it obvious that she was supposed to show off her legs to possible viewers, which she was supposed to be totally unaware of, but Michael saw enough and close enough, to fall ineradicable in love with her. Oh, Dulcinea...
And there's more. The girl takes off her stocking very slowly and sensually, and then caresses herself
Social Justice and Equality:
Are you kidding me? Saint Miranda the Angel of Botticelli went missing, everyone is out of their minds. Who has time for social justice and equality?
Everybody is white and able-bodied, and the possibly lesbian character might not be, because no-one says anything. And she kills herself in the end, so good riddance.
No colored people in sight. On the contrary, the "hero" had to be imported from England to "rescue" the girls, even though he only manages to cause the rescue of one of the girls.
Some eyeglasses.
Perhaps Sarah and Miranda were lovers. Not known.
Possibly ms McCrab and mrs Appleyard were.
There were some servants, but they all stayed very nicely put. Not even Albert, who takes some liberties with Michael, step outside the box. He obeys and is loyal, in spite of the teasing.
X Representation test: C
It could have performed better if we knew who the protagonist of this story is.
X Kent test
X Aila test
X The Waithe Test
X The Ko Test
X The Villalobos Test
Picnic at Hanging Rock from Tropes
Picnic at Hanging Rock: review - Feministing
Picnic At Hanging Rock: An Analytical Synopsis
"Upon a third viewing, I realized that Picnic At Hanging Rock is a deeply feminist work"
No, it's not
"they're seen through the male gaze within the film frequently"
How is this feminist? The fact that they are seen through the male gaze isn't questioned at all.
"The girls are either subjected to other's fantasies (without being aware of it) or to the control and authority of authoritarian figures over them."
Nobody shows any objection to this. The only one, Sara, who says she can't learn a poem because it doesn't make any sense, is punished for it, and she takes it. She doesn't learn the poem, but she is meekly accepting it. Nothing to do anything about.
"Those in power regard the young women as things to be ignored, things that don't yet matter."
And, again, no-one objects in any way.
"Even if young girls sometimes don't know quite yet what they want, they do have ideas and strong opinions worthy of being valued and respected."
And no-one shows any interest of their opinions.
"causing them to rebel"
No-one rebels
"out-of-control, misunderstood teen rebel"
No-one rebels.
"the respect they receive from her"
What respect?
" Picnic authentically depicts what young women want. They are often ware that they are too young to go without adult supervision entirely, but that's not their internal battle. Young women desire sizable freedom and privacy."
The girls ask if they may go, and they are allowed to go, if they don't go too far. They do, and get punished.
Sara is constantly under supervision. There's always someone in her room with her. She sits on the stairs and is told to go to her room. And she goes. Not a word of objection. Not a word of rebelling. Obedience, meek, submissive. Good girl.
"Moreover, they want to feel like they have a voice that matters and that is being listened to and taken as seriously as an adult's."
No-one listens to them, no-one takes them seriously, their voice doesn't matter in any way.
"In sexual matters, the girls are seen as adults and sexually mature women. The girls-- some more than others-- are aware of this as well."
Do they? How? To me they seem to be very unaware of their own sexuality. They don't even talk boys. It's boys who talk about them. Irma's butt, Miranda's lift hem, who ever it is's stocking striptease, are all done unknown of the observator. All the sexualisation is done by the director for the audience. The girls aren't aware of it.
"One of the girls, Miranda, possesses a magnetic beauty and is very aware of it. She's so beautiful that even women are utterly captivated; because of this ability, Miranda is allowed more freedom than the other girls."
"Ability"? She's an otherwordly angel, so BEAUTIFUL no-one can resists her. But, oh, she's so innocent. The perfect Victorian otherwordly, innocent Pre-Raphaelite beauty of Peter Weir's imagination.
This is not a feminist ideal, on the contrary.
"It's exactly that ability (captivating, supernatural beauty?) that female sexuality supposedly possesses that is feared by some people and thus repressed."
What? Female sexuality is repressed to keep women faithful to their husbands. Husbands what to be sure of that the children they are raising as their own really are their own. Wives should hate sex and only have sex to reproduce. Whores should love sex and want to have sex with any dick that is available, which is why you can't really rape a woman. Decent wives are protected by their husbands and stay at home, unavailable, if you can lay your hands on a woman, she is a whore and wants to be fucked.
"It's a hot day, and soon, the restricting clothes fly off and they are in their underwear."
No. They are wearing white summer dresses. They take off their shoes and stockings because it's so hot. It's Peter Weir who makes a show of stocking stripping and naked female leg and thigh. That's sexualising and objectifying and that is not empowering feminism for young women.
"Perhaps most mysterious of all is that one of the girls announced that she was not going to come back"
That's more like explaining the mystery. Sounds more like they had agreed to meet someone and elope. They didn't want Edith to come with them.
"All in all, however, she is just a young woman possessing an extreme sexual confidence."
And, what, I pray, do you base this claim on? She hasn't expressed any sexuality to anyone. She has just been basking on the admiration of her beauty. She doesn't seem to have any other qualities.
"The girls are frequently observed from a distance and with a certain sensuality. In the eyes of the men that encounter them, they are seen as almost fairytale-like creatures. But they are real human beings that can, in fact, feel, think, and act for themselves. The director deeply respects that. He crawls into the psychology of the girls and shows us their emotions and their conversations"
Oh? All I saw was these fairies singing platitudes. There were no discussions at all.
"Both the novel and the film hint that the whole tragedy could have been avoided if they had been allowed freedom."
Ah, I see. You read the book. Now, the movie says nothing of the kind. On the contrary. The movie says that BECAUSE they were allowed some freedom, HORRRRRIBLE things happened. They were being punished for misusing their freedom. Their schoolmates and teachers were punished. The school was closed, as the consequence of these girls been given freedom and they - of course, being airhead teenaged girls - misused it and condemned their whole community into perdition.
"Their disappearance could even have been a desperate act of revenge and rebellion against the oppression of the 1900s."
Again, that's your interpretation. The movie doesn't even imply anything of the kind. The red cloud, the fact that Miranda, Marion and Irma just walk into the mountain, not responding to Edith's desperate attempts to stop them, ignoring her terrible scream, and miss McCraw wandering off WITHOUT HER SKIRT - there was obviously something supernatural that made them do things without knowing what they were doing, and miss McCraw being a middle-aged, respectable, unmarried SCIENCE teacher, she was an example of an adult, independent, intelligent, logically thinking woman who should have been well prepared to be allowed to roam the countryside on her own. No, it was something supernatural. It almost got the man, too, but he, being a man, resisted.
No, this movie isn't feminist at all.
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