Blank Check with Griffin & David Picnic at Hanging Rock with Jane Schoenbrun
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Mar 15, 2026 Jane Schoenbrun, filmmaker and director of I Saw the TV Glow, joins to unpack Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. They explore the film’s eerie first act, dreamlike cinematography and frame-rate tricks, casting choices and dubbed voices, themes of repression and Australian dreamtime, plus the pan flute’s haunting score.
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Guest Shared A Dream Film Syllabus
- Jane Schoenbrun created a 'dream film' syllabus listing early surreal and silent-era works (Trip to the Moon, Un Chien Andalou, Meshes of the Afternoon) as influences.
- She described Picnic as part of a lineage reviving oneiric cinema that sidesteps conventional narrative causality.
Author Told Weir She Had An Answer
- Jane and hosts recount Joan Lindsay telling Weir she wouldn't explain whether the story was true but privately told him she knew an answer.
- Lindsay reportedly told Weir 'portal' or that the rock swallowed them, giving him the emotional anchor to make the film ambiguous.
First 30 Minutes Are The Movie’s Engine
- The film hooks viewers by making the vanished girls unbearably alluring in the first 30 minutes, so the disappearance functions as a tonal rug-pull.
- Producers cast for ethereal presence, used visuals and pan-flute music to sell intoxicating atmosphere over exposition.
