Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy

Hi all!

This time you get a flight of films!

I'm a long time fan of Baz Luhrmann (real name:  Mark Anthony Luhrmann!!).  His movies always surprise me and make me happy.  They even make me believe in love.

Hope you enjoy!

Strictly Ballroom - released in 1992

When I first saw this film, it was nothing like what I anticipated. I think I was assuming it was going to be kind of serious?  Anyway, I absolutely loved it.  It just reinforced what I felt that I already knew about Australian moviemaking.  These are filmmakers that are willing to take risks and have an amazing sense of humor.  

I learned some interesting things about this film (God Bless Wikipedia!).  This film was based on a stage production that Baz Luhrmann had written.  Ballroom dancing was close to his heart; he was a ballroom dancer as a kid and his mother taught ballroom dance.  It very nearly wasn't made as many folks thought it wouldn't sell at all.  The original producer died while they were in the last stages of production but his widow took over to finish the film.  Also, the woman who plays Scott's (the main guy) mother died a few months before the film was released.  She was wonderful in the film but I will admit that while I was watching it I was thinking (because of her voice) that she must have been a heavy smoker. She's gravelly as fuck.  Baz had to do a lot of fancy footwork to get the film actually seen but once he did it was an instant hit (apparently he showed it originally at a film festival and they got a 15 minute standing O!).

This is basically the story of a boy (Scott) who dreams of being unique and an ugly duckling girl (Fran...and please say these names with your best Australian accent) who metamorphoses into a swan.  They travel their journeys together and in the end they realize it's not about winning the Pan Pacific Ballroom Dance Competition but falling in love.  Baz must be SUCH a softie in real life.  All the Red Curtain films are about true love overcoming huge obstacles.

This film has nearly grotesque lighting and crazy camera angles, highlighting the absurdity of ballroom dancing and the competition that surrounds it.  Baz also pokes fun at the solemnity of the institution.  For instance, the president of the organization is ALWAYS called "Federation President Barry Fife".  FP Barry Fife is our bad guy....he reminds me a bit of Jim Broadbent's character in Moulin Rouge.  He's completely over the top with a ridiculous toupee and consistently red face like he's going to have an aneurism.

In direct contrast to the absurdity of the ballroom stuff, though, is Fran's family.  They are an immigrant family from Spain who live in a super shitty part of town (Melbourne, I think).  I actually really love this part of the film.  The dancing is beautiful as Fran and Scott learn the pasodoble from Fran's father and grandmother in their tiny backyard.  It celebrates the bonding power of dancing and the happiness of being with family.  Plus it's really awesome flamenco dancing!!  The dad kicks some serious ass.

The cast were all newcomers, and to be honest I'm not sure that many of them did much more internationally after this film.  The guy who plays Scott, our hero, was originally a dancer (and seriously, you could bounce a coin off his ass!).  It appears that he hasn't acted in nearly 10 years (or his IMDB hasn't been updated in forever) but I will say that his acting style in Strictly Ballroom is similar to a young Luke Skywalker.  Cute, but REALLY whiny.  I expected him to yell "Uncle Owen!!" at any moment.  I'm not sure what else Fran, our heroine, was in but I know she has a cameo in Moulin Rouge (the camera quickly pans by a tore up looking lady-of-the-evening when we are entering Montmartre.  That's her.).  

My favorite characters, though, might be Scott's little sister and her dance partner. They are always around, the voice of reason amidst the cacophony and ridiculousness.

(My drink suggestion for this film would be a big glass of sangria!  Ole!)

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet - released in 1996

Dear Baz Luhrmann, if you are going to make a Red Curtain TRILOGY, it's a nice idea to have a red curtain in all three of your films.  Sincerely, Me.

Okay, now that I have that out of the way...he starts and ends this film with a TV set on a blank background.  It's really a cool vehicle for that narrator type voice that Shakespeare wrote.  He also ends the film with Radiohead's Exit Music (For a Film), which is a song near and dear to my belly dancing heart (you get extra points if you know why).

This film is my least favorite of the three.  It's not a bad film at all.  It's actually very enjoyable and you can start to see Baz really fleshing out his style.  He starts playing around with small moments of sped up action and over the top sets and party scenes.  And of course, music is a huge part of it.  There is a little boy singing various songs (like When Doves Cry) in a kind of gospel choir style that is just gorgeous.  I hope that kid went on to do great things.  

I always think interpreting Shakespeare in film form is a brave and risky business. Baz says something about how he felt that this is how Will himself might have made a film because even in his day he had to compete with prostitutes and bear baiting (?? That sounds awful!) as entertainment.  I'm not so sure I agree with Baz on this, but what do I know?  It's certainly different than a Branagh interpretation!  I didn't think any of the actors did a really great job of delivering the dialog in a convincing way, but they were a SHIT TON better than Keanu Reeves (Kenneth Branagh, WHAT were you thinking??  Did you have a terrible fever the day you cast him?).

