Synopsis
"From Baz Luhrmann - the
director of the award-winning hits Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge!
- comes Strictly Ballroom... the hilariously funny romantic comedy that's sure to
leave you laughing, cheering and feeling great! It's the magical story of a championship
ballroom dancer who's breaking all the rules, and his ugly duckling dancing partner.
Together they make their dreams come true! Now celebrating its glorious 10th Anniversary -
you're sure to enjoy this exhaustively funny comedy as it dances and soars its way
straight into your heart."
- from the Red Curtain Trilogy Strictly Ballroom DVD cover.
Baz Luhrmann launched his cinematic career with the 1992 film, Strictly Ballroom, a romantic comedy centred around the world of competitive ballroom dancing in Australia. The movie was an adaptation of an original, thirty minute play of the same name that was devised and directed by Luhrmann and first staged in 1986. At the end of 1988, Luhrmann was approached by producer Tristram Miall to transform his play into a movie. What resulted was Luhrmann's first film, and what would become the first installment of his Red Curtain Trilogy. Both the play and movie are based on characters that Luhrmann can relate to through his own experiences as a ballroom dancer during his childhood. What results is a highly energetic and entertaining Australian movie featuring colourful costumes, animated characters and a feel-good plot that will leave you smiling.
The following excerpt is taken from the excellent Strictly Ballroom book featuring the screenplay written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. The book also features several short reviews of the film, as well as this introductory passage from the producer that describes the journey of turning Luhrmann's play into a hit Australian film.
From the Producer -
Tristram Miall
At the end of 1988, Ted Albert and I approached Baz Luhrmann about turning the fifty
minute stage production of Strictly Ballroom into a feature film almost double
that length. We knew that the play had worked in front of a wide variety of audiences in
Sydney, Brisbane and Czechoslovakia where it had won awards for best play and best
direction at an international drama festival in Bratislava.
We also knew it had the three key elements we were looking for - humour, music and dance.
Ted loved the old Hollywood MGM musicals of the thirties and forties. What we wanted to
create was an all-Australian contemporary realisation of that tradition. It was a bold
idea given that dance movies barely feature at all in Australian features production. At
Baz's insistence and with our full support, boldness and a refusal to compromise became
the standard for the film.
The development of the script was a fascinating, frustrating and finally fulfilling
journey, which took us all down many dead-ends over a two year period. Those dead-ends
featured allegorical sub-plots, that we later realised added cnfusion, interrupted the
energy and cost to much to shoot. What better reasons could there be for dropping them?
The strenggth of the script came from its simplicity. The challenge was always to get the
structure right.
An early trip to Cannes to excie overseas distributors with our script was unsuccessful.
Why couldn't they see what we could see so clearly? Baz acted out scenes in front of jaded
Hollywood distributors, waltzing one minute, doing a rumba the next. Despite this, none
wanted to bite. We did our best to give a taste of the style of the film and particularly
the humour - without success - 'Strictly What? did you say, Strictly Boring?'
Getting any feature film up and made is a roller-coaster ride, with exhilerating highs and
gut-wrenching lows. The worst came just a the script had reached a stage where we were all
happy with it. My partner Ted Albert, the one of us who had seen the original play and
suggested it as our first feature, died suddenly of a heart attack.
In the end, with help first and foremost from Ted's widow, Popsy Albert who joined the
film as Executive Producer; but also from Andrew Pike at Ronin Films, and the Australian
FIlm Finance Corporation and many good friends, perseverance won out and we moved into
production. That was another exhilerating journey. This script is the result of the strong
and sustained belief of the key people involved in itscreation. The film that grew out of
it reflects the passion of all of those who then contributed to its realisation.
Sydney, 1992
'Strictly Ballroom'
Click
here to buy this book from amazon.com, featuring
the screenplay, movie reviews and images from the film.
