DVD Commentary

Commentary by:
- Baz Luhrmann (director/co-writer)
- Catherine Martin [CM] (production designer/co-costumer)
- John (Cha Cha) O'Connell [JC] (choreographer)

This commentary was added to the special edition of the Strictly Ballroom DVD that is included in Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy. It is very enlightening, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand the film. The commentary is all rather laid back, but the threesome provide some very interesting information regarding the production of the movie and how they managed to achieve so much while working with a limited budget. This commentary was made AFTER the three co-workers went on to make Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, and so there are often some insightful references made between the three films.

After carefully listening to this commentary, I have managed to transcribe most of what was said. This was a long process, as Luhrmann can speak very fast sometimes (!), and so there are bound to be some slight mistakes within direct quotes. However, hopefully, this page features a detailed transcript that is as accurate as possible. All comments are listed in the order they were said. Many correspond to particular scenes in the film, and so some comments may not be fully understood by anyone who has not seen the film. I have included titles for each topic that is mentioned to help you place the comments within the structure of the movie, but I definitely recommend you take the time to check out the commentary for yourself. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this transcript and find the commentary as entertaining as I did!

Introduction
"We thought it might be a good idea to talk about what happened before this point in making the film because Strictly Ballroom began as a devised theatrical project that I did when I was at drama school some many years before this, and then it went on and it became - we actually toured it to Czechoslovakia where it won as a drama piece as a play in the International Theatre Festival there. And then after that it had another reincarnation, and that was in a company that I had which was a theatre company called Six Years Old, and it was really out of that production where the opportunity to make a film - a wonderful man called Ted Albert and his partner Tristram Miall asked if we wanted to actually be involved in making Strictly Ballroom as a film. And so began the journey for Craig Pearce and I to develop a screenplay for Strictly Ballroom." - Baz

Costumes
"The ballroom costumes were designed by Angus Strathie who co-costume designed Moulin Rouge with me as well. I did all the street clothes in this movie and he designed all the ballroom clothes, and we characterised every couple by their signature colours. So Liz was yellow like a canary, I remember Baz describing. And the star of the ballroom, Ken Railings, was always in white, and his partners were always in white because, at one point in ballroom dancing, white was the stars colour." - CM

The translation of the play
"This is an interesting thing to talk about because when Craig and I began to translate the play - the play was always metaphorical, it had a very high style. The first attempt we had at translating the film into a screenplay, as we tried to make it a naturalistic screenplay, what became very clear was that the metaphorical power of the idea that was present on the stage production suddenly was lost. And so began the journey for us of beginning what has then begun to go on, really, this Red Curtain cinematic form which is a theatricalised cinematic form." - Baz

"It's really something worth talking about why the film's called Strictly Ballroom, because the world of ballroom dancing has these very very strict rules about what is good and bad dance. And the metaphor of the play that we began with was about artistic impression. It was all about, there isn't always one way, if you like, to cha cha cha. That art and rule books don't really mix." - Baz

Real dancers vs actors
"I often say that in this film there are only in the lead characters probably, if I'm right, maybe one or two actual professional dancers." - Baz
"Two, two dancers." - CM
"Well, Paul Mercurio and Antonio Vargas." - Baz
"And Leonie." - CM
"Leonie Page." - JC
"The main body of characters in it were really non dancers - they were actors - and we specifically set out to choose actors who could act out the illusion of dancing. However, in the case of Paul Mercurio. Chas - you might pick up a little on his story." - Baz

The casting of Paul Mercurio
"Well, he was principal dancer with the Sydney Dance Company, so he was very classically trained and contemporary trained, and he was like the first guy that we auditioned, I believe. Remember, in that little place?" - JC

"Right, on instinct we went first with Paul. And then didn't we go and we saw many many people and we came back to Paul." - Baz

"We saw thousands of people and then came back to Paul." - JC

"(laughing) Tends to be the process. It's just fun, isn't it, really, going around the outside". - Baz

"No, but it's quite good because then you know where he is in the framework then, if you've looked at a whole range of people." - JC

"Yeah. Actually we loved Paul, we thought he was terrific, instinctively terrific, but we had to answer questions for ourselves, and that was what that process was about. But continue to tell us - so we auditioned him - he was a classical modern dancer, yes?" - Baz

"Which is a very different style to the ballroom style, so when we were rehearsing we had, which is quite rare, maybe 2 months of rehearsal at Antonio Vargas's studio where my assistant, Ray Mather, trained in traditional ballroom dancing steps. They learned to do traditional Vienese Waltz, traditional tango, and also Tara and Paul were learning to do Flamenco at the same time, basic Flamenco, which is a technique that I think Paul took to more easily than he did the ballroom, which I think he might have found a bit constrictive, just because of the nature of how he is as a dancer." - JC

"Well, I thought it was a very interesting choice. I mean, it was a great thing for Paul and really, it's hard to imagine anyone else in that role. I think as indeed anyone now after the journey. But what was great about him was that he was a modern dancer, and modern dancing is all about a kind of finding your inner expression. And the whole journey of Strictly Ballroom, I mean it's not really about ballroom dancing because the world of ballroom dancing, in truth, has evolved and it grows and so on and so forth. But it is a world where the rules of sport, if you like, what they call dance sport meet art, and it has a curious kind of set of restraints. And here we had a young ballroom dancer who had grown up in the ballroom world and was bought up to believe that winning the gold cup was everything. But at the same time he was finding his own creative inner growth. Now what's interesting about this is that, while actually I developed this as a play, and I worked very closely with another ballroom - I mean I was a ballroom dancer and my mother was a ballroom dancer teacher - but I worked with another actor at NIDA, Glenn Keinen, who was a ballroom dance champion, a real champion. While we evolved that piece at NIDA, we also drew inspiration from the story of our choreographer, or our dance teacher, at NIDA who was one of the great figures of Australian dance and choreography, Keith Baine." - Baz

