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.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

The world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s newest film Australia is going to be in Sydney on the 18th of November. New York will host the US premiere on the 24th of November.

This is supposedly the biggest and most expensive film ever to come out of Australia (at least it’s giving the country a lot of publicity). The divine Nicole Kidman will play alongside Hugh Jackman in the leading roles. Baz Luhrmann’s wife Catherine Martin (who won the Best Costume Oscar for Moulin Rouge) did the set and costume design on this film. Should be great!

The Australian (as in he is Australian and he directed the film Australia…) Baz Luhrman has directed three of my favourite films: Moulin Rouge!, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. I have been eagerly waiting for his next film to come out since 2001!

Watch the trailer here:

Other opening dates around the world:

Germany: 25.12.08, France: 24.12.08, New Zealand: 26.12.08, Argentinia: 1.1.09, Japan: 28.2.09

One of my favourite films. This is a story about Truth, Beauty, Freedom and above all things, Love.Christian is a young writer come from London to Paris to live a penniless existence and write about love. The only problem is, he has never been in love. This changes radically when he lays eyes on the “sparkling diamond” Satine, a can-can dancer at the Moulin Rouge.

He convinces her that they should be together, but what neither of them knows is that she is suffering from a fatal disease. The other problem for their love is that the rich, insanely jealous Duke wants to have Satine to himself and is spending a fortune to turn the Moulin Rouge into a theatre.

The first twenty minutes are a dazzling mixture of colour, light, music, singing and dance. Everything is going so fast that the audience is swept up in this strange and wonderful world. It slows down after a while when the actual story begins. The camera angles and cutting techniques are quite unusual. It is a bit like watching a very long music video.

“Come What May” is the only song written specially for the movie. All the other songs were taken from popular music, such as “Roxanne” (Sting), “Your Song” (Elton John) and “Like a Virgin” (Madonna).

Moulin Rouge! is the third film in Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy”, which includes Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (another one of my favourites). It is a spectacle of costumes, lights and great songs. Not to be missed!

Moulin Rouge! has received the MovieCat Award for great creativeness and beautiful cinematography.