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I hope you don't mind a new poster jumping in here, but there's an excellent UK region 2, three disc Special Edition of Picnic At Hanging Rock - which features the new 'director's cut', and the original (superior) theatrical version. The set also includes a third disc packed full with extras, including a genuinely insightful 113 minute 'making of' documentary; in which many of the cast actually say that the new director's cut of Picnic spoils the film, and is markedly inferior to the original, untampered with, version.

Thanks for the welcome, Rick, Tod, and Rakshasa, I appreciate it, and have enjoyed reading your posts for many years now (as a persistent lurker). I’m glad to finally be able to supply some (hopefully), useful info in repayment.

The Second Sight, UK, three disc DVD set of Picnic At Hanging Rock is the only digital release (anywhere in the world) that contains the original theatrical cut of the film. The Second Sight Blu-Ray doesn’t include the original cut – it only has the (to me, vastly inferior) director’s cut. And sadly, it seems that revival festival showings, future releases, TV showings from now on, etc, will only be of the director’s cut, as Peter Weir wants it to stand as the only extant version of the film.

I’ve only watched the director’s cut once, and won’t be bothering again – but Weir’s reasons for it are a desire to ‘streamline’ and speed-up the movie, and to make it more typically filmic in it’s structure (and the lack of this ‘standardisation of plotting was surely one of the strengths of the original version). As far as I can see it’s as a result of having ‘gone Hollywood’ in his thinking.

The director’s cut physically adds nothing to the film, instead, it removes around eight or nine minutes of footage (to detrimental effect) from the final quarter of the film. None of the cuts are minor trims, or slight editing of scenes; rather Weir has totally removed ALL the Irma and Michael scenes after they return from the Rock. So gone are all the scenes where, as the only survivors of Hanging Rock, they are drawn together by the experience as the only people who can hope to understand what they’ve been through – and this unknowable mystery, and Michael’s desperate need to find out what exactly happened to Miranda, then forces Irma away from him.

These scenes were crucial to humanising events on the Rock, and adding an extra layer of tragedy – as even the scarred (and forever changed) survivors of the tragedy are shown to be incomplete, with parts of their psyche permanently left on the Rock – all of which also underscore the frightening power of Hanging Rock, and nature itself. These scenes flowed quite organically within the original version, and their removal takes quite a bit of the heart out of the director’s cut.

Also removed are:

The valentine card/present giving scene.
Albert taking Irma to see the haunted Michael when she is well enough.
Michael visiting Albert in his attic room to share a drink and talk about Irma.
The post-tragedy girls singing Rock Of Ages in the school chapel, with Ingrid breaking down in tears.
A very sinister, and nearly psychotic, Mrs Appleyard at night, going through the dead Sara’s personal possessions, and finding her scrapbook/tribute to Miranda.

Interestingly, in the documentary, both Bruce Smeaton (the film’s composer), and Anne Louise Lambert (Miranda) are heavily critical of the director’s cut (and Anne in particular is quite angry about it – not that any of her scenes are gone - but as a lover of the film, she is fairly outraged). Here’s what they had to say about the director’s cut of Picnic At Hanging Rock…

Bruce Smeaton:

“The first one WAS the director’s cut. Peter (Weir) did exactly as he pleased. So presumably it’s not the film that needed changing, Peter has evolved. I’m not sure whether you should do that or not.”

And responding to Weir’s comments that he wanted to tighten the pacing of the film…

“You could say that the original version was pretty slow, but it was slow in a way we liked.”

Anne Louise Lambert:

“I think when you put something out into the world, and somebody buys it, or watches it, or listens to it or whatever, it becomes theirs. And particularly when a long, long time has passed, and that’s happened over and over and over again. Somebody might have watched that film, particularly if they loved it, you know, hundreds of times, and every scene or moment they have a response to. And in a funny way, it wasn’t his (Weir’s) anymore to fiddle about with – and certainly not to take things away from people.”

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people who are bitterly upset by the loss (in the director’s cut) of certain moments.”

“One of the special moments that I used to love has gone. I loved Irma’s run along the shore of that lake. It used to be, for me, a very releasing moment, and I needed it… and it’s not there any more.”

You will indeed Rakshasa. Happy viewing.

One of the oddest things in the documentary is that Peter Weir says that he personally doesn't believe in director's cuts...