The story of Keith Baine
"Now what's really interesting about his journey, and you know all about this Chas, was that he [Keith] actually had that journey. He grew up actually in the same town as I did, he grew up in Walhope, a small country town. He went to ballroom dancing lessons. And at a certain point, he felt that he could no longer live within the restraints of dance as a sport. He rebelled against it and he went on to become one of the greatest choreographers we've ever produced in this country. And he went on this incredible journey around the world in search of the roots of dance, if you like, to try and unlock his relationship to each of the dances here. And there was real inspiration there. I know you were close to that story too, Chas." - Baz

"Well, he came out and had a talk during rehearsal time to all of the dancers." - JC

"That was a beautiful time, I remember that." - Baz

"It was fantastic because I think he was in tears by the end of the story. he was very emotional about it. And so were, I think, most of the actors and dancers who were there at the time. But he also, like, he did compete. He continued to compete. But he was always like the most popular couple but he never - he always came second because he wasn't doing the correct neat steps." - JC

"Well, that is a fantastic subject to me. I mean, that's why I'm so passionate about it. Because the truth is that exactly. I mean, here you've got someone - his story tells us he was truly creative. And you know it's true. You actually see it in the difference between someone who can be in the chorus and be out the front. You know, it's that undefinable quality that actually makes them a creative spirit. And you know, there is something inherent in this story about that in this piece. You know, obviously its told with a great deal of fun and it's told with a degree of irony." - Baz

"I just want to say one more thing about Keith before we move on. When he came out and talked to all the actors and dancers, the way he talked about the dance, it was never, you know, can you execute these series of steps. It was about a kind of dynamic in the body. And he told it in such a way so that people who hadn't danced, and there a quite a few here who are in the leads who hadn't danced... - JC

"Tara hadn't danced and neither had Gia Carredes." - CM

"Les, the dance teacher here, had a little experience but not a lot, and even actually the wonderful grandmother, Barry Otto and, of course, Bill Hunter, one of the great Aussie actors, but never danced, playing the Dance Federation President. So you were saying..." - Baz

"He talked about dance in a way - he went to the essence of it rather than the outside of it. You know, he talked about why you're moving this way, or what's the sensuality of the rumba, or the excitement of the tango or whatever. It wasn't about you do these steps and you stand like this. It's like you move through the air, you possess the space. I mean his way of talking was fantastic, particularly with the actors." - JC

The set design
"CM - talk about the space. Because here we're looking at a set... It was the first film that we'd ever made. And this was probably the first time that I'd ever worked on a set and one of the first film sets that you'd ever created." - Baz

"Well, you were very keen on a set, you always loved the idea of a set, but I must admit we met with some resistance, budgetary resistance for the most part. And also a kind of habitual resistance to the idea of creating scenery because Australia, at this point, was absolutely a location based industry, and there were very very very few studios in Sydney, and we had to find a very large studio to build this set in. But ultimately we managed to convince those that be that this was a very economical and easy way of shooting, because the environment was controlled, and the lighting could be left as is for days. So yes, it was absolutely the first set we built." - CM

"I should comment that the set, everything you see here, and you'll see a bit of this on the rest of the DVD, but there is nothing in this film that is not personal on a sort of gesture level. There's nothing in this film that hasn't been drawn from very very thorough and meticulous research. I mean, we knew dance studios, Potters was a bit of inspiration for this from my memory... But it's indicative truly of your kind of Aussie..." - Baz

CM's dance classes
"Bill and I even went to dance classes in a dance studio." - CM

"Well, there's some that will go too far in the process!" - Baz

"Bill Marron and I took dance lessons. We were hopeless and we were laughing. I think we even got thrown out of one of Cha Cha's classes - that's John O'Connell." - CM

"Yes you did." - JC

"Because of our bad behaviour." - CM

"It was your attitude that was the problem." - JC

"It made us laugh, because we felt embarrassed! But anyway, I was completely cynical about ballroom dancing and I thought that it was sort of lame. But I came to love it. The spectacle of it, the sense of the backstage and the onstage life. It's incredibly glamorous and all of the details, because Baz is so keen on research, are all studied from life. And sometimes I saw things and I thought, "My God, we just haven't gone far enough." - CM

Baz's secrets...
"I think because it's the 10 year anniversary release of the film on DVD, I think I can reveal some secrets now, up to this point so far kept in the sealed section. But I mean, a lot of people know that actually the mother character, who's absolutely extraordinarily performed here by Pat Thomson - she won the Australian Film Institute Award for it - and Barry Otto's performance as Doug. I mean, they're not my parent's, but my mother is a ballroom dance teacher. She was, when we made this film, partnered with her then husband, and they were teachers. And while the characters are different, there is some... I mean, I say this because I, in a kind of curious way, right from the beginning of the play, a lot of characteristics were drawn from those characters. They're not those people but, you know, many people go up to them in the street and say, "weren't you in Strictly Ballroom?" But they are different people, but those characteristics were drawn from there and, in fact, like everything in the plays and the work that I do, finally everything is really drawn from some kind of inspiration from either my life or past. And I just, for me seeing that, I guess whether it ends up being on the commentary or not, you know what I mean? It is really true. I grew up as a competitive ballroom dancer. It was a big part of our lives." - Baz

