Australian director Baz Luhrmann burst onto the international scene with his hit film, "Strictly Ballroom," a funny, campy romantic fable set in the world of competitive dance. Originally produced by Luhrmann as a 30-minute stage play, "Strictly Ballroom" premiered at the...
[more]Australian director Baz Luhrmann burst onto the international scene with his hit film, "Strictly Ballroom," a funny, campy romantic fable set in the world of competitive dance. Originally produced by Luhrmann as a 30-minute stage play, "Strictly Ballroom" premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix de Jeunesse, as well as a Special Mention for the Camera d'Or.
It was, however, Luhrmann's hip, updated version of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" -- renamed "Romeo+Juliet" (1996) -- that really grabbed everyone's attention. While some critics felt that the intense visual and aural overload and unskilled acting eclipsed the venerable text, the flashy, violent, in-your-face production, which featured a south-of-the-border gangland setting, vivid Catholic iconography, and a drag queen Mercutio, struck a chord with the MTV generation. The film grossed more than $11 million its first week, unusual for a production of Shakespeare (albeit an ultra-modern one), and launched a big-selling soundtrack.
Trained at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Luhrmann has worked as an actor, director, producer (as well as a guest editor for the Australian version of Vogue magazine), and before making films, he was already a veteran of the stage. He helped put on several operas, both classic and original, including a version of "La Boheme" set in the 1950s. In 1989 Luhrmann produced the innovative theater event "Dance Hall," in which participants celebrated the end of World War II at a party in a 1940s dance hall.
Since "Romeo+Juliet," Luhrmann has even become, quite unexpectedly, a sensation in the music industry. One of the songs on "Something for Everyone," his album of remixed and reinterpreted music, became for a while the most requested song at radio stations all over the United States. Originally a cyber hoax, the spoken-word song, "Everyone's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)" begins, "To the ladies and gentlemen of the Class of '99," and contains life advice, in a commencement address format, that was misattributed to Kurt Vonnegut and emailed around the world. As his album title suggests, Luhrmann really does offer "something for everyone."
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