Baz Luhrmann Movies
Though he began his career as an actor, director/writer/producer Baz Luhrmann found his flamboyant talent was better served behind the scenes. Born BazMark Luhrmann in a Sydney, Australia, suburb, Luhrmann returned to Sydney after a rural childhood to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. Though he appeared with Judy Davis in the film Winter of Our Dreams (1982), Luhrmann redirected his artistic pursuits, creating the original version of what would become his future film debut, Strictly Ballroom (1992), for the stage in 1986. He continued to mount musical theater and opera productions throughout the 1980s and early '90s, including a 1950s-set version of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème in 1990. Working with longtime collaborators Craig Pearce and Catherine Martin, Luhrmann brought his vibrant sensibility to film with the cinematic version of Strictly Ballroom. Full of garish colors, exuberant dancing, and ironic yet sincere sentiment, the romantic fable made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival and became an international, prize-winning hit. Luhrmann next worked his postmodern magic on an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). As with La Bohème, he re-conceived the story for the 20th century, setting the famed tale of teen love in the candy-colored, Versace-clad milieu of "Verona Beach." With stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes delivering Shakespeare's prose as if it were vernacular, an eclectic soundtrack, and editing as kinetic as the Oscar-nominated production design, Romeo + Juliet became a box-office hit. Before he began production on the Nicole Kidman-Ewan McGregor musical Moulin Rouge (2001), Luhrmann put together music from his film and stage work for the CD Something for Everybody (1998). He notched a surprise hit single with "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)," setting the text of a famous commencement speech to music from Romeo + Juliet. Merging personal and professional lives, Luhrmann and Martin married in 1997.After a long gestation, Moulin Rouge made a splashy debut as the opening night attraction at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Though critical reception split over Luhrmann's postmodern reinterpretation of the musical, with dance numbers edited into a frenzy and stars Kidman, McGregor, and Jim Broadbent warbling such famous pop songs as "Your Song," "Heroes," "Like a Virgin," and "Smells Like Teen Spirit," his richly colored, sumptuously stylized vision of Belle Époque Paris and the eponymous night spot earned kudos across the board. Seen as a risky proposition for a mass audience unaccustomed to musicals, Moulin Rouge earned ardent fans and respectable box office as a durable alternative to the parade of uninspired summer 2001 blockbusters. After winning the National Board of Review's Best Picture award, several Golden Globe nominations, and Golden Globe statuettes for Best Actress Kidman and Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), Moulin Rouge earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Though he was nominated for Director's and Writer's Guild awards, however, Luhrmann did not receive Oscar nods in either category. Still, Luhrmann's wife and creative partner Martin won the Oscars for Costume Design and Art Direction, acknowledging Luhrmann and company's glorious visual achievement. Returning to his live theater roots, Luhrmann followed his Moulin Rouge success by reviving his version of La Bohème for the New York stage in December 2002. Having come full circle creatively with La Bohème and the concurrent release of his theatrically romantic "Red Curtain Trilogy" of Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Rouge on DVD, Luhrmann subsequently struck out in a new direction with plans to film an epic biopic of Alexander the Great, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the illustrious Greek conqueror. Alas, like many planned features, that film never went before the cameras and Luhrmann's follow-up to Moulin Rouge would be the tepid 2005 historical adventure Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. A series of fashion-themed short films followed, and in 2012 the visually inventive director made his first foray into 3D with The Great Gatsby, whic featured DiCaprio in the title role and co-starred Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Joel Edgerton as Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and Tom Buchanan respectively. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- 2013
- PG13
- Add The Great Gatsby to Queue
An aspiring writer falls under the spell of an aloof millionaire with designs for the young scribe's unhappily married cousin in director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated novel. It's the spring of 1922, and wide-eyed Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) has just moved to New York City in pursuit of the American Dream. Settling into a home next door to wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), Carraway grows increasingly fascinated by the elaborate parties held at his new neighbor's estate. Meanwhile, across the bay, Carraway's cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) flounders in her marriage to philandering aristocrat Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). Inspired by the debauchery on display at Gatsby's wild parties and the lives of the wealthy elite, Carraway begins putting pen to paper as it gradually becomes clear that his cousin and the millionaire share a complicated romantic past that remains unresolved. Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, (more)