Support from ballroom dancers
"I just want to say something about the ballroom dancers. Basically, we got such a huge support from the world, even though the story, in some ways, was not particularly flattering to that style of dance. And they were enormously generous by letting us take reference pictures. In fact, all the trophies you see in the cabinets are actually borrowed from a really ballroom dancing studio. They allowed us to film and photograph their environments, them practising dancing. They allowed us to come to class. I think, you know, it's amazing that that community allowed us in, even though it was a movie that challenged what they believed in." - CM

Baz's ballroom vision
"The truth is, here's something to say that we should be clarifying. When we set out to make the original play when I was at drama school, it was stolen as a world, or utilised as a world, a land far far away. On one hand exotic and crazy, but on the other hand very close. And it was simply arrested as a play as to tell a simple fairy tale like story to make a bigger metaphorical idea play. Now, having said that, the world that was created was my memory of a ballroom dancing world, really of the 70s. And I'll come to that in a minute, because it's important in terms of design. Because a bit like Romeo and Juliet and even Moulin Rouge, the coding here - this film was made in the 80's, but this is not the 80's ballroom dancing world. And in fact, the whole world has a sort of mixture of 80's and 70's references in it. Now, the reason I say that is that actually. I mean, I think even this film had some effect on the ballroom dancing community. But even when we made this movie, if you see one of the great competitions at the moment, actually the dancing is absolutely fantastic and people look incredible. And, you know, the truth is that we were sort of stealing, if you like, a kind of - in the same way that one may steal a 50's sensibility about America or a world and utilise it to say that here's a time that we remembered to have certain constraints. This is kind of a 70's memory - it's a memory of the ballroom dancing world of the 70's - which was extremely over the top with all the beehive hairdos, and it was extremely oppressive. If you see dancing from the 70's, it was ludicrously oppressive. A perfect world in which to set a story where a bunch of, sort of, young, creative kids at the National Institute of Dramatic Art wanted to discuss the idea of creative freedom overcoming the idea of creative oppression. Or personal creative gesture overcoming creative oppression. Now CM, you might talk a little bit about that. About the kind of way in which we found the visual language that was sort of universal. Because when I look at this movie - it's not the sort of movie that I look at and go "oh, it's so 80's", because it's not. Because when we made it it was already so 70's, it kind of visually looks - you know, it was kind of set in a no man's land." - Baz

Clarifying the 'ugly ducking'
"Well, I think that was the aim. Because it's a mythical story, the design had to serve the story. And you had to be clear who the hero was, who the ugly duckling of the story was, Fran, for instance. Tara Morice, who plays Fran was an incredibly good sport about being pimpled, having to wear possibly the most disgusting pink t-shirt, and having frizzy hair and wearing horrible gold sandals with socks." - CM

"(laughing) Lay off the hair, that's my hair!" - Baz

"And of course having glasses, because all ugly ducklings have glasses." - CM

"Yes, and there's that extraordinary moment where Scott - I mean, it's incredible that we get away with it, and it's the power of acting again, and it's the power of Tara's performance that you have really this most overt like device of the ugly ducking and her glasses and she plays in this... And the way in which such an overt device passes and you don't notice it, because she takes the glasses off, and he says do you need to wear those, and she says oh well, maybe not, and then they're gone. And that is a potentially disastrous, you know, laughable moment that she manages to ground and make real. So it's a very heightened fairy tale like moment, and she grounds it and makes it real. She does that in the scene that we're watching now." - Baz
(we are watching the scene where Fran introduces herself to Scott)
"You start in a very heightened theatrical style, and now when we get with the two main protagonists - It's true to the style of the films that we've made that once you get to the two lead characters you start to naturalise it just a little bit more, it's just a little bit more realistic, if you like." - Baz

The changing style of ballroom dancing
"I came from an earlier generation than you from the ballroom world, and I remember when..." - JC

"That explains a few things!" - Baz

"No, but the styles do change every 10 years or so they change." - JC

"Yeah, absolutely." - Baz

"Like when I was a kid doing the rumba, you stayed with your partner. By the time we went to see - (to Baz) you remember we went down to Melbourne to see the Festival when we were doing research?... It was 9 o'clock in the morning, and we walked into this hall and it was like someone had given everybody acid or something, there was, like, the final of the samba on or something. Like, it's 9'o'clock in the morning, and you get out of the taxi and you go to this hall and here is, like, the costumes and the choreography. I mean, ballroom dancing is incredibly inventive I find in the choreography, particularly in the Latin section. Do you remember that morning? I was just, like, stunned at what we were seeing" - JC

"I tell you what, Chas. Not only do I remember it, we've got video of that research. And what was staggering was - I mean, we serve the story with all our choices, I believe we did that well. But getting that big finale scene at the end of the film. It was very, I mean, it was, you know..."
(Baz then gets side tracked by John's upcoming cameo appearance as a dance teacher during the try-outs.)
"Now stand by, I'm going to point out to people what you actually look like, because you've been just a voice for too long, Chas. But Chas - I gotta tell you something. I saw that rehearsal footage, and I was shocked how we never really captured just how extraordinary it is. Because these are working class kids, generally, who are really. There you are Cha Cha, there you are! Oh, but you've got the same clothes on the same as today. Same hairdo, you're exactly the same!" - Baz

Dedication of ballroom dancers
"I think one of the things I fell in love with was the degree of hard work and dedication that ballroom dancer's have. And quite frankly, that is all that they - their entire life revolves around dance sport, as it's called." - CM

