Quote:
Desire as persistent and intense as the sunshine on a bright summer day is what teases out madness in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. The objects, or goals, of these desires are disparate, though they all spiral out following the 1900 disappearance of three young women and a teacher from the Appleyard School during a trip to the small titular ridge on St. Valentine’s Day. The vanishing of these women is central to the plot, but Weir’s film is never as fascinated with the reasons for this absence as it is with the characters left in its inexplicable wake. Cliff Green’s script, adapted from Joan Lindsay’s novel of the same name, never goes about teasing what could have happened to these women at Hanging Rock, instead focusing on the wild cupidity that erupts in the surrounding community in reaction to the mystery.

For many of the characters, the loss of Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert), a popular student at Appleyard, is what’s most potently felt, due to both her beauty and her ethereal otherness, as if she was always connected to some intangible beyond, even before evaporating into thin air. Right before Miranda and three of her classmates go wandering up Hanging Rock, their mistress, Mademoiselle de Poitiers (Helen Morse), eerily declares that Miranda is a Botticelli angel. One would likely assume that it’s merely a reference to her physical beauty, but she’s also alluding to Miranda as a figment of imagination, and Weir makes the interplay and conflict seen in the void between proven fact and imagination part and parcel of this incomparable psychological thriller.

This would match with Lindsay’s thinking, as the writer prefaces her novel with a short but pointed statement about her apathy in discerning the difference between fact and fiction. And as the film goes on, there’s an increasing displeasure in the acts of those who stunt creation and fantasy in the name of history and rules, which are here wielded as weapons of restraint by the Appleyard School. When Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) bans one student, Sara (Margaret Nelson), from the picnic, she demands she read over a few classical poems, which Sara ignores in favor of writing her own poetry, which she’s quickly reprimanded for. Sara, an orphan, eventually falls victim to a familiar institutional rule, as her lack of tuition becomes reason enough for Mrs. Appleyard to throw her out on the street, without money or support.

Through Sara’s sad end, and the school’s reaction to the return of Irma (Karen Robson), one of the disappeared young women, Weir and Green suggest that an obsession with reason and logic, and adherence to the rigid contours of history and fact, brings about inhumanity and decidedly unreasonable behavior. Whatever happened to the missing young women on Hanging Rock is effectively haunting and strange, but it’s ultimately not nearly as bewildering as the way the other schoolgirls (and teachers) turn on Irma, who’s tied up and persecuted for information by her classmates. Miranda’s disappearance brings about manic self-doubt, regret, paranoia, and anger in the students, but also stirs up dark feelings in Appleyard’s neighbors. In the case of Michael Fitzhubert (Dominic Guard), a young privileged man who merely gazed at Miranda from afar while dining with his parents, a crusade to find Miranda leaves him catatonic and only serves to violently rouse the students at Appleyard even further.

It’s not much of a surprise then that Picnic at Hanging Rock ends with the unseen suicide of Mrs. Appleyard, an unmovable symbol of order and protocol, corrupted by power over allowances, conduct, and education. Even as human desire (for total knowledge, possession, sex, and even oblivion) brings about very real horrors in life, however, Weir doesn’t soften the rampant fear of death and the beyond. His sun-hued, bucolic images, sculpted by music by Bruce Smeaton, Gheorghe Zamfir, and Marcel Cellier, along with Bach, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky, convey nature’s eerie, ambivalent power over all. It’s the characters’ ceaseless need to fully understand, outsmart, and undermine nature’s sway that drives them into fervor and, often enough, leads them to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Peter Weir - (1975) Picnic at Hanging Rock.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 47mn
Size: 	2.10 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x576 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 358 Kbps
BPP: 	0.167
Audio
#1:  	English 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/F6833875CC6530B/Peter_Weir_-_(1975)_Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock.mkv
or
https://nitro.download/view/5478F96C3F671B5/Peter_Weir_-_(1975)_Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/00B0D7035576513/Peter_Weir_-_(1975)_Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/F8EA7A1F436134D/Peter_Weir_-_(1975)_Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock.part3.rar

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Peter Weir – Picnic at Hanging Rock [Director’s Cut] (1975) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Guests arrive at an expensive private guest house on a remote island near Sydney. The guest house and weird activities, like theatre sports and orienteering, are run by a leery eccentric. One of the guests is a loner and the only way to fit in with the crowd is to participate in the questionable events. Some of the games border between comedy and horror – like the murder mystery.

1.22GB | 49m 52s | 768×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/33BED0539FE5379/Homesdale_(1971)_–_Peter_Weir.mkv
or
https://fikper.com/j4SXnLopPv/Homesdale_(1971)_–_Peter_Weir.mkv.html

Language:English
Subtitles:None

The post Peter Weir – Homesdale (1971) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This short film documents Australian composer Richard Meale’s homage to the young French poet, Arthur Rimbaud. Meale composed a music piece for woodwind, percussion and strings which he titled “Incredible Floridas”. This music is based on the poetry of the Frenchman, which many may find a little obscure.