Set against the scenic backdrop of pre-World War II Australia, Baz Luhrmann's romantic period adventure stars Nicole Kidman as an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch, and Hugh Jackman as the rough-and-tumble cattle driver who helps protect her property from greedy English cattle barons. As the pair attempt to herd 2,000 head of cattle hundreds of miles across the treacherous Australian outback, they are stunned to bear witness to the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces -- who just a few months prior launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, (more)
The third film from pop-music-obsessed director Baz Luhrmann tweaks the conventions of the musical genre by mixing a period romance with anachronistic dialogue and songs in the style of his previous Romeo+Juliet (1996). Ewan McGregor stars as Christian, who leaves behind his bourgeois father during the French belle époque of the late 1890s to seek his fortunes in the bohemian underworld of Montmartre, Paris. Christian meets the absinthe- and alcohol-addicted artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), who introduces him to a world of sex, drugs, music, theater, and the scandalous dance known as the cancan, all at the Moulin Rouge, a decadent dance hall, brothel, and theater that's the brainchild of Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent). Christian also meets and falls into a tragically doomed romance with the courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman), who becomes the star of the play he's writing, which parallels the couple's romance and utilizes rock music from a century later, including songs by Nirvana, Madonna, the Beatles, and Queen, among others. Loosely based on the opera Orpheus in the Underworld, Moulin Rouge was shown in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, (more)
- 1996
- PG13
- Add William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet to Queue Add William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet to top of Queue
The classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy is updated by director Baz Luhrmann to a post-modern Verona Beach where swords are merely a brand of gun and bored youths are easily spurred toward violence. Longtime rivals in religion and business, the Montagues and the Capulets share a page from the Jets and Sharks of West Side Story when they form rival gangs. Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio) is aloof toward the goings-on of his Montague cousins, but after he realizes that Juliet (Claire Danes) is a Capulet at the end of one very wild party, the enmity between the two clans becomes the root of his angst. He relies heavily -- and with serious consequences -- on his rebel gender-bender of a friend, Mercutio (Harold Perrineau Jr.), and Father (not Friar) Lawrence (Pete Postlethwaite) for protection and support. Romeo is, of course, exiled, and it looks like Juliet will be forced into an arranged marriage with the bland Paris (Paul Rudd). It ends, as Romeo and Juliet must, when Romeo hears a tragic piece of misinformation and brings his suicide wish to what was meant to be Juliet 's temporary tomb. This time, though, the turf and the weapon of choice have taken a turn toward the surreal. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, (more)
This imaginative production of Puccini's beloved opera about the triumphs and tragedies of a group of young artists in Paris is set in the early 1950s, using the economic doldrums in post-war Europe as its subtext. It was staged by director Baz Luhrmann and designers Catherine Martin and Bill Marron, who later went on to make the film Strictly Ballroom. Taped in a live performance at the Sydney Opera House, this production features The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra under the direction of Julian Smith, and stars Cheryl Baker, David Hobson, and Roger Lemke. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
This wildly off-beat comedy is about a male dancer (Paul Mercurio) who refuses to follow the accepted rules of ballroom dancing and creates his own style of choreography, which infuriates the ballroom dancing establishment. Before he's scheduled to compete in the Pan-Pacific ballroom championships, he's forced to take up a new partner (Tara Morice), a beginner who initially seems without promise. With his help, she turns into an assured and wonderful dancer. Baz Luhrmann's visual style may be too bright, gaudy and exaggerated for some tastes, yet he treats his characters with compassion, which makes Strictly Ballroom such an engaging comedy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, (more)
- 1984
Amateur acting on the part of newcomer Svet Kovich as the deranged son of a philandering doctor, and the inexperience of first-time director Paul Harmon are partly balanced by the excellent cinematography of Paul Onorato in this unexceptional melodrama, never released theatrically. Dr. Ray Sangster (Alan Cassell) is having an affair with Nicky (Anna Jamison), a fashion designer. Sangster is unknowingly followed about and photographed by his son. The son's objective is not to blackmail the illicit couple but to bed down Nicky himself. When he finally manages to achieve that objective, under an assumed identity, he is overcome by impotence -- which sets him off into completely irrational acts. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alan Cassell, Svet Kovich, (more)
- 1982
In this Australian film, the married, financially secure Rob (Bryan Brown) meets up with drug-addicted prostitute Lou (Judy Davis) and tries to help her crawl out of the dead-end life she's created for herself. However, when Rob's wife discovers who he's been spending his time with, his marriage and his stable life are threatened. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
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