Strictly Ballroom
This was Baz Luhrmann’s first film (he’s my hero). It is extremely cheesy, absolutely over the top and serves every cliché possible but I love it!
Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), coming from a ballroom dancing family, is on his way to winning the Australian Pan Pacific Championship. The problem is that he wants to use his own made-up steps that are not being taught at any dancing school. The members of the Championship Board are doing everything they can to prevent him from dancing like this.
A few weeks before the Championships, Scott’s partner leaves him (because she doesn’t want to dance his crazy steps) and the total dancing beginner Fran (Tara Morice) approaches him to become his new partner. Of course, she starts out being the ugly duckling and emerges into a beautiful swan in the few weeks that they are training together. There are a lot of complications, but the two of them get the big applause at the end and everyone is happy.
Strictly Ballroom is pure Baz Luhrmann. It is a muddle of colour, light, glamour, dancing and music. Pretty much like William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! but the budget was obviously a lot lower. I read that Baz came up with the idea for Strictly Ballroom and made it in to a theatre play where he performed himself. I would guess that the story is life-related because his own parents were supposedly ballroom dancers. I would have looooved seeing him on stage though.
To be fair, the story is not the most unusual but the style of filming is very original. The camera is always very close up on faces, deforming them, a bit like a fish-eye view. The make-up is really heavy, beyond pretty, on purpose. I always really like it when directors have their own style and Baz certainly has it. I think it is great that he has the courage to cheesiness.
Strictly Ballroom deserves a MovieCat award because I am in love with this film.
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Paul Mercurio, Strictly Balroom, Tara Morice
March 10th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Baz Luhrmann is a sort of anomaly for me. With only four films under his belt, I proudly announce he’s one of my favorite directors. Maybe because he isn’t just a director, he’s an auteur. His films glisten in what is otherwise a sea of terribly forgettable popcorn flicks.
I love the message in Strictly Ballroom. I easily get the sense that it’s about so much more than ballroom dancing. It’s about living life. In a world where conforming to somebody’s idea of ‘normal’ seems the only way to live safely, Strictly Ballroom dares us to just be ourselves and not let our fear of rejection by the masses stand in the way of that. Much like the way Baz Luhrmann did with his Red Curtain Trilogy.
Vivir con miedo es como vivir a medias!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Baz is such a rare and wonderful artist today. I agree with you completely that often what makes a director is that intangible, inexplicable, indescribable stamp that makes every film their own.
And Baz has it. Oh, yes, he does. He can take all the cliches, the corny lines, the vibrant colors, the painted backdrops, bedazzled outfits, kissing, loving, and tears… and mash them together in a way so dazzling and original. In fact, you could say that he so fully embraces the cliche that his work his vintage at worst and something brilliantly new and fresh and best.
It’s amazing to me how little he is revered for his work, considering he has yet to make a bad film. And I sincerely hope that none of his criticism every makes him compromise what has made him one of my favorite directors.
I hope for a marvelous future of Luhrmann films… including another musical. Please, please, please.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Wow, more Baz – lovers
David – I totally agree, that is what I love about the film as well. It gives a sort of hope or encouragement to dare to be different!
Benjamin – Welcome to my blog! I can’t wait for his next film to come out! I hope he will make another musical. I read that he is supposed to make the broadway musical Wicked into a film, that would be great!
March 11th, 2009 at 1:13 am
I actually read that Luhrmann was working on a new film adaptation for The Great Gatsby.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hmm…but there is already a really good adaptation of The Great Gatsby…I wonder who they will cast as Gatsby and Daisy. I thought Mia Farrow was perfect!
Oh, and they have taken Baz off the IMDb Wicked site…He would have been sooo perfect!