Director Baz Lurhmann is admired for his uniquely flamboyant style. Paula Fleri-Soler reminisces about one of his first forays into film, Strictly Ballroom.
Australian director Baz Luhrmann is known for the unique, colourful and flamboyant style he brings to his movies. An Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) graduate, he made his name directing opera, dance and theatrical productions before his first foray into film, with Strictly Ballroom in 1992.
The film unfolds in all its colourful, amusing, emotional and magical glory towards its unabashedly romantic conclusion
Released in Malta in early March 1993, Strictly Ballroom follows the attempts of Australian ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) to break away from the traditional moves of the genre and establish his own personal style of dancing while preparing for the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. Scott’s steps are not ‘strictly ballroom’, raising the ire of his family – with its history of ballroom dancing – and the establishment as a whole.
As the competition approaches, Scott teams up with frumpy novice dancer Fran (Tara Morice), and when she encourages him to introduce even more new moves to their routine, the stage is set for a showdown with the traditionalist elements of the competition.
Strictly Ballroom is the first film in Luhrmann’s so-called Red Curtain Trilogy, which would include his kinetic take on William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) and the outstanding Moulin Rouge (2001). In a documentary celebrating the trilogy, Luhrmann describes the Red Curtain concept as a theatricalised cinematic form, which has a number of rules, and Strictly Ballroom follows the rules to the letter.
The first rule, he explains, is that the story should be based on an underlying myth. In Ballroom’s case, this is a David-v-Goliath scenario – triumph over adversity, as Scott and Fran overcome opposition to participate in the competition on their own terms. On the other hand, Tara’s rise from newbie to accomplished dancer mirrors the popular fable of The Ugly Duckling.
The second rule is that the myth has to be based in a heightened version of a recognisable setting – in this case, ballroom dancing, with all its flamboyance, colour and, in some cases, histrionics. Finally, there has to be a device throughout the film that reminds the audience they are watching a movie. In this case, the device is dance, with each dance number serving to propel the story forward, bringing as much emotion and reaction as the dialogue.
This is a fascinating concept that admittedly makes you look at all Luhrmann’s films with different eyes as you understand the depth of story and richness of character that make up each of his films.
Luhrmann devised the story for Strictly Ballroom while still a student at NIDA, and it was eventually developed into a hugely successful stage show before its transition to the big screen. Once a ballroom dancer himself, Luhrmann realised that the world of ballroom dancing was a perfect place to set a story. He explains that the film’s story is “a microcosm of the world at large... you’ve got an all-powerful repressive regime, whether it’s a political body, your boss, whatever it is that’s stopping you being what you are – and you’ve got people with ideas who try and overcome their repression”.
Strictly Ballroom bubbles with effusive energy from the start – the evocative introductory violins and horn of Johann Strauss’s seminal The Blue Danube, interrupted by a shrill “Come on, number 100” as Scott’s mother eggs him on in his competition, is a taste of things to come.
The film unfolds in all its colourful, amusing, emotional and magical glory towards its unabashedly romantic conclusion. It’s an example of what became Luhrmann’s motif – take something beautiful – the blossoming relationship between Scott and Tara. Set it against a loud, gaudy backdrop and score it with an eclectic mix of classical, pop and rock tunes and it’s a win.
Tell your story right, create characters that the audiences will engage with and root for (newcomers Mercurio and Morice proved effortlessly attractive and charming) and success is definite.
The film was a resounding success in Australia and won eight Australian Film Institute awards, including Best Film and Director; it also won three Baftas among other major awards. Moreover, it was a success with international audiences and critics, and certainly put Luhrmann on the map, as it paved the way for his future successes with Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.
It also left his fans waiting with bated breath for his take on F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and scheduled for release later on this year.