a review of 悬崖上的野餐

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a very obvious inspiration for Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (1999). As there was a revival of Victorian / Pre-Raphaelite romanticism in the 1970s, the vintage wardrobes, decors and props are flawlessly executed. I liked the poetic, romantic and at times slightly surreal and spooky atmosphere, shot in dreamy 1970s photography à la David Hamilton, larded with lens flares and glowy sun rim lighting. On a negative note, the acting and narration style has a reasonably high Hallmark TV flick level, and the film is too slow and lengthy. Particularly the second half starts to drag, ruminating the events of the first half.