"But I think the film conveys that - I mean, if you look at the scene we're looking at now, right. There they are in their lives, it's their working life. But actually they only live for the moments where they go into the ballroom world. I understand this. I grew up in a very isolated country town, and when we put on those fancy costumes, we entered into a world. And in that world you could be a star, you could be a judge, you could be taken seriously, there was gossip, there were relationships. I mean, you know, everybody was either in a relationship with either your partner or someone else's partner. You know, so you went into a world, and that world was absolutely as complete, but it was heightened, and that's what you were talking about, Chas, when you went in there. I mean, to walk off the street in Melbourne." - Baz

"Yeah, at 9 o'clock in the morning, there were people in hair and make up that would have taken 3 hours to do, costumes that their mothers and grandmothers and themselves had spent weeks diamonteing, or sewing feathers onto. Like weeks and weeks and weeks into the wee hours getting them ready. And it's not just one member of the family who usually dances. They dance across the whole age group. So there'll be mum and dad, teenagers, young adults and small children. So there's this huge number of people to get ready. So you just think, how did they do it and how do they present themselves. And so many rules and regulations, like you have to tan yourself. Everything follows a kind of a pattern and a rule of behaviour, which takes a huge amount of time and discipline to implement." - CM

"It's interesting that, from the ballroom dancing world, we've gone on - you know, recently we've been working on the DVD's. And you work in the film industry, you work in the theatre industry, you work in the arts, if you like, and there's been no change. I think that transition into a world that, you know, has its own definition from the world at large is something that is encoded in you from this experience of growing up in this crazy yet beautiful world of ballroom dancing!" - Baz

The Coca Cola sign
"Ever since we made this film, people say, "you must have got Coca Cola to finance the movie". because we were so naive that we felt this was a symbol. We needed to find a symbol that said in a singular gesture that, as they go up onto the roof, because this is the first time we go to do an exterior in the whole movie. It's when she takes her glasses off, we go exterior for the first time, we've just only been inside. And we use the Coke sign as a quick way of saying that outside, in the outside industrial world, that's where they live. But we wanted to make quite a beautiful image. And CM, you might talk about how, you know, we basically had to beg and pay to have the Coke sign." - Baz

"Well, Coca Cola was very dubious here in Australia with being associated with ballroom dancing. But finally they allowed us to use the trademark under very strict supervision. We had to have all the sequins made to their PMS colour, and they did contribute some money towards the sign, but not the total budget that it cost. And I think too, what the sign did, was create a late motif that I think has been apparent in this movie and the two following movies." - CM

"And La Boheme, actually." - Baz

"And La Boheme. This kind of love of a very ugly - traditionally thought of as an ugly thing - like a neon sign, or a commercial sign, and it's somehow, because of the way that it's used, is reinterpreted as beautiful and romantic... And I think it's also a very interesting way of undercutting a totally heartfelt or romantic moment that, without a little bit of edge, would just appear to be to sacrilinerally sweet. I think we do the same thing with the church in Romeo and Juliet." - CM

Steve Grace
"Another little thing - you see this little boy here? He's grown up and, if you happen to see Moulin Rouge, he's one of the principal dancers in the film. And, you know, those who are really committed and have the time on their hands can go through and mark up all the scenes he's in, because he's in just about every scene." - Baz

"I believe he also danced with Kylie Minogue at the Olympic Games." - CM

"That's right." - JC

"He's everywhere, that Stevie." - Baz

The style of the film
"But I think this transition in terms of style, it's clearly - now we get more and more naturalistic here. And using this step to suddenly be in an exterior scene was the beginning of kind of layering into the film. You've got this kind of high, you know, people use the word camp. And there's some truth in that, because camp to us has a different - has a very sort of broad meaning in the sense of it's heightened language." - Baz

"I think you told me once that the definition of camp was that it was..." - CM

"Dealing with something very serious in a kind of light-hearted fun way." - Baz

"To allow you to connect with that emotion." - CM

"Well, the first part of that quote I didn't come up with. Someone called Oscar Wilde said it. But um, who knows who he is? But the thing is that we have set out to do is to take that flippant, very very overt - silliness is a word to come to mind, but fantastical silliness, and use it to disarm so that you can actually get access to a very direct emotion. Now, having made a sort of gear change of coming into an exterior world, and strip down into a sort of a naturalistic beat, which is what we saw around the Coke sign, we now plug in the most naturalistic gesture, if you like, and that is the sub plot. And sub plot is that we go home and, of course, she has a secret. She's from an ethnic background, she's from a Spanish background. She's, you know, in this very Anglo world, she's very nervous, protective... she's frightened of revealing that. And when we go around this corner in a moment, suddenly the film, I think, takes this kind of reversal, which is you suddenly show the whole flip side of the coin and we're injecting the whole Spanish world into it. And that's actually something that found its first interpretation of the last interpretation of the play we did. When we first did the play at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, you know, actually, Fran's character was called Jenny and she was an Anglo character. And she was actually called Jenny Wallflower. She was actually a sort of generic, wall flower character." - Baz

Baz's Final Fantasy reference
"I mean this is interesting - when I was talking about how the styles have changed. When we were doing part of the research and we were looking at those videos? Remember there was that video we had of the competition..." - John

"Ah, Latin Fantasy 2?" - Baz

"No, that was one of them, you know..." - John

"Latin Fantasy 2! They stole the title for that science fiction picture from the ballroom dancers" - Baz

"Right" - John (sarcastic)

"You obviously aren't acquainted with Final Fantasy..." - Baz (defeated)

