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Introduction:¬¬¬¬
Australian filmmakers have been among the front runners in film making across the world and have had an influence the world cinema through their contributions. Baz Luhrmann is undisputedly one among them and has an international imagealong with cult following, which he has earned through his signature style of lavish movie making.Baz’s career and his films often reflects the broader trends of Australian and world cinema during his childhood.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the career of Baz Luhrmann in the context of a broader picture of Australian and international trends in movie making, specifically in light of auteur theory. The essay will consider some of his movies towards understanding the same.
To discuss the career of Baz Luhrmann, the essay presents his career, which will be placed in a larger setting of Australian and world trends. Then, the essay presents the auteur theory lucidly andits relevance to Baz, as an auteur. Through his popular works: Red Curtain Trilogy(a term coined by himself); the Great Gatsby; and Australia, the essay emphatically presents the style of Baz in context of auteur theory.
Baz Luhrmann- Career:
Baz’s career stands as an example of his own dialogue- “A life lived in fear is a life half lived” from his first movie, which is now used as the motto of his company Bazmark Inq. With many awards on his name, he also has a distinction of directing and producing two academy award winning films “Moulin rouge!” and “The Great Gatsby”.
Baz is well known for his Red curtain trilogy, through which he made an entry into film making. First to release in the trilogy was- “Strictly ball room”, which was based on aplay which he had written and directed earlier. The movie won him several awards and made him familiar to many people. He later directed Romeo+Juliet a modern retelling of the Shakespeare play, and followed it with academy award winning Moulin Rouge!, these three films constitute his “The Red Curtain Trilogy”. Though not in sequels or prequels, the spectacular visuals and ambience set in the story, with the unique style of Baz, keep them bundled as a trilogy. His popular films later include- Australia and The Great Gatsby.
Baz is one of the world’s renowned Australian filmmakers who is presenting Australian cinema to the international audience in an extravagant and stylish manner. As an evidence to his talent, three movies made by himstand among the top 10 highest grossers of Australian movies. Baz Luhrmann is also termed by few as the man who brought Hollywood to Australia. Through his films Australia and The Great Gatsby he brought Hollywood production houses and stars to Australia while other movie makers shift to other countries from here. As he is highly discrete and lavish in making a movie,his film making techniqueshave an impact on other films but only to a partial level.
Reflection of larger trends:
Baz luhrmann’s works have their share of presenting Australia cinema to the Hollywood in an artistic and stylish way.Though his movies reflect the broader trends of international films(than Australian films) , they have their uniqueness as well. The trends can be discussed with the help of the distinctions depicted in the movie.
First, through his films Baz tries to re-imagine the story once known in a different and lavish way. It can be clearly observed in retelling of Romeo- Juliet story as a modernized version of the original play. The distinction is that he mostly used the original dialogue, when the retellings in modern time are generally modified with different dialogues and characters. This slightly deviates from the larger trend present at times,Every movie in his Red Curtain trilogy reflects his love for theatre art of Australia and Hollywood musicals which he watched during his childhood days.One of his favorite films “Medium cool” also uses the same re-imagining technique to narrate a historic event building fictional drama around it.
Second, he tries to explore many movies and literary works pan the world and these works reflect in his movies. Once when asked about inspiration of Moulinrouge! He answered it was originated as an idea to create comic-tragedy after watching a Bollywood movie in India which made audience so involve. And then he started on writing based on Camille and La Boheme. But he did not succumb to the points which inspired him, rather he adapted them into his style with music and romantic element with theatre as the backdrop.Third, music is one of the most inspired things inhis movies. He is one of the filmmakers who tried to bring back the olden days of musical films which use songs as a narrative.To give his movies an abstract feel,he often uses anachronistic music which doesn’t match with the timeline set in. This touch of music is a deviation from the norm, where emphasis on modern styles of music is given.
