Cornell Cinema shows a restored print of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'

Cornell Cinema is presenting the director's cut of Peter Weir's breakthrough film, "Picnic at Hanging Rock," as well as the Australian filmmaker's 1998 hit "The Truman Show." Admission to evening screenings is $4.50/4.00 for students, seniors and children 12 and under; Sunday matinees are $3.50.

"Picnic at Hanging Rock" will be shown Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 3, at 9:25 p.m. in Uris Hall; and also Sunday, Oct. 4, at 4:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. "The Truman Show" will be shown Thursday, Oct. 15, at 9:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre; Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9:40 p.m. in Uris; and Sunday, Oct. 18, at 4:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 9:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

When "Picnic at Hanging Rock" was released in 1975, Weir was heralded as the first major directing talent from Down Under to hit the international scene. Based on an historical incident, the film has on its surface a story of four young women from a turn-of-the-century boarding school who disappear from a trip into the outback, leaving no clues about where they went or why.

Beneath the few facts of the case, however, Weir finds other mysteries: of innocence and adolescent sexuality, of vast open spaces and the terrifying sense of isolation they create.

Shot on location in the Australian outback, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is lush and erotic, sensually posing the white linen and golden light of the girls' school against the jagged, primeval landscape.

Out of circulation for many years, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" has been remixed in Dolby Stereo, and the print has been restored to its original beauty in a process overseen by Peter Weir himself. It has also been re-edited in certain areas, coming closer to Weir's vision for the film.

After the release of the film, Weir not only became the pre-eminent Australian filmmaker, but also a director of international importance, making successful films such as "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Witness" and "Dead Poets Society."

Weir's latest film, "The Truman Show," made the cover of magazines this summer with its star Jim Carrey and its quintes-sentially 20th century premise: What if your whole life was broadcast to millions? With the pairing of "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "The Truman Show," audiences can see the path of Weir's remarkable and eclectic directing career.

On Saturday, Oct. 3, and Tuesday, Oct. 6, Cornell Cinema will present the Ithaca premiere of "Taste of Cherry," which won Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. The film will be shown both days in Willard Straight Theatre at 7:15 p.m.; admission is $4.50/$4 for students and seniors.

Director Kiarostami, whose films have garnered praise from Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa and countless other filmmakers, blends documentary realism and fictive elements to create a film form that is both poetic and sophisticated.

The film tells the story of a middle-age man contemplating suicide and seeking advice from the strangers he meets on a mountain road.

Simple in its story, gorgeous in its visuals, "Taste of Cherry" has won strong praise from critics around the world.

Time magazine's Richard Corliss writes, "The film's artful simplicity, its respect for each speaker's beliefs, its refusal to sentimentalize all underline the director's strategy of art. Let the rest of the film world ride a rocket to excess; Kiarostami will find a place and listen to a man's heart, right up until it stops beating. And then he will listen some more."