Strictly Luhrmann

Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992)

I borrowed Strictly Ballroom from a friend recently and then found myself rather reluctant to watch it. I don't like dancing films, I don't like romantic films, and I especially don't like anything that might inadvertently, however tangentially, remind me of (small voice) Dirty Dancing (Emilio Ardolino, 1987). Ugh. All in all, I've no idea why I borrowed it in the first place...

So, with some trepidation, and the boyfriend pointedly leaving the room after napping on my lap for the first half hour, I sat down to watch. My nervousness was somewhat abated by the fact that Luhrmann has, in the past, proved capable of making me like films that had any other director made them, I almost certainly wouldn't have. Nor even deigned to watch them most likely. Finding in favour of Mr. Luhrmann here, see exhibit A - William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996) and exhibit B - Moulin Rouge(2001). And struth! He's only gone and done it again!

Despite being about dancing, despite being about guy meets girl, about guy and girl fall in love through the magic medium of montage, about girl goes through a miraculous transformation from absolute munter to smoking hottie in less than 3 weeks, about how all the other main characters realise, through guy and girl, the overarching importance of love 'and dancing your own steps', and bad guy gets comedy comeuppance including losing his wig... you get the idea. Despite all of this, I loved it! I loved it. Luhrmann imbues the whole thing with such a wonderful sense of irony, one eyebrow raised and tongue firmly in cheek.

Well-scripted, neatly shot, gorgeously costumed/made-up, with a great soundtrack and not too long (this is becoming more important to me by the day!), Strictly Ballroom is a great great film. If you haven't seen it, do. You might surprise yourself. It even got a bit dusty at the end.

Image pinched from someone else's blog: http://coffeewithamee.wordpress.com/ (thanks)