Strictly Ballroom [DVD]

Let's do the technical stuff first. First DVD release was horrible. Video was washed out and audio was not great. Probably rushed out when film started to take off in the mid 90's. It had a minor success when released in Australia in 1992. People there knew of it and it developed a "cult" following...and launched Baz Luhrmann's directorial career. Australian movies are light on sets and are mainly shot on location, so some of the "inside" angles, lighting and composition aren't Hollywood. Video quality in later releases was much better, the latest DVD relase has brilliant colors and the audio is digitized. All in all a DVD of respectable quality. (Get the DVD in the case showing a red curtain) I have not yet seen the blu-ray version. Vendors are holding it hostage at about US$25.00..so I'll wait. Now, the story & its production. I worked with video in the TV news biz for 50 years so I know a little bit abut film techniques that might help you along in your understanding of how certain "feelings" are extracted from the audience. Luhrmann starts off the movie with a musical flourish, swirling colors and good music (he's got your eye now)...then segues into a semi-documentary style with several of the actors talking in soundbites ala local TV to help set up the story(now you understand the story and its emotional base). And its a story of the intense competition in amateur dance in Australia. If you fear soccer moms and their intensity or Little League dads...well you get the idea. The fact that young Scott is a rebellious lad who has tremendous talent, but no desire to dance the steps dictated by Australian Dance Federation rules...has his mother and partner upset to the point of tears.Enter Fran, a rookie student at the same dance school where Scott's the number one male dancer. Luhrmann is sneaky. He and crew do some neat things to make their story move along and help you see that the two main characters are the core of the story...and help you figure out that there's more going on between Scott and Fran than a tango or two. Notice that all the other dance pairs are looking away from each other when they dance, while Scott and Fran are always looking at each other. Tells you right away where their focus is. Notice how, at the beginning, Fran really is an ugly duckling. (Morice played her role without makeup it seems for the first third of the movie--that takes guts). Then her hair settles down, the makeup goes on and she becomes a really nice looking girl...not sexy, but like many attractive girls....certainly someone any of us merely human males could find and get acquainted with at a high school dance. And with that change, and her determination, the audience falls for Fran in her quest...first to dance with Scott, even though she's a rookie....and then her increasing infatuation with him. Reviewers said the movie had Australian women crying and Australian men joining dance clubs. You'll love the movie. It's now somehwerre in my top five all time, along with Casablanca, The third Man, Lawrence of Arabia and Bourne 3. And it needs a sequel. Fran & Scott need to complete their relationship. Other notes: Paul Mercurio (Scott)is currently hosting a cooking show, and is a judge in the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars. Tara Morice, Fran, is still an actress. She has had minor parts in several Lurhmann productions and larger parts in a couple of other movies and on Australian TV. Before Strictly Ballroom she had never danced professionally. She also sings one of the songs on the soundtrack which is worth owning. Mercurio is the son of an American-turned-Australian charactor actor you saw in Crocodile Dundee. He is a dancer by trade who had never acted till Strictly Ballroom. By the way, he finished the big ending scene on a badly sprained ankle.

Wonderful story, love and dance.

Baz Luhrmann’s unforgettable début feature film, an unlikely hit at the Cannes International Film Festival when it was first screened in May 1992, belongs to a handful of DVDs that my family will re-watch religiously over the winter holidays, year after year, without even becoming bored by the experience. Why? Because the film's fairy tale qualities, amazingly over-the-top dance numbers, nostalgia rich, MTV-era soundtrack, and memorable cast of Australian and immigrant characters never seem to get old. It’s like Sound of Music, but vastly better, especially when it comes to Generation X viewers and their progeny.Here's the holiday viewing list in its entirety: Strictly Ballroom, The Muppet Movie, Sideways, My Neighbor Totoro, Little Miss Sunshine, Goodbye Lenin, and Waking Ned Devine. Quite an eclectic mix, I grant you, but each of the films has such feel-good (and family friendly) cinematic energy that you can’t help but laugh, cry, and celebrate the sheer audaciousness and extreme artistry of the directors, actors, set designers, cinematographers, and producers who willed movies like these into existence. I mean, what were the odds that such ugly duckling movies would even get made, let alone sold years later as DVDs on Amazon? It boggles the mind.Strictly Ballroom may be particularly well suited for viewing with younger children and adolescents schooled on reality TV shows like “Dancing with the Stars” or who have never seen an Australian movie from the early 90s. The colors, the accents, the sheer fantasy of it all - simply stunning. Cyndi Lauper's “Time after Time," covered by Mark Williams and Tara Morice, never sounded better, not have I ever wanted to dance to Doris Day's "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" as much as when watching the lead actors practice their dance moves on rooftops, in studios, and while Spanish guitar players strum and strut on a forlorn backyard patio in the railroad district of town. And John Paul Young's "Love is in the Air" makes you want to relive your young adulthood all over again, as if there were not a single cynical bone in your world-weary body.It’s not so much that Baz alluded to fairy tales like the Ugly Duckling and Cinderella in this, his first film from the "Red Curtain Trilogy," as that he actually created an original and timeless fairy tale of his own making. It’s the most autobiographical of his movies, and the one with the greatest staying power. It will strike you like a flash of lightning when you first watch it, so set the stage extremely well. Choose a big screen. Light a fire and collect lots of blankets and pillows. Pour a glass of sparkling wine (and chill a second bottle in the fridge). Hold hands with someone you adore – and settle in for an emotional thrill ride that will leave you breathless!

I loved this story and I loved the dancing. Well acted, well written, and well choreographed. I watched it straight through twice and have watched several of the dance scenes over and over without getting tired of it.The only issue was the editing; there are several story elements that are left dangling. I thought the movie needed an extra 15 minutes to wrap up storylines that didn't get a resolution. It kind of took away from an otherwise wonderful movie.STRICTLY BALLROOM is an overall clean movie. There is a sweet romance played out in this tale but there is no nudity or sexual content. There are one or two instances of bad language, but it goes by so fast that you hardly catch it before it is gone. No violence at all, except the emotional violence that is brewed in a highly competitive and sometimes corrupt atmosphere.This is a movie about one guy struggling with an establishment that will not change or improve. The lead character is not perfect, but he learns and grows throughout a situation that makes him a better dancer and a better person. It is exciting and you will be rooting for the hero all the way through.Overall, I highly recommend it.

Lovely little Australian film and if you're into the ballroom dancing genre which is popular on tv all over the world you will love this film. The bonus is the main music track by John Paul Young ----- superb.

One of my all-time favourite films, so just had to buy it

Esta película narra una historia de superación, de alguien que tiene una idea y que en contra de lo establecido y las normas rígidas impuestas por su sociedad, lucha por alcanzarla. Al margen de esto es muy bonito verles bailar y la pareja prota tiene mucha química.

と思います。リージョン-1でも問題なく再生されるし。勿論、本編も特典も完全です。ただ、日本語訳(吹き替えも)がついていないという、それだけ。ストーリーを知ってさえいれば、日本語訳は殆ど必要ないです。おまけに、英語の字幕も選択できるので、更に便利です。ダンスに、言葉は要らないしね^^何回、何十回観ても、素晴らしい映画です。

This was a gift for some dancing friends. I had recently watched it, after some years gap, and forgotten how fantastic it is.