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  "path": "/movies-and-tv/2026/02/05/48297913/second-run-portland-in-picnic-at-hanging-rock-valentines-day-turns-mysterious",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-05T21:05:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.portlandmercury.com",
  "tags": [
    "Movies & TV",
    "Culture",
    "_more info_",
    "_more info_",
    "progenitor for soft femme subcultures",
    "once cited it",
    "of one Letterboxd reviewer",
    "_more info_",
    "Angela Bassett torches her ex’s car",
    "_more info_",
    "_more info_",
    "_A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin_",
    "_more info_",
    "_more info_",
    "_more info_",
    "_more info_"
  ],
  "textContent": "This month, nine films on love, desire, and human psychology.\n\nby Lindsay Costello\n\nI’m certain I don’t need to tell you this, but: Shit sucks. Are you taking care of yourself right now? One reliable method is through the poetry and dissociative capacity of good cinema. This month, options abound with screenings of  _Picnic at Hanging Rock_(romance is cryptic), _You’ve Got Mail_(romance is online), and _In the Mood for Love_(romance is a dance of restraint and unspoken longing). Nonplatonic attraction aside, films by François Truffaut and Andrei Tarkovsky—plus a Le Guin adaptation—lean existential. Ready?\n\n_The 400 Blows_\n\n_For fans of Vittori De Sica’s_ Bicycle Thieves _(1948), Louis Malle’s_ Au Revoir les Enfants _(1988), Richard Linklater._\n\nChildhood is rough, particularly if you are a tormented little Parisian boy with a penchant for writing on walls and stealing typewriters. François Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical film _The 400 Blows_(1959)—which pulls its title from the French idiom _faire les quatre cents coups_ , meaning something like “to raise hell”—takes an episodic approach that eschews elaborate narrative in favor of studying its child protagonist. Antoine’s (Jean-Pierre Léaud) small world falls apart as he lies and runs from every adult’s (often unjust) rules and expectations. But when he’s sent to a youth detention center, his final escape is also his most transcendent.\n\nThe film revisits what we all experienced as children at one point or another: the weight of feeling confused, unwanted, and full of frustration with nowhere to put it. Kids reliably know more than they let on, and Antoine’s no different; his big feelings are clearly driven by the violence, anger, and infidelity of his parents’ world. If you haven’t seen  _The 400 Blows_ , you’ve heard of it—the film placed Truffaut at the crest of the French New Wave, and its realist perspective has inspired many coming-of-age films since. Of the film’s many beautiful aspects, Jean Constantin’s score stands out—it’s silvery, haunting, and quite childlike. _(Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st, Sat Feb 7, 11 am, $9,__more info_ _, not rated)_\n\n__\n\n_You’ve Got Mail_\n\n_For fans of the AOL dial-up sound, literary types, ’90s New York._\n\n“Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life… Do I do it because I like it? Or because I haven't been brave?” Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) asks herself in Nora Ephron’s 1995 film _You’ve Got Mail_. It’s a puzzling line at first. Kathleen’s life seems fairly idyllic. She owns a beloved children’s bookstore in New York’s Upper East Side. She goes to Starbucks, back when that was a kind of cool thing to do. She attends elegant parties with caviar and bookish people.\n\nBut Kathleen’s worries ring true. Like many, she moves the goalposts for herself, yet clings to the aspects of her identity that are grounded in familiarity and obligation. And things inevitably fall apart. In her case, she falls in love with the nuclear option, Joe (Tom Hanks)—a bookstore magnate who’s actively putting her out of business.