Finally, another famous known style of his movie making is the cinematography in his movies. With his panning cameras and motion incorporated zoom-ins,he follows famous known cinematographic techniques used before , but what makes him discrete is his usage of lighting to focus on ambience with wide frame,through which he enthralls the audience by presenting them with dazzling and spectacular visual aesthetics..He sometimes refers to Satyajit ray’s “Apu triology” which uses wide camera angles to enhance the scenery as one of his inspirations. His aesthetics in movie are also influenced by the film“Star 80”. His unusual work on cinematography and music are often adapted at places by other regional film makers.
Auteur’s theory and Baz Luhrmann:
“Auteur”is the French word for “author”. Auteur theory places the director at the center of the entire film and the theorists argue that the film reflects thevision of directors, as if it is their own writing. According to Andrew Sarris, a proponent of auteur theory, director must reflect his style of making into the movie using his own techniques and create a signature mark of his own on the movie looks and storytelling.As per the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, auteur theory is defined as- “a view of filmmaking in which the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture”. So, an auteur creates his own style of signature in movies he makes, with whatever the constraints in production and cast it has, while a normal filmmaker will be unable to reflect his own style into the movie and go as per story or production etc.
Baz is an undisputedly an auteur who reflects his vision into lavish and stylish piece of art. Though he has been criticized often for choosing style over substance in his movies, all he tries to entertain the audience by the spectacular shows he promises them. Hecarries a discrete style and Visual ambiance along with unique cinematographic techniques and music usage in his movies – so he can be described as an ‘auteur’ in accordance with Andrew Sarris’ auteur theory.Emphasis on auteur’s theory encourages the young film makers to develop their own style in film making, as can become a prerequisite for the survival in the film industry. An auteur director has the crowd pulling capacity as few sector of cult audience like the style of his movies. Branding their movies into specific genres and promoting their movies by the unique style of film making is called as post-auteurism, where the director is itself a brand of promoting the movie.
Baz can be regarded as a post-auteur, he promotes his movie with his style of making in trailers and videos cut and he even terms them as separate genre. He is quite a bit of showman who coined a new term of “Red Curtain Cinema” a new genre for the films he made and clearly explains the term with one of his characters- Harold Zidler from his academy award winning film Moulin Rouge. This can be described as an example of Post –auteurism,where self-promoting and branding his style is seen. The ambience set in his first three films explain the style of Baz with their flashing artistic set decoration, Theatre setting in all the three and steep camera angles at places with musicals narrating the story, they also reflect the childhood of Baz which has been mostly in a theatre.It can be noted that every movie of his from “Strictly Ballroom” to “The Great Gatsby” has won an international award in the department of Art direction and costume design. He prefers his unique style to be reflected in film sets and costumes.
However, Luhrmann gives this credit to whole team of his films (Bazmark team).The problem in auteur theory is that it tends to ignore other significant efforts under the directors signature work, which is one of the opposing elements of auteur theory. It sometimes attributes others work to the director.Although it is under his vision that the work happens, the person who was responsible to carry directors visions should be given due and significant credit. One such example is Chris Noonan who was appreciated for Babe(1995) movie for his efforts but again much of this credit was given to George miller (an auteur) who was the producer of the movie. It is right that George miller came up with idea and adaptation but Chris who carried his thoughts into making a movie with his hard work was sidelined by few critics at the beginning analyzing the movie by auteur theory, but later on after the academy nomination we can say he got what he deserved.
In some instances, the same occurs with Baz. The film always displaysdifferent styles of all technicians such as art direction, music, costume design, but Baz is given most of the credit. This explains why auteur theory is not always helpful in analyzing films. But it doesn’t mean that Baz hasno impact in other departments, he is the one who visualizes everything and molds it into his unique style(a quality of an absolute auteur) and it is through his style that movies are seen by the audience. What justifies Baz more as an auteur is the Auteur awardpresented to him by IPA(International press academy) in 2008 and what makes it more special is the fact that he is the only one to be awarded so among Australian directors. His films carry his signature. It can be explained based on his works- The Red curtain trilogy; the great Gatsby; and Australia.
