A classical twist to the Ozploitation fad of the 70's, this film has had me mesmerised since I first caught it on TV 20 years ago.
Like a romanticised Victorian chocolate box cover come to life. This film oozes a hazy dreamy style of virginal giggles and stunning outback scenery. Perfectly fitting for a Valentine's picnic.
However like the heart shaped cake, we have a lot of layers to cut through, under that icing thin veneer of Victorian respectability.
This is where the film has fascinated and slightly haunted me all these years. For some this film will seem to go nowhere, without conclusion. For me the myriad of possibilities, social critiques and subliminal supernatural blend into a conclusion for a viewer, but always a mystery to its characters.
Watching the rigid structure and pomp of the British, (mainly), class structure, slowly flake away, as it clashes with the wild outback where nature has its own rules, is a pleasure as its symbolically served up.
Add the hauntingly clashing synth type soundtrack to up our supernatural unnerving, whilst watches stop and people recall bright lights above them for our next layer.
Cutting through to lesbian and gay undertones, which Ive never seen as queer coded, but obviously there, hidden by the characters themselves to avoid social shame.
And finally notions of fate and destiny which contradict or have yet to be connected to scientific and mathematical thought as our philosophical last taste.
All this wrapped in the sad tale of Sarah. Trapped in the walls of the school where she is not wanted or belongs and Mrs Appleyard's hatred of all she represents giving us a, "smashing", ending.
Its the oddities of what really happened to the girls dotted amongst a baffled cast whose time period could barely comprehend where they would have gone that gives me romanticised chills, its the queer secrets and social critique that keeps me interested and its the gorgeously lit lace trimmed look that keeps me visually happy.
This film isn't going to be for everyone, there are a lot of paths, a lot of themes and a lot of symbolic hidden clues as to what's going on, but as our cast never get a definite answer so will some of its viewers - one for people who like a good deconstruction.
Like a romanticised Victorian chocolate box cover come to life. This film oozes a hazy dreamy style of virginal giggles and stunning outback scenery. Perfectly fitting for a Valentine's picnic.
However like the heart shaped cake, we have a lot of layers to cut through, under that icing thin veneer of Victorian respectability.
This is where the film has fascinated and slightly haunted me all these years. For some this film will seem to go nowhere, without conclusion. For me the myriad of possibilities, social critiques and subliminal supernatural blend into a conclusion for a viewer, but always a mystery to its characters.
Watching the rigid structure and pomp of the British, (mainly), class structure, slowly flake away, as it clashes with the wild outback where nature has its own rules, is a pleasure as its symbolically served up.
Add the hauntingly clashing synth type soundtrack to up our supernatural unnerving, whilst watches stop and people recall bright lights above them for our next layer.
Cutting through to lesbian and gay undertones, which Ive never seen as queer coded, but obviously there, hidden by the characters themselves to avoid social shame.
And finally notions of fate and destiny which contradict or have yet to be connected to scientific and mathematical thought as our philosophical last taste.
All this wrapped in the sad tale of Sarah. Trapped in the walls of the school where she is not wanted or belongs and Mrs Appleyard's hatred of all she represents giving us a, "smashing", ending.
Its the oddities of what really happened to the girls dotted amongst a baffled cast whose time period could barely comprehend where they would have gone that gives me romanticised chills, its the queer secrets and social critique that keeps me interested and its the gorgeously lit lace trimmed look that keeps me visually happy.
This film isn't going to be for everyone, there are a lot of paths, a lot of themes and a lot of symbolic hidden clues as to what's going on, but as our cast never get a definite answer so will some of its viewers - one for people who like a good deconstruction.