MovieChat Forums > Picnic at Hanging Rock (1979) Discussion > Other eerie, haunting, patient, atmosphe...

Other eerie, haunting, patient, atmospheric films like this one?

posted 18 years ago by StrawDogBreeder
183 replies | jump to latest

The music, landscapes, and pacing of this film all contribute to its itching mystery at least as much as the plot itself. There's also something about the film (stock) itself that acts as a better medium for this kind of meditative piece. It's a work of art made on a higher quality canvas. Knowhattamean? In descibing its qualities and effects, though, I have to fight a tendency of drifting into abstract, snobbish descriptions. What are some other films that have some of these haunting, patient(?) qualities?

A few I have seen:

1. Solaris (Tarkovsky, not Soderbergh)
2. Stalker (also Tarkovsky)
3. (At least the first half of) The Black Stallion
4. Ring of Bright Water
5. Dead Man (sort of)

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 12 years ago

I thought of A Passage to India frequently while watching Hanging Rock. Granted much of the movie is a period melodrama with familiar themes of race and imperialism. But the movie, even more than Forster's novel, makes overt juxtaposition between Adela's sexuality and India's unique atmosphere. Both films center on a mysterious incident on an ancient mountainside. Both films also use nature in an almost magic-realist way, with landscapes, animals and the weather seeming to interact with the characters.

For an even stranger example, there's Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus.

"What's the matter rednecks? Progress got you down?"

[–] sixpackrt 12 years ago

Not sure if it was in here (too many posts!) but Summerfield was very good. Not as good as Picnic but nonetheless along the same lines...

Good luck finding it on DVD as Umbrella releases that are OOP are valuable to US AUssie buffs such as myself as well as Aussie Aussie movie buffs.

"I've seen things in this city that make Dante's Inferno read like Winnie The Pooh."

[–] Medinensis 12 years ago

Mulholland Drive.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Tomopkin 12 years ago

3 Women (1977)

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

The Mysterious Two (it's available on Youtube by the way)

---
It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] ebossert 11 years ago

These films have varying levels of eeriness, but they are all deliberately paced and have a relaxing and/or hypnotic quality about them.

Antarctica (1983)
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989)
Maborosi (1995)
Charisma (1999)
The Clone Returns Home (2008)
Vital (2004)
Postmen in the Mountains (1999)
Cure (1997)
Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Kairo (2001)
Moving (1993)
Feathers in the Wind (2004)
Angel Dust (1994)
Petal Dance (2013)
Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht (1979)
A Night In Nude: Salvation (2010)
It Was A Faint Dream (1974)
Spider Forest (2004)
Basara: The Princess Goh (1992)
Bugmaster (2006)
Grass Labyrinth (1979)
August in the Water (1995)
Summer Vacation 1999 (1988)
Oishi Man (2008)
Woman of Water (2002)
Rikyu (1989)

Asian Film List
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10058980/boards/profile/

[–] lombano 11 years ago

Just chiming in with some suggestions already mentioned:

-The Virgin Suicides is probably PAHR's nearest relative and was undoubtedly influenced by it, though I'd say PAHR is the better film.
-The Spirit of the Beehive although it deals with children rather than teenagers, is similar in its haunting, atmospheric quality. It's a superb film, deemed by some to be the best Spanish film ever made.

[–] Aunt-Peg 11 years ago

Don't know if anyone has mentioned these but two Robert Altman films come to mind:

Images & 3 Women

[–] rpb140990 11 years ago

I found out about this film after watching Paris, Texas. Same feeling for me

[–] valleycats 11 years ago

In the Company of Wolves

[–] mommygirlgc 11 years ago

"The Machinist" (2004)

I know how you feel, Mister. I hate it when my igneous rocks are even touched!