Baz Luhrmann on ‘Strictly Ballroom’
What is the style of the film?
The ‘telling’ style is the key thing. Some people may be shocked because it uses a structure utilised by many American films. A lot of those stories are about great myths, like the David and Goliath story of a young outsider trying to overcome a repressive regime. That is a basic myth.
What’s unique to this film is the way in which we’ve taken that myth and retold it. The film draws upon 1940s Hollywood musicals and is an amalgam of a lot of elements.
The thing about style, though, is that it exists; it’s not something that you chase – that’s fashion! The difference between the two is that one you set out to acquire, the other actually evolves.
What sort of music have you used?
The soundtrack is very eclectic, from 1930s 78-masters of ‘Happy Feet’ and old jazz classics to contemporary pop, which musical director David Hirschfelder has composed. He’s probably best known for his work on the last two John Farnham albums. He has also done several mini-series.
I chose David because of his classical training, and his ability to produce pop tracks and scores for a musical soundtrack. I’m very happy with his work.
Was casting a dance film difficult?
Well, casting is always interesting, whatever you do. Madonna’s now got the lead in Evita over Meryl Streep. I think Meryl should have got it, but someone else might say, ‘No, Madonna’s perfect for it.’ As with any decision in film, no one makes a casting decision, particularly, a director, unless he or she thinks someone is best for the role.
I cast Gia Carides as Liz. Now Gia is naturally dark and from a Greek background; she is almost everything that this character Liz isn’t. Liz is a blonde, blue-eyed and slightly fickle character. Yet I wanted to cast Gia because I felt she could create that role. And the transformation is remarkable.
Other than Paul Mercurio, who has an acting background but is primarily a dancer, just about everyone else is an actor first. I came down heavily on the side of acting.
One thing I’ll tell you about Paul, and it’s something I’m finding more and more, is that it’s very rare for any performer in this country to work five days a week, every week of the year. Yet in The Sydney Dance Company, where he’s from, they’re used to getting up every night in front of thousands of people. Even the best film actors only do two six-week shoots a year, certainly not every day. That background gave Paul a terrific lack of the fear that even experienced actors have, that ‘I’m doing film and it’s my next big choice.’ He was relaxed because it was just another performance.
Paul’s used to breaking down choreography on a daily basis, absorbing information and turning it into steps. He was very attentive in being able to say to himself, ‘This guy’s coming into this room and the reason is …’ While he may not have read Stanislavski, he has a great understanding of the basics of acting.
Everyone is surprised by the quality of his work. He is one of those fortunate people who can have a camera placed in front of their face; his eyes literally think. He’s very lucky in that regard.
A dance instructor I spoke to felt that while the play, and no doubt the film, is bitchy, one couldn’t make a film about ballroom that isn’t.
Right! Although there’s a lot of dance in the film, it’s not a dance performance film. I only made decisions based on ‘Will this piece of dancing tell the story?’ I often say to people that it’s not, strictly speaking, about ballroom dancing; it’s about all of us. The ballroom world is a metaphor, or a microcosm, of the world at large. The thing is that people’s desires are so passionately expressed. They’re so passionate about winning, losing, loving – all those things.
You have had critical and artistic success with your award-winning production of La bohème at the Australian Opera. Australians seem to go further in their pursuits than they would if they lived in New York and were surrounded by artists working in a similar field.
That’s very true. We have to think of our isolation as a positive thing – and it is. Having been around the world recently, the things that my team and I have been able to do are inconceivable in other countries, particularly in terms of doing a classic opera on the main stage in the main opera house of the country. It’s totally unheard of anywhere else.
You have used the same opera design team for Strictly Ballroom . Was it hard persuading M&A [Film Corporation] to go with non-film people?
Very early on in the piece, when M&A came to me, I said to Tristram [Miall, producer], ‘Look, I work with these people. We’ve developed a working relationship. It’s extremely important that they design the film.’ Very bravely, M&A backed that, where a lot of other people were saying, ‘Ooh, they haven’t done a film before.’ The upshot is that they’ve now been offered other films.
I am very proud of the way the film looks. In terms of costume, I don’t think there has ever been such elaborate work done in this country. Nola Lowe cut the gowns. She’s worked with Edith Head, so the gowns definitely have that classic look.
What are your hopes for the film?
That Strictly Ballroom will be a success and that Australians in particular will come to see it, because it is about Australians. Everyone booed Scott Hastings out of the race, but he came back as an outsider and won!
Interview by Ronnie Taylor, Cinema Papers, May 1992
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