Australia's "Picnic under the Cliff", which can be compared with Antonioni's "Adventure" (1960), is also about the disappearance of a man's wife in the Mediterranean; "Zoom" (1967) Presents a mystery that has never been solved; and David Lean’s "A Trip to India" based on Foster's novel, filmed in 1984, reveals that a woman is repressed inwardly after being inspired by external forces. Sexual hysteria broke out and became the driving force for the second half of the film.
Perhaps a reasonable explanation is: modern people can no longer understand the sexual concept of Victorians, so they can't fully understand the disturbing mysterious events that happened in the ancient land.
Therefore, this film cannot be watched as a "thriller/suspense/horror" movie. It is incomprehensible. The audience thinks they are playing a maze game, always thinking about the good and the bad!
Based on the 1967 novel by Joan Leslie, the novel is fictitious. The story takes place in a residential school for girls in Australia in 1900. At that time, British Christian culture was gradually infiltrating the lives of Australians, arousing the desire of girls to get rid of the shackles in their hearts. The idea of pursuing freedom is spreading slowly, and the sexual impulses and fantasies sprouted in the hearts of girls are spreading and expanding rapidly!
Think of the description of girls wearing corsets at the beginning. The more suppressed, the more irrepressible the hormone! The author himself is not a figure of the Victorian era, but writers can rely on historical narrative or rich imagination to get creative inspiration!
Therefore, this film or book is a psychological description, an external manifestation of the inner desires of the girls in that era.
It's just a drawing of a daydream in the form of a story with attractive means!
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