Baz Luhrmann

By Molly MurnaghanText

Baz Luhrmann: Bio✦ Baz Luhrmann was born in

Sydney, Australia on the 17th September 1962.

✦ He is a director, screenwriter and producer. Though he began his career as an actor.

✦ Luhrmann is best known for ‘The Red Curtain Trilogy’

✦ He started out as a ballroom dancer and his mother taught it, this inspired the 1st of his trilogy ‘Strictly Ballroom’

✦ For his films Luhrmann was influenced from Bollywood, Italian Grand Opera and the theatre. You can see this clearly in all his films, especially in ‘Moulin Rouge!’.

✦ Luhrmann is famous for mixing 20/21st Century music in to much earlier time periods.

✦ Also I like Luhrmann’s auteur

Romeo + Juliet ✦ Romeo + Juliet came out in 1996, is the

second of his famous trilogy.✦ Luhrmann adapted Shakespeare's

famous tragic love story and updated it to Modern Verona but still containing the original Shakespearan dialogue.

✦ The leading roles stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet.

✦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXFiA7fePg

Moulin Rouge✦ Moulin Rouge was the third and final part of

Luhrmann’s trilogy, the film came out in 2001.✦ The movie stars Nicole Kidman as Satin and

Ewan McGregor as Christian.✦ His richly coloured stylised vision of 1900s

Paris, split critics and cinema audiences who either loved or hated the way he reinterpreted the musical by having famous pop songs and dancing outside of the period of the film.

✦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Ejbg4KLPg

The Great Gatsby✦ The Great Gatsby was Luhrmann’s return, the

greatly anticipated film was an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.

✦ Again it had a mixed reaction because of its modern music and use of 3D.

✦ The film stars include Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carroway

✦ Luhrmann said about the film “The novel wasn’t set in a period ‘The minimal Twenties.’ It was called ‘The Roaring Twenties’. So it had to roar.”

✦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBVLhcHcc0

Why I chose Baz Luhrmann

✦ I chose him because all his films are beautifully shot, and I love a musical.

✦ I also like the juxtaposition of contemporary music for example in the ‘Great Gatsby’ the party scenes contain Jayz, Kayne West and Lana Del Ray songs.

✦ All three of these films have love stories and tragic endings.

Thanks for watching!