"Final Fantasy, yes." - John

Reflections...
"Anyway, no, I showed you some competition where this couple came out, it was an international competition and all they did was a basic rumba. And the judges, because every 10 years or so the dancing had changed - like, when I left ballroom dancing as a kid about 15 or 16, it had just started to get into the aerobics influence, and the jazz ballet influence and cat suits were coming in and all that sort of influence. So often you could be dancing the rumba and your partner could be, you know, four blocks away. But they just came out and did this basic rumba that you might see in Cuba. It just looks like such a simple beautiful dance that they got 10 out of 10 from every judge, they just cleaned the floor. Because it actually just showed the dance and nothing else. And that was what we tried to do later on when Paul and Tara are behind the curtain. And the fruity rumbas the opposite going on in front." - John

"And again it starts this motif of the different sides of a curtain, which you'll see a bit in Moulin Rouge, and it's without being too heavy handed about it. (Oh, as if we could be!) But you're absolutely right, Chas, you see this kind of reflection between a dance, as you were saying, that's coming from an inner gesture as opposed to a set of spectacular though they may be rules that they are." - Baz

"Just commenting on this here - I mean, we've gone past it a bit but Barry Fife's commenting. Again, if Craig were here and unfortunately he can't as he must work on other projects. But the thing is that constantly clarifying the metaphor. When Barry Fife talks about "I love dancing, Les", I mean, while it's kind of funny to us as outsiders, or an audience as outsiders, that he should speak with such gravity about ballroom dancing and controlling it, there's no difference between that speech from Barry Fife as the president than a South American despot trying to hang on politically to control of his nation. Or dialogue of a football club. So finding this universal comparison between the waning star of the Hollywood movie and the waning star of ballroom dancing, or the all powerful president desperately trying to keep control of his small world. Finding these kinds of universal touch points. You don't expect the audience to think about it, but you do use their understanding of that to clarify and decode the world that they're experiencing in this fairy tale." - Baz

CM's Costumes
"It's a style choice between the simple girl in the floral dress who's connected to the passion of the dance, or the passion of life, or the realities of life or - I'm not really finding the right words. Whereas the ballroom dancers are married to the artificiality, to the glamour, to the surface. And it's about discovering something deeper about dancing and about people. And Fran symbolises that. And all her costumes in the transition from her being an ugly duckling to being Scott's partner are all about that simplicity and that allowing us to see who she is, rather than about Liz who is all hair, tits and feathers." - CM

"Or, in the case of Tina Sparkle, all hair and fruit, really." - Baz

"Yes, the fruit caused one of Cha Cha's and I's biggest arguments, because Angus had coated the fruit in very scratchy glitter and poor Tina Sparkle was wearing this scratchy fruit. And her partner and her kept rubbing each other up and down with these scratchy fruit and basically causing large lacerations all over their bodies." - CM

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
"A little chat about the track - the music in the film... We made the film - the entire picture you're seeing here - for about, I think it was 3 million Australian, which is probably 1.5 million US dollars. So everything was an invention and the soundtrack, which David Hirschfelder did a marvellous job on - and I can remember the wonderful days when we had Jill Bilcock editing. You know, post production just went on and on and on. But those periods of kind of invention - we really had to spend our money very very well. But from day one, we needed to find this kind of emotional - in a way, cheesy is a word that comes to mind - it has this what I like to think of as sort of 'cheesy cool' - that on the one hand was very obvious and very simple, but had an emotional sweetness to it. And I guess what I'm saying is that we really reached out and spent a few bucks on the Doris Day track, and I'm really happy about that." - Baz

Black pants, white shirt
"It's another choice, it's about classicism and about quoting a look that suggests traditional romantic hero out of many films that we may have seen before. And also about connecting him to the dance and to a real connection with another person and a real emotional connection to dancing, rather than him being in a bright yellow blouson sequin top that he wears in the first dance when he's dancing traditional ballroom." - CM

Choreography connections
"It's also the same with the actual choreography, the connection between them... they very rarely have their eyes off each other, whereas the other style..." - John

"Free rumba - their eyes are on the audience mainly. I mean, it's a fundamental gesture. You're quite right, Chas. In their dance, they look to each other, there's a relationship between each other, they're acting out the dance of love, they're acting out two dancers in love. Whereas in the fruity rumba, the performers are looking out to the audience, selling their steps if you like." - Baz

"And also the style steps that they're doing is more or less from the period when Doris is probably singing that song. It's an older sort of style." - John

Baz's first edited scene
(When Fran and Scott are interrupted dancing back stage behind the 'red curtain', Fran is ushered into a backstage dressing room and surrounded by female ballroom dancers)
"This scene was the first scene of anything that I've ever shot in my life that I saw edited. So I remember Jill cut it, and she cut it, and I went downstairs and I saw it and I just - I mean, equally when we first screened the film, this scene was the scene that freaked some people out. They went like, "That woman's evil!" But the idea was to shoot it so that this seemingly quite lovely domestic woman - it was meant to be a bit like the Crucible - where there's the evil of these women surrounding Fran." - Baz

(Cut to scene with Scott and Barry Fife)
"And then you jump to the Barry Fife scene, and of course we're in a sort of servery, but he's sort of meant to be a bit demonic and like they're in hell. You know, hence the large big chunk of meat." - Baz

(Cut to entrance of Tina Sparkle)
"Of course when the angel arrives, she arrives in this sort of archway of light. I mean, they're very simple devices, but it was always finding that each beat was heightened in some way. If you'd just shot it naturalistically, actually, you start to fall out of the contract you've got with the film." - Baz

Barry Fife
For our international audience members who have joined us tonight, you might be intrigued to know that this scene here between the president Barry Fife - I mean, what Bill Hunter the actor here has pegged so perfectly is a particular brand of Australian politician. Like, Australians really recognise Barry Fife is the president of the Federation as really - it's sort of broadly drawn. I mean, Les Patterson who is a character played by Barry Humphries, who plays of course Dame Edna Everage... [Les] is a political creature and is extremely similar to the character that Bill Hunter has drawn there." - Baz

