MovieChat Forums > Picnic at Hanging Rock (1979) Discussion > The moving plant thing

The moving plant thing

posted 16 years ago by How-Now-Brown-Cow
9 replies | jump to latest

That's the one thing in the film I didn't truly understand.

GARDENER (forgotten the name): Did you know, lad, there are some plants that can move?

TOM: No.

Gardener walks over to plant and strokes the leaves. They fold up. Tom looks befuddled. Gardener laughs evilly. Cut to plant moving strangely.

What on earth is that supposed to mean? I can understand the point of Tom and the gardeder talking about what might've happened to the girls--murder, falling down a hole--but then Mr Weir throws this slice of enigmatica in our faces. Is the moving plant symbolic? Symbolic of what though? Why does the gardener laugh so wickedly? Is Weir implying that HE did it?

Help!

[–] Belletrist0 16 years ago

My interpretation of that scene was that Mr. Whitehead was simply trying to distract Tom away from such a painful subject. Tom was discussing many scenarios that were beginning to border on the morbid, and Mr. Whitehead (who was rather fond of the girls) no longer wished to entertain images of possible kidnappings, murders, or tragic accidents.

As for the plant, the only symbolism I could think of is that the plant is a living creature, and a part of nature. If we are to believe that nature is alive, then we should also believe that it can be responsible for the girls and Ms. McCraw’s disappearances. Tom is suggesting situations responsible by humans: murder, strangers kidnappings, or accidents of falling into a hole due to human carelessness. However, he neglects to question whether it was nature itself that did the picnickers in, such as whether it was actually the work of the “Rock” itself that took the people away.

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Everyone dies, but not everyone gets to live. -- The Ice Queen

[–] tha_ej 16 years ago

I understood it in a more simple and straight forward way.

"There's some questions got answers and some haven't."

It's this line that is the crux of the scene, in my opinion. Basically, the gardener is trying to explain that there are things and occurances in this world that can't be explained. Tom had previously never even heard of a moving plant before. Now he's seen it with his own eyes, but how does it move? It's still a mystery, just like the disappearance of the girls.

And just in case anybody was wondering, the plant is a species of Mimosa.

[–] How-Now-Brown-Cow 16 years ago

To quote Madamoiselle de Poitiers:

"Ah...now I know!"

[–] creaturefeeture 14 years ago

My personal opinion: It's foreshadowing the girls reversion back into nature or devolution. Whether the character means to or not, he's showing how alive plants actually are. They move like people or animals. Though I also agree with tha_ej.

Voting History: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=26598711

[–] BartlebyScrivner 14 years ago

I took it to be a demonstration of nature acting on its own. There's the idea throughout the movie that there's a rational explanation for the girls' disappearance: Kidnapped, murdered, fell in a hole... The idea of some supernatural phenomenon (literally, both natural and super) doesn't cross anyone's mind. It's the simple gardener who comes to the revelation that nature has taken its own course in the disappearance of the girls.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gnolti 14 years ago

Though the films are decades apart, this Darwinian moment in Picnic feels like a prefiguration of Weir's fuller treatment of proto-Darwinian mysticism in Master and Commander, which also involved the awe of strange natural phenomena.

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

The idea that just because something is ridiculous, doesn't mean it is untrue.

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

[–] ProFormer 10 years ago

I think it is simply to show that more than one possibilty exists in such a scenario. Why should the viewer feel comfortable pinning the event just on passing aliens, black holes, wandering murderers or a natural hazard and not think about the possibility of giant man-eating plants in a remote wilderness?

The stranger thing was the cool, almost accepting delivery of the notion by the older man. As in, c'est la vie. Not, let's get up there and save them from man-eating plants!