BAZ LUHRMANN

I’m a big fan of a blog called ‘Surrender to the Void’, a film blog, like most I read. The writer does a segment called The Auteurs, where he focuses on the body of work of a director and on their technique. He recently did a post about Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann in congruence with his latest film, The Great Gatsby. The post was engaging, well written and covered Luhrmann’s work thoroughly and concisely. This isn’t what I plan to do.

I want to talk about excess and how Luhrmann embodies that. Born in the lap of luxury, living a priveliged life and taking this life of decadence, of wealth, of ballroom dancing and candelabras and applying it to his filmic style. His work is aggressively lavish, Gatsby being the greatest spectacle of all and in a lot of ways his work fails because of that lavishness that is his trademark. Fast cuts, costumes by MiuMiu and Prada, the prettiest actors and actresses in gowns and tuxes to be adored and fawned over. Gatsby is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching, that said, so is Heaven’s Gate. A strong visual style does not equate to strong storytelling, for Luhrmann to clunkily tell F. Scott Fitzgereald’s enduring tale of unrequited love and timelessness in such a manner could be deemed as insulting. So little emphasis on the narrative, so much bombast in the visuals; Gatsby is a fucking mess. 

So was Romeo + Juliet and so was Moulin Rouge! But wow, what phenomenal filmmaking. He’s a director that I find very intriguing. He reminds me of another master of excess, Paul Verhoeven in that the screenplay exists merely as a framework for his vision to override. Not to say that their filmmaking style is anything close to similar. Baz can’t tell a story worth shit in this writer’s opinion but fuck, don’t ever change. I’ve never watched a Baz Luhrmann film without loving something about it. It’s filmmaking that shatters conventions and that gets away with it, and that receives ridiculous funding AND that usually walks away with a few awards and some money in the bank.

I really liked a lot of things about The Great Gatsby, and Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge, hell, even Australia, but I always feel myself at odds with myself. Unable to look at the gorgeousness that Luhrmann produces as anything more than fluff.