Picnics on film are so recognizable we tend not to notice. So, to test your picnic awareness before you begin exploring this website, please write a list of seven picnic episodes in films. For most of you, the going gets tough after you name three or four. If you’re good, six or seven. Picnics are present in films but are less memorable than the plot progression and character development. So far, my searching has yielded 155 picnics, one in almost every year since 1909.

Though we expect picnics full of jolly conviviality, film picnics concentrate on romance. If you care to review and count the posts, you’ll notice that I’ve found 84 that concentrate on couples engaging in relationships that are friendly, loving, innocent, sensuous, lustful, or combative and on the verge of dissolution.  

Almost all film picnics share what we expect at a picnic—a cloth, a wicker basket, place settings, plates, a variety of food, and drinks (often wine) However, you cannot talk or kiss with your mouth full of food, so eating is reduced to nibbling (with exceptions). The foods we see are decorations, what I call picnic fodder, not meant for hearty eating.

Film picnics are infrequently original. Most are derived from literature, especially novels and stories that have picnics, or, as directors and screenwriters tell us, ought to have picnics. If you are familiar with the original texts, you may notice whether or not the film picnic is faithful or an outright fabrication. Directors and screenwriters feel justified improving an original text, arguing that changes are necessitated by their medium, or what they think viewers like you and me “want” to see.