Set discussion - Fran's home
"It was built on to an existing train changing station right under the Piermont, right behind train lines and right behind the Piermont Power Station. And we built on it and created the shop and living quarters for Fran's Spanish family. One of the funny stories was that we were actually shooting a scene inside the milk bar and an inspector tried to close us down from food and health regulations because they thought it was a real shop and where was my paperwork? And there was a giant 35 mil camera, Baz directing and I'm saying, "No, no, no, this is a film set." And they're going, "Look, I just want to see your paperwork. I'm not interested in your fancy showbusiness talk." And I'm going, "Look, they're shooting!" and I had to get Baz to stop and explain to them because they wouldn't believe me." - CM

Antonio Vargas as Rico (Fran's father)
"It was really intriguing because we actually came to know Antonio through someone he knew who was auditioning for the role of Fran. And of course, what was incredible was that Antonio came out of the meeting suddenly cast in the role of the father." - Baz

"Well, he's probably one of the top flamenco dancers in Australia. I think ever since Strictly Ballroom he's been doing nothing but touring the world doing flamenco shows. He had the top school in Sydney in flamenco where we did all of the dance rehearsals for the film in an old studio next to some big silos. And he was great, because I hadn't studied flamenco at all before the film, but six months before I went in and started doing the beginners class and he threw me into the advanced class as well and he said just sink or swim and gave me lots of videos and talks. So he gave me a real feel about it. It was quite daunting, because then I had to turn around and tell him what to do. But he was quite a good sport about it." - John

"Also, I think as a side note - I think Antonio danced at the Moulin Rouge, didn't he, at some point?" - Baz

"Yeah, he did. That is true. He danced, he had a flamenco act at the Moulin Rouge. And another interesting thing is Antonio Vargas wears his own clothes throughout this entire movie, because they were just so perfect for the character. And flamenco clothes in the way that the pants and jackets are cut to show the line of the body, and the shoes are so specific that when we saw him in his own clothes they were just absolutely perfect for the character of this flamenco dancing character." - CM

"But the extraordinary thing about Antonio Vargas is he isn't a tall man physically, but when he dances, he could be 6ft 5 and the precision and energy of the dancing is totally extraordinary. - CM

Introduction to Ya Ya (Fran's grandma)
"Ya Ya is fantastic here but... it was her film performance but she was definitely not a dancer and here's a little secret, I tell the truth. During this rhythm moment here where she's teaching Scott the rhythm - now she unbuttons him there - she couldn't - I don't think I'm being unkind in saying here that she couldn't get the rhythm quite right. So as she is tapping, I am tapping her bottom - I'm leaning over and I'm going smack smack smack on the bottom so that she gets it basically in time. I think that's a fair secret to reveal, isn't it?" - Baz
*silence*
"No, okay." - Baz
"Yes." - CM

The significance of Scott's white singlet
"I should also say that this - what we call a singlet - I think in America they call them wife beaters." - CM

"Really, I thought it was just a tank top?" - Baz

"No, they call them wife beaters. It's a very traditional Australian garment that was worn by all Australian working men by a company called Bonds." - CM

"Well interestingly, in fact, after the film, Paul went on to be kind of the spokesperson for Bonds and, in fact, if you go to Barneys now in New York, Bonds are a very cool kind of t-shirt. And, in fact, Sarah O'Hare is now representing the Bonds brand, the jacket." - Baz

Antonio's gold jacket
"Now here comes possibly the most expensive jacket in the whole of Strictly Ballroom. I think it was the most lengthy to produce. We imported a lot of traditional bull fighting ornamentation from Spain, we bought all of our flamenco boots in from Spain, and I think this, for us, was huge. It took nearly six weeks of manufacture." - CM

Most expensive things in the film
"And here's the most expensive shot, and that's because we had to hire a train. We did that twice." - Baz

"There were two expensive things [within the production design budget] - the train was extremely expensive. And there was one other thing. In the middle of the dance floor behind this little shack was a telegraph pole and it was the second most expensive thing to remove it, because we needed the dance floor clear." - CM

Gia Carides as Liz
"Something about Gia actually as an actress there, she really pegs the character but, you know, there's nothing about her that's real. I mean, it's obviously a fake tan and fake blonde hair but blue eyes as well - she's wearing contact lenses - to capture that incredible kind of anglo character." - Baz

The potato sack line
(As Ya Ya fixes Fran's dress, she tries to reassure Fran's self confidence by saying, "Your mother could wear a potato sack and still light up the stage.")
"One of my favourite lines of the movie." - CM

"You know where that came from, actually, that you could wear a potato sack. They once said that Marilyn Monroe was so beautiful that she could wear a potato sack and still light up the screen." - Baz

"And she did!" - CM

"And she did. And, in fact, as sort of a publicity shot they got Monroe in a potato sack and... it's kind of a quote about that idea." - Baz

Barry's hair
"Is that - I've never been sure, but is that Barry's real hair?" - Baz

"No, it is a toupee." - CM

"I was joking. I mean, please, I mean I was joking, I mean really..." - Baz   (everyone laughs at Barry's hair)

One of Baz's faves
"This is one of my favourite scenes and I guess I like this work because what's sort of so great about it is because there's many characters in life and they're not that rare - there's some particularly famous ones in the film world - who are prepared to do and say anything in the moment to achieve their aim. And Barry's focus here is to get that boy to change his mind. And the way in which he tells this ridiculously fantastic lie, or bends the truth. And it leads to I think one of the biggest lessons we had on Strictly Ballroom, this flashback sequence you're about to see." - Baz