194MB | 11m 45s | 720×572 | mkv

https://fikper.com/5iIzq8nqe4/Incredible_Floridas_(Peter_Weir_1972).mkv.html
or
https://nitro.download/view/4707EA6ED09403D/Incredible_Floridas_(Peter_Weir_1972).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Peter Weir – Incredible Floridas (1972) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Nominally a supernatural thriller, Peter Weir’s third feature resonates with the director’s underlying fascination with the collision between the modern, rational world and the primordial mysteries of older belief systems. In The Last Wave, the keys to an enigmatic murder, as well as baffling disturbances in the weather, are gradually revealed to an Australian lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) within the shadowy, nomadic culture of aborigines living in and around Sydney who until now were presumed to be assimilated into its modern–and white–social fabric. In the process, Weir brings us toward an apocalyptic climax that is foreshadowed with a haunting series of events that cohere around water imagery, from an improbable drowning on dry land to downpours from cloudless skies, sudden hailstorms on the sere Australian land, and ghostly invasions of frogs.

The film’s power (as well as what skeptics might regard as its pretension) emanates from Weir’s stately, deliberate pace. Violating most of the conventions of suspense, he unravels his mystery with an unsettling calm underscored by its sparse soundtrack, which replaces conventional orchestral cues with the low, brooding rattle and hum of the didgeridoo. Instead of sudden camera movements or quick cuts, Weir circles his subjects almost diffidently. The stillness of that approach only amplifies the mounting unease Chamberlain’s character, David Burton, feels as he steps for the first time beyond the bland safety of his privileged life and into the mystical world of the native Australians. Taking on the defense of the aborigines suspected of murdering the drowned man through tribal magic, his own beliefs are tested by the suspects’ evident, intuitive connections to nature.

Chamberlain’s Anglicized performance seems fussy and epicene, which only heightens the quiet intensity and watchful grace conveyed by the two aborigines, Chris Lee (David Gulpilil) and the shaman, Charlie (Nandjiwarra Amagula), who give Burton his first glimpse of their culture’s “dreamtime” and the potent symbolism it contains.

2.60GB | 1h 45m | 1024×554 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/3E0258DA08B4175/The.Last.Wave.1977.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264.mkv

Language(s):English, Italian, Aboriginal
Subtitles:English

The post Peter Weir – The Last Wave (1977) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A small town in rural Australia (Paris) makes its living by causing car accidents and salvaging any valuables from the wrecks. Into this town come brothers Arthur and George. George is killed when the Parisians cause their car to crash, but Arthur survives and is brought into the community as an orderly at the hospital. But Paris is not problem free. Not only do the Parisians have to be careful of outsiders (such as insurance investigators), but they also have to cope with the young people of the town who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

2.52GB | 1 h 27 min | 1024×434 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/9BBF3D283A2E144/The.Cars.That.Ate.Paris.1974.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:German (muxed)

The post Peter Weir – The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

From Reel Film Reviews:
The Mosquito Coast, based on the novel by Paul Theroux, manages to do the impossible: It makes Harrison Ford come off as a jerk. But despite this (or maybe because of this), The Mosquito Coast is a compelling little movie.

Ford stars as Allie, a brilliant inventor who’s never really put his talents to good use. He spends much of his time lamenting the current state of America, which is chock full of fast food joints and welfare leeches. Along with his wife and three kids, he lives a fairly comfortable life – taking odd jobs repairing things. In his spare time, he just happens to invent things like a machine that can instantly make ice using fire as fuel. But one day, he gets sick of the American way of life and convinces his family to move to a place called the Mosquito Coast somewhere in South America. He’s actually purchased a small area of land in that vicinity, which basically makes him mayor with a constituency of around 20 people. Allie and family proceed to turn the villagers lives upside down, initially for the better (they build quite an impressive little town, complete with a gigantic ice-making machine), but eventually, Allie begins to relish the power a bit too much and it’s all downhill from there.

It really is an intriguing concept, and Ford’s never been better. Though he tends to be the sort of actor that basically plays himself in every movie, here he shows a side of himself we’ve never seen before – the obnoxious side. This isn’t a guy that you’d want to know in real life, and if you did know him, you’d spend a lot of time trying to stay out of his way. He spouts lengthy diatribes on the way he thinks the world should be, which basically consists of as little government intervention as possible and no big companies. So, when he moves his family to this remote spot, he figures he’s going to have it made in the shade. It’s a testament to Ford’s talent that we actually care what happens to him, because in a lesser actor’s hands, we’d be hoping that some cannibalistic natives would eat him.

