Strictly Ballroom is one of my favorite movies. It's the first movie in what has come to be known as Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain trilogy, which also includes William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge. The movie started as a play that I think Baz and his friends wrote and performed while in college. It took a little while for me to win Michael over, but once he was won, he was won.
It is romantic, but as far as the storyline goes it is very conventional. It doesn't take long to figure out what kind of movie it is, and romantically there are no surprises. It is a light romance in that, while love is not treated as something trivial, there is no promise at the end that certain characters are destined to marry, though that is quite possible. There does seem to be a promise at the end that certain characters are going to stay married, which is one of my favorite things about the movie. The romance isn't the point.
Other than the storyline, I don't think that anything else about the movie is conventional. It is highly theatrical, and as its title would imply, involves a lot of dancing. If you know much about dancing yourself, you will quickly realize that most of the dancing is entirely made up for comic effect. If I remember correctly, only two of the actors in the film are real, true-to-life dancers.
Expect comedy (sometimes in the form of melodrama), expect wild costumes and make-up, and expect Australian actors. As I said, this is one of my favorite films.
1 comment:
It's funny how different people see things differently. I saw the heavy romantic element of the movie as merely a device, while the story seemed to me truly about freedom, breaking free from the shackles of peer pressure - on the level adults confront it. There was the professional pressure on Scott Hastings to conform, the pressure from his mother to follow in her footsteps (just an expression, please for give the pun), and the forbidden desire to find one's own way in the world.
Strictly Ballroom affirms something about musicianship for me, too. Scott Hastings wanted to move to the next level of dance, to keep improving himself, rather than just be satisfied with the status quo. For me that's part of the meaning of art. Somehow his singular attempt to get better at his craft threatened everyone else in that industry, so they tried to pull him back down. Eventually Scott's desire for truth (to himself) was inspirational to all, and united what was previously divided by "da man" Barry Fife.
I also liked this fictional example of how art can be used to heal and build up, rather than tear down and destroy (as it often is).
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