Flashback sequence
"When we originally wrote it, Craig and I wrote it as a very elaborate, detailed - it was going to be sort of heightened looking, but all the scenes were real. So you saw them at festivals, you saw them winning at festivals, you saw the flashback of the father, Doug, winning. And it was all naturalistic and heightened in colours. And naturally as we got closer and closer to shooting, budget simply didn't allow it. But we didn't really find out about this until we were in the shoot. And the very good line producer, who one has to acknowledge in a really strong way said, "Look, I think you're going to have to find another solution." And I think this is one of the strengths of the way in which we work together - both working with CM and Chas and Steven - we were able to reconceive it into what I find is one of my favourite sequences, which is this very theatricalised flashback sequence, which is utilising the conventions of theatre to sort of tell the story. I mean it's really kind of like a Broadway musical meets Cafca or Bredt in the way in which this is told. And watching it again - I mean, I think it works really well in terms of story telling, but it was such a lateral leap we had to make to find a solution for a very difficult economic reality." - Baz

The spirit of Strictly Ballroom
"The crew and everyone involved in Strictly Ballroom - there was this incredible spirit to do this film. Because at the time this film was made - you have to understand that this kind of cinema was not existing in the Australian cinematic form and for the crew, it was a very fresh and unusual experience - they really believed in it. And it was the first day of shooting that I didn't make my schedule day and we simply couldn't go back, it was like, "What are we going to do?" And the crew got together and voted to give us an extra afternoon to finish - for free." - Baz

"But we still have to go on with the day that was scheduled the next day. So we had to strike the entire set - repaint the whole floor because we were going back to Kendall's Dance Studios the next day, so we worked through the night. Then two days later we rebuilt the whole thing overnight again." - CM

Special effects
(the wobble glass for the flashback sequence)
"There was only one special effect in the whole movie. Isn't it incredible - this is only 10 years ago - I mean, that was one special effect. And this little bit of wobble glass was like - it nearly drove us all crazy. It was like, "Oh my God, we've achieved such heights of cinematic technical magic." - Baz

"Well, there were no digital effects. Every effect is achieved optically." - CM

CM's favourite prop
(When Scott hears Barry's story about his father, he checks his family's photo album to verify it's true)
"Now, favourite prop. An actual Baz Luhrmann family album that we cannibalised. And some quite bad Photoshop work done to replace Doug's head." - CM

The Pan Pacific Championship
"Now here's a story to tell. My actual second day of shooting was at this event. This is a real festival with real ballroom dancers and a real crowd. And the deal we made by giving a gift and supporting the ballroom dance world was that we would, in their lunch hour - can you believe, in their lunch hour, in their break for an hour - we would shoot all the wides to the final scene. So my second day of shooting - it's five cameras. One hour into the shooting we've got a tenth of the shots done. About 2 hours later, the crowd that you're seeing are in protest, and they're starting to protest the actual experience. And they're leaving on mass - so they're starting to leave the auditorium and Popsy Albert, who eventually came in and was one of the producers on the film, she went running around throwing clothing over the green chairs to try and make the auditorium look like it was full." - Baz

"Truly?" - John

"Absolutely. It was one of the most hair raising experiences, because it was my second day of shooting, and we were losing the crowd. And I had this moment, which I've told many times, where I said, "Look, I'll just be back in a minute," and we were in the middle of doing a shot. And in retrospect, I could see him thinking, "That's it, he'll never make it this guy." And I went in next door and actually Peter Green who was doing Paul's medical work, you know, massage, because of his damaged ankle - remember that Paul Mercurio danced this whole final scene with a damaged ankle - and he gave me this kind of back cracking massage. And it sort of clicked me back to life. And so I just went out there and we just drove on - and no matter what we got the wides. And all these close ups were shot on another day of shooting with 50 extras the next day." - Baz

Lara Mulchay as Natalie (Fran's dancing partner)
"And Natalie that is dancing with Fran there is an actress called Lara Mulchay who is actually also..." - CM

"In Moulin Rouge playing the role of Mome Fromage. And she's one of the girls in the Marmalade section." - Baz

"Her mother is a dance teacher and she has danced from when she was little." - CM

Paul Mercurio
"Now what's interesting is that Paul, who I think you know - I mean it was his first film and it's very hard to remember that when you see how solid I think his work is in it. But when were rehearsing, the night before he sprained his ankle. And he was in great pain, but went on to actually dance the big finale." - Baz

Strictly Ballroom 2?
"We've often gone and planned on doing the sequel to Strictly Ballroom. I mean, it's not probably something that we will do. But if we do we intend to set the - we were at one stage, you know, well if we did do it we'd set the finale at the Olympics in Australia. Because now Dance Sports, as it's called, is an Olympic sport, actually. And it's probably worth saying that actually to dance like this is incredibly hard aerobic work. And they are extraordinarily fit people. And when you think of it as a sport it's really quite a test." - Baz

A life lived in fear is a life half lived
"I really haven't talked... about the notion. I mean, the play when originally conceived was conceived as a metaphor for overcoming oppression. And it is the David and Goliath myth, and that is really segwayed with the ugly duckling transition or transformation we had. But we were always looking for how to resolve it and the touchstone, and the touchstone that runs through the whole structure is the touchstone of a life lived in fear is a life half lived. And while it is true - because of course Scott learns that from Fran, which is a saying that Fran learned from her grandmother - and while it is true that there is a kind of Spanish saying that is vaguely like that. Anyway, we picked up that saying, I think from a television show really." - Baz