Oh, and why did no one tell me Paul Rudd was in this film?  He plays Paris (not entirely convincingly, but I'll give it to him because he's adorable).  Leonardo DiCaprio is apparently a favorite of Baz.  He wanted him originally to be in Moulin Rouge but alas, Leo can't sing.  As evidenced by this film, Leo is a good cryer but I still don't think he'd hold a candle to Ewan McGregor (sigh!).  John Leguizamo is also in this film (clearly another Baz fave).  I'm sure he's thanking his lucky stars that he played Tybalt instead of Mercutio, who is dressed in major drag for the party scene.  I feel like Leguizamo always gets saddled with the weird costumes so it's nice to see him only mildly strange.

I know R + J is a tragedy and all, but seriously there is the moment when they meet, fall instantly in love (ah youth!) and realize who their families are and I thought "You kids GOTTA know this doesn't end well!!"  Father Lawrence says "Thou art wedded to calamity".  True dat, padre.

(My drink pairing for this film is a fine pewter tankard of 16th century ale.)

Moulin Rouge - released in 2001

I love love love this movie.  I remember when I first saw it...I was visiting my niece D'Arcy and she suggested seeing it.  I (for some weird reason) hadn't heard about it and was super skeptical going (also weird...it's a movie, for crying out loud!).  This movie won me over from the first minute, pretty much.  The huge red curtains with the little conductor in front of it?  Sign me up.

Then we really got into it.  Ewan McGregor.  Swoon.  Nicole Kidman (who I'm not always a fan of).  Gorgeous and oh those outfits!  And not a bad singing job.  It was like a circus and a melodrama and a musical all rolled into one delectable package.  Right. Up. My. Alley.  As I was watching it this time, it occurred to me that I think my mother would have really loved this movie too.  Certainly my entire family fell under the Moulin Rouge spell that summer.  Remember, Erokans?

Baz began refining what he has done previously and added some interesting things cinematically in MR.  Together, they worked beautifully to construct this world he wanted us to live in.  The stop motion-y movement of the camera, sped up scenes, slo mo and the brilliant use of sound.  He goes from cacophony to nearly complete silence with the exception of Satine's breathing or the tapping of Christian's old school typewriter.

The Like A Virgin scene seemed almost an homage to Blazing Saddles with the fabulous dancing boys and the over the top sexual innuendos (hello popping champagne cork).

As always, Baz dazzles us with his musical choices (and mash ups) and fantastic dancing.  My particular favorite is the flamenco scene set to the Police's Roxanne.  The Unconscious Argentinian (that's what his credit is!) has such a great line earlier in the film, too:  "I will sing like an angel...but I will dance like the devil!"  (say this in heavy spanish accent "an-hel" and "debil")

I even buy into the device in this film where the audience finds out the entire plot at the beginning of the film - when Christian is setting up the film - then we hear the whole thing again (several times, actually) in the song and dance number where they are pitching it to the Duke, yet we completely embrace the whole thing as it unfolds.  No surprises but you still get the feels.

And let's have a moment to talk about the Duke.  I remember reading somewhere that the actor, Richard Roxburgh, was only the actor workshopping the scenes with the cast and that someone else was going to eventually get the role.  He was so perfect that they never recast.  He really is brilliant in this, he brings a lot of dimensions to the character.  He's funny, menacing and vulnerable.  If you look at his IMDB he's been in a bunch of films but I think this is the one Americans always remember.

My other shout out is to the midget can-can dancer.  She saves the frickin' day!!  Go Little People!!

And finally, Baz's dad was really sick but told him to focus on the film.  He passed away on the first day of production.  :(

(My drink pairing for this film is a Death in the Afternoon.  Champagne and Absinthe.  Fuck yeah, Little Green Fairy!)

My takeaways:

#1 -  I must have been an Australian in a past life.  I feel like I am always drawn to them (My Aussies, you know who you are!!  xoxo).

#2 - All these films are edited by the same woman, Jill Bilcock. She also did films like Muriel's Wedding and Road to Perdition.  Go Jill!!  She clearly kicks some serious ass...the editing in Baz's films is consistently innovative and lyrical.

#3 - I think it would be amazing to sit and listen to music with Baz Luhrmann.  His iPod must be ridiculous.

#4 - Come What May was an original song in Moulin Rouge.  It couldn't be nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, however, because it was written for Romeo + Juliet.  I see how the lyrics are very in sync with R + J (Come what may, I will love you until my dying day) but I'm SOOO glad it was in MR instead.  It's one of my favorite elements of Moulin Rouge. 

xoxo...hashtagSueslife