The Red curtain trilogy:
His first three films are set in an atmosphere of theatre with dancing, music and plays. The style of Baz can be seen in four aspects. First, his auteuristic style can be observed in the extreme close ups and zoom ins in cinematography and also in flashing dark costumes in beautiful sets with lavish feel.Second, the genre is related to romantic-comedy in each of the three films. His main signature is the struggling love between the lead characters which has been carried out in all the trilogy.Third, the music in the movies ranges in traditional styles like opera and ballroom music etc.Themelodramatic acting in Moulin rouge! is present in all the three movies. Fourth, one more similar style in these movies is he makes the audience aware that they are watching a movie through the red curtain telling.In all the three movies,the outcome at the end is hinted at the start through various shots. This makes them interesting.
Australia:
In the movie- Australia, he comes out of his previous genre of “Red Curtain cinema”, but not his style. Australia is the movie many people turned their eyes onto when it was announced. Baz luhrmann came out of his genre to make a movie closer to his home. He decided to set his style of romance into the story of stolen generations, mixed-race aboriginal children who were separated from their family to integrate them into the white-society, he emphasized on depicting Australia as a mythologized one.
Australia movie recorded the second highest grossing in Australia following Crocodile Dundee. Baz’s movies fared well both internationally and domestically.The movie stands unique and stylish for the following reasons, justifying he is an auteur. First, the struggling love between lead pair exists and genre is romantic –comedy in mythological history period (as said by him). Second, the costumes are well detailed and beautiful for the timeline. Third, the contemporary music tracks used show his style on music. Fourth, the pan cinematography techniques and exploring the beauty of surrounding makes it aesthetic.
As he emphasized, Australia can be little different from his other movies, but his mark is evident in this too.
The Great Gatsby:
The Great Gatsby is an excellent example to portray his emphasis on cinematography and aesthetics. This movie was shot in Stereoscopic 3D and follows many other cinematographic and VFX techniques used before, but what differentiates them is that it combines the style of baz luhrmann’s kind of cinematography which emphasizes dazzling colors and set decoration.
The way he shot the car ride which is often called “The Great ride” is a perfect blend of the close ups and steep camera angle style of Baz mixed with excellent ambience around and appropriate VFX made it look refreshing and thrilling to watch in 3D.It is possible for his audience to notice his style in the shots. There are other auteristic styles as well. First, the struggling love continues in this one too and genre is romantic-drama. Second, the lavish sets and extra dazzling lighting with dashing and detailed costumes are little more extravagant in this. Third,the heightened reality of the situation in the timeline is shown. He uses visual media and newspapers at every point to narrate the story. Finally, the contemporary music is used at many places.
Baz Luhrmann can definitely be called an Auteur who ensures his style and trademark visible in the final film. He doesn’t seem to let the suggestions of production houses down, or let his vision compromise. He is unapologetic on the point that he creates unnecessarily lavish sets and ambience. He feels them necessary to attract and offer the audience a magnanimous experience. He works mostly with the same team which helps him to maintain his style and the team itself has a mark of its own.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the essay that Baz Luhrmann is an auteur with his trademark movie making skills. He has a unique of presenting the movie in terms of the visual and aesthetic appeal. His movies stand apart from others, in terms of being lavish. In the larger trends of Australian and world cinema, he stands unique with his popular “Red Curtain Cinema” type of genre and only escalates his style later in career when he does the movies- Australia and The Great Gatsby.
There is enough evidence in terms of his style to call him an auteur as discussed above, as per auteur’s theory. He is one of the rare directors, who brands the movie by his name and maintains his own mark in the films, without letting the production houses down, while keeping his vision intact. Every movie of his depict his talent very well and justify him as an auteur. Though he can be considered an auteur, he cherishes the success of his movie with his team and presents the audience with fantastic outputs. His flavor for cinematography, storytelling, music and aesthetics keeps him uniquenot only in the Australian film industrybut also in the World Cinema.