Director Peter Weir doesn’t exactly keep the pace brisk, but that works here. We need time to get used to Allie before we’re thrust into the congo, and Weir’s steady direction allows for that. Also worth mentioning is River Phoenix’s work as Allie’s loyal but skeptical son. As was the case in Stand by Me, Phoenix was an exceptionally capable young actor. In The Mosquito Coast, he really had his work cut out for him playing this conflicted kid but he certainly proved he could hold his own against a heavyweight like Harrison Ford.

The Mosquito Coast is just the sort of intelligent, risky fare that’s sorely missing from today’s theaters. Check it out.

http://nitroflare.com/view/6E486E7BA78BA4B/The_Mosquito_Coast.mkv

Language(s):English, Spanish
Subtitles:English

The post Peter Weir – The Mosquito Coast (1986) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Peter Weir Short Film Collection is a wonderful collection of some early works of this great Australian director, at a time when the local film industry was beginning to take great strides forward. These films may not appeal to the average mainstream film viewer, but if you’re keen to view the rarely seen beginnings of Peter Weir’s career, or you are a fan of early Australian cinema, then this will be an asset to your collection.

Reading through the current filmography of Weir’s impressive body of work, it’s safe to say that not many filmmakers could match the level of consistent quality in their work. From these humble beginnings, Peter Weir has firmly established himself as one of world’s finest film directors.

Three To Go: Michael (29:29) 1969 – B&W

This film, Michael, is one part of a trilogy of stories, combined into a film entitled Three To Go . The other two stories, “Judy” and “Toula”, were both directed by Brian Hannant. The Peter Weir instalment, Michael, centres on the problems of young Australian people in a time of rebellion and confusion, due mainly to the war in Vietnam and changing social issues. The film opens with an impressive fantasy scene, involving civil war in the streets of Sydney.

Michael (Matthew Burton), lives with his parents in a comfortable middle class family home. However, there is a rebellious side to Michael, which threatens to burst out. He falls under the influence of activist Grahame (Grahame Bond), and begins to spend time with him and his group of friends. As much as Michael tries to fit in with the group, his middle class family ties ultimately hold him back from his revolutionary dreams.

Three Directions In Pop Music (10:18) 1972 – Colour

This is an interesting snapshot of some Australian music artists of the early seventies, all quite different in styles. The first artist featured is Wendy Saddington and Teardrop, who combined an element of mime with their music. The second featured artist is jug music band The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. Third is the heavier and psychedelic rock music of Indelible Murtceps.

Incredible Floridas (11:45) 1972 – Colour

This short film documents Australian composer Richard Meale’s homage to the young French poet, Arthur Rimbaud. Meale composed a music piece for woodwind, percussion and strings which he titled “Incredible Floridas”. This music is based on the poetry of the Frenchman, which many may find a little obscure.

Homesdale (47:54) 1971 – B&W –

Homesdale is a black comedy with a twist. It was also the last film in which Peter Weir “the actor” appears in a small cameo role.

Many elements in this film recur with much more polish in his later films, and in particular there is a very similar sense of underlying menace and dread in Weir’s first feature film, The Cars That Ate Paris.

Guests arrive to spend the weekend at the Homesdale Hunting Lodge. This is an isolated summer lodge, staffed by people who look more like mental hospital staff. All this is overseen by the bizarre and creepy lodge director, who seems to know everything about his guests. The purpose of the lodge is to help fulfil the secret fantasies and desires of the guests, all of whom have different reasons for being there.

The guests include Mr Vaughan (Barry Donely), Mr Levy (James Lear), Mrs Sharpe (Doreen Warburton), Miss Greenoak (Kate Fitzpatrick), Mr Kevin (Grahame Bond) and most interesting of all, Mr Malfrey (Geoff Malone).

All the characters have some element of interest to their personalities except Mr Malfrey. He is particularly introverted, much to the frustration of the director and his staff. As all the guests participate in the bizarre games and situations concocted by the staff, Mr Malfrey fails to make an impression. When he begins to receive the taunts of Mr Kevin, a more sinister and disturbing side of Mr Malfrey’s personality starts to emerge.

https://nitro.download/view/C6730894A6B80BA/Peter.Weir-3.to.Go.Michael.(1969).DVDRip.XviD-KG.avi
https://nitro.download/view/20527BA2AA9E68F/Peter.Weir-Homesdale.(1971).DVDRip.XviD-KG.avi
https://nitro.download/view/546F53BAA4C1B29/Peter.Weir-Incredible.Floridas.(1972).DVDRip.XviD-KG.avi
https://nitro.download/view/5F03321F574D859/Peter.Weir-Three.Directions.in.Australian.Pop.Music.(1972).DVDRip.XviD-KG.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Peter Weir – Peter Weir Short Film Collection (1969 – 1972) first appeared on Cinema of the World.