Aussie vocab
"What I was reminded of when I saw the film again was of how colloquial the language is. I mean, those Aussie terms of phrase. I mean, it's sore of Chifflesque - and Chiffley was an Australian Prime Minister who had a very particular way of speaking. And I think for the generation - certainly my father's generation - all those you know, "Oh we were scruffing around, chucking around, break out the bollingers sweet chops!" You know, that kind of - I mean, it's alive today, but it's less prevalent I think, as a language style in Australia. I mean, the sound of any country evolves and changes and in fact the sort of Australian accent and word usage has changed a great deal. But Barry Fife really defines that older style of Aussie sort of strine." - Baz

Discussing short lens
"People have often talked about this style of shooting because there was very strong decisions made going in - it had to be a heightened world. The decision about using a short lens - short focal lens, or basically wide angle lenses - which gives a lot of the adult characters this kind of really over the top, big big close ups. The decision about that was that while our principal leads - the protagonists, if you like - are quite real. The way that Scott sees the world around him is almost like heightened cartoon characters. They're very cartoon like characters but sort of, in a way, cartoons out of control. It's a bit like when you give clowns scissors, you know? Sort of dangerous characters. And that was the motive behind doing these extreme close ups on all of the sort of adult world characters." - Baz

'The clap'
"I remember the clapping. Trying to get it musically..." - John

"Oh, getting everybody to clap. We were crazy. But David Hirschfelder was really fantastic here because he actually got out there - I mean, to get everybody in wide shots to clap in time was near on impossible and he got out there in front of everybody with two great big sticks and just started clapping. And then finally in post production, Jill Bilcock - who I've got to say was incredible on this and we actually moved in and lived with Jill because it just took months and months and months and months of cutting. You know, because we were trying to find the style - she and Roger Savage who did the sound - the clap, as we used to call it, nearly drove us absolutely insane just to get it right. And eventually we discovered that embracing the problem with it, which was that they were out of time, and making an echo so there was a sense that it wasn't purely in time until finally Scott's dance built to a rhythm whereby everyone's in unison. So they're all struggling - the audience, the dancers - everyone's struggling to be in rhythmic unison." - Baz

Shakespearian musical?
"In a classical sense - some would say it's not a musical - but in a classical sense it is a musical comedy in form - or Shakespearian in form - in the sense that all the characters in the end are sort of forgiven. In a moment, even Barry and Charm recognise that they cannot hold back the tide of change and everyone is unified in a kind of final number. You know, I mean in the end of a Shakespearian comedy." - Baz

Tara's transformation
"And doesn't Tara look radiant. Everything has changed about her from the beginning." - John

"Well I think that's her greatest achievement, I've got to say, I think that's one of the tremendous - I mean it's a tremendous piece of acting, there's no doubt about it. It's tremendous - the way in which she grades herself from this ludicrous over the top ugly duckling character, then she suddenly grades it down, and if you look at each scene - Now in terms of acting, and the work of acting, I mean a very good actor and one that has a great deal of craft will look at each scene and say, "Well, how has my character evolved or changed in this scene from the last scene?" And I think it's a copy book example of an actor progressively changing beat by beat so that you don't really identify - I mean, here she is, finally, star of the ballroom floor - the ballroom queen really. Warm, human, beautiful. And yet there wasn't really that sort of uncomfortable gear change moment of now I put on a new wig and take my glasses off. And that is something I am very impressed by, I was very impressed by at the time, and I still am even after watching all these years." - Baz

The final shot
"Where did we shoot that? Was that at the festival, that samba?" - John
"The finale? Yeah, all those people that were left came down and joined us on the floor." - Baz

Ted Albert
"This film is dedicated to Ted Albert, and I want to say something rather important here. Ted was Tristram's producing partner and it was a great struggle to make this film, to get the finance. Believe you me, no one ran out and said, "Ballroom dancing? That's a great idea." And it took years for us to get financing, and Ted believed in it from day one. And after being really the sort of spiritual - sort of our leader in the fight - he died of a heart attack not long before shooting began. Incredibly, his wife Popsy Albert stepped in and worked with Tristram Miall in partnership and went on to produce the film. But there was a moment there when a very big decision had to be made. And naturally we're all very thankful that Popsy did step in, but also it's why the film is dedicated to Ted, because I always think to myself - I wonder, I feel that he would have been proud of what we did in such constraints. I hope that it got somewhere near what he hoped it would be." - Baz

Pat Thomson
"The other thing to say is that Pat Thomson, who was I think extraordinary in the film, also died really not knowing that she had won the awards, not knowing what a great success it was and it was her last film. And really, all I often think about is what a great loss - apart from personal sadness - is what a great loss it was in terms of the work, because she truly was one of the great actors in the country. - Baz
And also what a great spirit too - like heaven to work with. And she was really excited because she was going to go to Cannes for the opening the week before." - John

"I remember, at the time, I was very - because Strictly Ballroom, what has to be understood is that it absolutely came from no where. We had made the film and the original distributor had gone, "that will never work." And we were selected for Cannes, and this shocked everyone. We went to Cannes - no one had seen the film - and we screened at a midnight screening and within 24 hours, we'd been sold all over the world - it was one of the most incredibly explosive moments in the history of Cannes. And it was really, our feet did not touch the ground for a year. There was a year of openings, and it's sort of irrepressible spirit in a way went on and effected the world by varying degrees, and we were really at the centre of that. And so many things happened that were not easy to just write off in a kind of glib sentence, you know? It's a very special story - not only the making of Strictly Ballroom - that very first work of ours that we all worked together on in terms of film, I mean it wasn't the first work we'd been on but the first film - and you never quite regain that magic, it was such a magical first work really." - Baz