Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - Quotes

A Request to Join the Group

Edith: May I come, too, please?

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The Burden of Time and Memory

Ben: Ah, you wouldn't have the time, I suppose, Miss?

Mademoiselle: Ah, Miranda- your pretty little diamond watch?

Miranda: Don't wear it anymore. Can't stand the ticking above my heart.

Irma: If it were mine, I'd wear it always- even in the bath. Would you Mr. Hussey?

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Desire for Adventure Amidst Loss

Michael: Albert, I want to go back to the rock - and to look for them. Will you come with me?

Albert: Beautiful birds them swans. A week in the bush - they'd be dead by now.

Michael: Then, I'll go alone.

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Deciding to Stay Behind

Albert: We'll have to be going soon. It'll be dark before we get back.

Michael: I'm staying here.

Albert: You're what?

Michael: I'm staying here.

Albert: Here? on the rock?

Michael: Yes.

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Differing Perspectives on Responsibility and Obligation

Albert: As far as I'm concerned, that's the stone end of it.

Michael: Well, that's not the end of it as far as I'm concerned. They may be out there - dying of thirst on - on that infernal rock and - you and I sitting here drinking cold and bloody beer!

Albert: That's were you and me's different. If you want my advice, the sooner you forget the whole thing, the better.

Michael: But I can't forget it! And I never will.

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Crude Commentary on Physical Appearance

Albert: I thought the little fat one was gonna take a bath. Some of them are real lookers! Have a look at the shape of the dark one with the curls. Built like an hourglass. And have a guard the last one, the blonde. Oh, she'd have a decent pair of legs- all the way up to her bum.

Michael: I'd rather you didn't say crude things like that, Albert.

Albert: I say the crude things; you just think them.

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Mystery Surrounds Missing Young Ladies at Rock

Ben: Well Ma'am, the strength of it is this. Three of your young ladies and uh - Miss McCraw are missing - on the rock.

Mrs. Appleyard: What happened?

Ben: Well now, Mrs. Appleyard, that's just the trouble. Nobody knows what happened.

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Recognition of Beauty in Miranda

Mademoiselle: Ah! Now I know.

Miss McCraw: What do you know?

Mademoiselle: I know that Miranda is a Botticelli angel.

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Guidance for a Picnic at Hanging Rock

Mrs. Appleyard: Good morning, girls.

Girls: Good morning, Mrs. Appleyard.

Mrs. Appleyard: Well young ladies, we are indeed fortunate in the weather for our picnic to Hanging Rock. I have instructed Mademoiselle that the day is likely to be warm, you may remove your gloves once the drag has passed through Wood End. We will partake a luncheon at the picnic grounds near the rock. Once again let me remind you the rock itself is extremely dangerous, you are therefore forbidden of any tomboy foolishness in the matter of exploration, even on the lowest slopes. I also wish to remind you, the vicinity is renowned for its venomous snakes and poisonous ants of various species. It is, however, a geological marvel.

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Unanswered Questions and Cautionary Advice

Mr. Whitehead: There's some questions got answers and some haven't.

Mrs. Fitzhubert: Don't go too far... and be careful! There could be snakes.

Michael Fitzhubert: [repeated line] I think I'll just... eh... stretch my legs a bit.

Miss Lumley: I believe Mrs. Appleyard's decided you're not to go to the picnic, Sara. That makes two of us.

Albert Crundall: The old man hired me to look after the horses. I'm buggered if I'm gonna be likin a bloody garden party.

Marion: A surprising number of human beings are without purpose, though it is probable that they are performing some function unknown to themselves.

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A Lesson in Love and Letting Go

Miranda St. Clare: You must learn to love someone else, apart from me, Sara. I won't be here much longer.

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A Call to Look Beyond the Ordinary

Miranda St. Clare: Look! Not down at the ground, Edith. Way up there in the sky.

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The Timing of Life's Moments

Miranda St. Clare: Everything begins and ends at the exactly right time and place.

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Perception and Reality in a Dreamlike State

Miranda St. Clare: [first lines] What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream.

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Disappointment in Nature's Beauty

Edith Horton: Why can't we just sit on this log, and look at the ugly old rock from here? It's nasty here. I never thought it would be so nasty, or I wouldn't have come!

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Poetry Discovery in an Unexpected Place

Edith Horton: Blanche says Sara writes poetry- in the dunny! She found one there on the floor, all about Miranda.

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Isolation in a Vast Expanse

Edith Horton: Except for those people down there, we might be the only living creatures in the whole world.

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A Call for Miranda's Return

Edith Horton: Miranda. Miranda. Miranda, don't go up there! Come back!

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A Reflection on Loss and Innocence

Irma Leopold: Sara reminds me of a little deer Papa brought home once. I looked after it, but it died. Mama always said it was doomed.

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Loss of Memory and Identity

Irma Leopold: I remember - nothing! Nothing! I remember nothing!

Endless Waiting for Connection

Irma Leopold: Waiting a million years, just for us.

Fear and Control in Sara's Experience

Sara Waybourne: [to Minnie] She was afraid I'd run away, so she shaved my head. I bit her arm - it bled. So she painted my head with gentian violet.

Understanding Miranda's Secrets and Foreknowledge

Sara Waybourne: Miranda knows lots of things other people don't know. Secrets. She knew she wouldn't come back.

Geological Time and Eruptions Explained

Miss McCraw: Only a million years ago. Quite a recent eruption really. The rocks all round - Mount Macedon itself - must be all of 350 million years old. Siliceous lava, forced up from deep down below. Soda trachytes extruded in a highly viscous state, building the steep sided mamelons we see in Hanging Rock. And quite young geologically speaking. Barely a million years.

The Folly of Human Pursuits and Nature

Miss McCraw: This we do for pleasure, so that we may shortly be at the mercy of venomous snakes and poisonous ants. How foolish can human creatures be.

The Mystery of Time and Magnetism

Miss McCraw: It stopped at twelve. It never stopped before. Must be something magnetic.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Miss McCraw

Miss McCraw: The mountain comes to Muhammad, and Hanging Rock comes to Mr. Hussey.

A Terrible Event Has Occurred

Mademoiselle de Poitiers: [to Mrs. Appleyard] Madam, something terrible has happened.

A Reflection on Loss and Absence

Mademoiselle de Poitiers: [to Irma] I thought you had gone for ever.

A Farewell from Mademoiselle de Poitiers

Mademoiselle de Poitiers: Au revoir mes enfants. Au revoir. Au revoir.

Impact of Tragedy on School Enrollment

Mrs. Appleyard: [to Miss Lumley] This tragedy is little more than a week old and already three, three mark you, sets of parents have written advising me that their daughters will not be here next term. Now the newspapers have something further to sensationalise about. Newspapers all over the world have headlined our morbid affair Miss Lumley. I mean, you realise that I suppose.