\n\nShould Kathleen have stolen Joe’s hot and bitchy editor girlfriend Patricia (Parker Posey) instead? Well, yes. But  _You’ve Got Mail_ is really charming, even if its central premise is flawed. It offers the best cinematic depiction of the thrill of receiving an email in the mid-’90s, the Cranberries and Harry Nilsson command the soundtrack, and the film references Foucault, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, _and_ Francisco Franco. How many romantic comedies can say the same? _(PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater,__3530 SE Division St_ _, Thurs Feb 12, 7 pm, $15,__more info_ _, PG)_\n\n_Picnic at Hanging Rock_\n\n_For fans of Sophia Coppola’s_ The Virgin Suicides _(2000), Robert Altman’s_ 3 Women _(1977), Daphne Du Maurier._\n\nTrack down your rose water and your candelabra, because nothing says \"Valentine's Day approaches\" quite like a clique of ribbon- and lace-clad boarding schoolers gone missing in the Victorian-era Australian Outback. Based on Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel, Peter Weir's eerie dreamhouse melded panpipes and parasols into a lasting aesthetic vision— _Picnic at Hanging Rock_ (1975) has become a mood board for those entranced by its pastoral, impressionist sensibility. The film served as a progenitor for soft femme subcultures and inspired the tonal similarities found in Sophia Coppola’s films. Chloë Sevigny once cited it as one of her favorites, too.\n\n_Picnic at Hanging Rock_ requires an acceptance of unsolved mystery. Its open-ended conclusion and gauzy plot rely heavily on vibes. But one could interpret the film as an exploration of sexual awakening, lesbian tension, and surrender in the most elemental sense. (In the words of one Letterboxd reviewer, “horror doesn’t always have to be normal.”) The story’s “horror” is conjured through the strange hypnosis of one sun-drenched day, as an ancient volcanic rock formation towers above a group of girls on the brink of adulthood. A central question emerges: Would it be so wrong to loosen your corset, duck behind a boulder, and disappear? _(Academy Theater, 7818 SE Stark, Feb 13-19, showtimes vary, $6.50-$9.50,__more info_ _, PG)_\n\n__\n\nAlso worth it:\n\n**_Waiting to Exhale_ with Grand Gesture Books**\n\nForest Whitaker directed a warm, messy portrait of female friendship in which Angela Bassett torches her ex’s car. Local bodice-ripper purveyors Grand Gesture Books promise all attendees a “delectable” goodie bag with face masks and chocolate, because you’re worth it!! _(PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater,__3530 SE Division_ _, Fri Feb 6,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_Muriel’s Wedding_**\n\nMuriel (Toni Collette) escapes her politico father, bops over to the big city (Sydney, AU), and finally starts shaping her dream life in this ’94 rom-com, which is perfectly framed by its ABBA soundtrack. _(Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Sat Feb 7,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_The Lathe of Heaven_**\n\nBased on Ursula K. Le Guin’s ’71 novel of the same name, _The Lathe of Heaven_(1980) imagines dystopian consequences when a psychiatrist manipulates his client’s dreams. See it after catching _A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin_ at Oregon Contemporary (closing Feb 8), which includes an interactive _Lathe of Heaven_ installation. _(PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater,__3530 SE Division_ _, Sun Feb 8,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_In the Mood for Love_**\n\nA lonely married journalist meets a similarly isolated woman in Wong Kar-wai's 2000 romance, set in '60s Hong Kong. Christopher Doyle's cinematography—candid-feeling, and lush with symbolic color—helped cement _In the Mood for Love_ as a major stylistic influence on the last 25 years of film. _(PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater,__3530 SE Division_ _, Sat Feb 14,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_Stalker_**\n\nCinemagic’s month-long exploration of Andrei Tarkovsky’s filmography offers several opportunities to sit with deep existential queries. Among their picks are two sci-fi films with distinct takes: the misty wasteland of _Stalker_ (1979) screens on February 15 and 18, and space-age _Solaris_(1972) screens on February 22. _(Cinemagic, 2021 SE Hawthorne, $7-$9, multiple dates through March 1,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_La Ciénaga_**\n\nArgentine director Lucrecia Martel’s 2001 feature debut follows a wealthy family’s languid summer; a quiet plot unfolds amid the creeping, heat-struck malaise. _La Ciénaga_ introduced the hallmarks of Martel’s later films, with nuance found in class-informed atmospheres._(5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall, Feb 20-22,__more info_ _)_",
  "title": "Second Run Portland: In Picnic at Hanging Rock, Valentine’s Day Turns Mysterious"
}