Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

Being a fan of Baz Luhrmann films, I’m surprised I hadn’t seen this earlier than I did but I thought it was a documentary about ballroom dancing. Baz has such an interesting style and it was enjoyable to see many of his techniques employed for presumably the first time.

Strictly Ballroom kind of feels like a college project with a slightly bigger budget. That’s not a bad thing! It’s very well done and a lot of heart comes through, perhaps more so than some of his later productions.

There were also a lot of experimental or conceptual film techniques employed here that didn’t resurface later so far as I know. Ballroom did start with a kind of documentary feel to it at times very similar to A Mighty Wind and other films of that sort. It soon gave way to more conventional storytelling though. It’s a very forgiving style and great for a starting director. But Baz’s power is in his unique cinematography and that can be seen even in this early film.

I loved when different characters would tell the same story and the actors would play out those stories according to how the storyteller regarded the people in the story. If the storyteller thought someone was a doofus, the actor portrayed the character like a doofus. It was a great way to show the story rather than tell the story. Quite ingenious. Story. Have I written the word “story” enough?

Probably my favorite Baz Luhrmann trope is the zoom out through a window where we leave our protagonists. In the same shot it becomes a pan upward as with a boom which reveals some weirdo on the roof of the building doing something weird. There’s always some weirdo on the roof. You could almost make a drinking game of it. Uncork the absinthe.

Strictly Ballroom had a great message. Enjoy what you love. Love what you enjoy. Don’t do it for the prestige or the money or to be better than someone else.

I was a big fan of Romeo + Juliet. I wore an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt with a white tank underneath for most of my freshman year because of that movie. Fortunately, I was a dork and looked nothing like DiCaprio so I was spared the fame and fortune he was so plagued by. The song “Lovefool” featured on the soundtrack by the Cardigans haunted my dreams. Probably because it was always playing on my radio alarm at the same time every morning.

I loved the music from Moulin Rouge. I couldn’t quite hit the notes Ewan Macgregor could but that didn’t stop me from trying.

Eventually Gatsby came along. At that time in my life I could tell just from the trailer this was not one I was going to be able to see even if I wanted to. That’s a long sad story. But frankly, I still had such a foul taste in my brain from having to read and watch The Great Gatsby in my senior English class. Anything F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote made me throw up a little in my mouth. I couldn’t even watch Law and Order anymore so tainted was I by Sam Waterson’s involvement with original Great Gatsby film. Every once in a while I dream of Daisy with tears in her eyes, fondling a dress shirt, saying “It’s the most beautiful pink shirt in the world!” and I wake up gagging. My wife thinks it’s acid reflux from too much pizza before bed but she’s wrong. It’s The Great Gatsby. Still, I think I’ll see the new one eventually. At least if only to count how many weirdos are on the roof.

I’d like to see Elvis also. These have all been Baz Luhrmann films by the way. I’m not just rambling about random films. Welp! I’m sick of this tirade. I’m a go play Mario Kart or something.

While I focused on the film techniques and Luhrmann tropes, my wife actually has a take on the story itself. Indeed there was one! She is at once adroit and insightful. I give you, my wife, the CompassRoseQueen:

“My thoughts are more about the characters’ journeys. 

They each have different story archetypes. [The illustrious and incredibly handsome Professor Popinjay] mentioned the main theme the main character needs to learn. But the female lead has a slightly different road to take on that journey. She loves to dance and wants to do it for the right reasons already. Her challenge is proving to everyone else that she has what it takes, because she doesn’t have the looks or the money like the main character Scott and all his colleagues. Most ugly duckling stories (besides the actual Ugly Duckling story) have someone else to give the main character a makeover. Cinderella has a fairy godmother, Aladdin has Genie, and Sandra Bullock has Michael Caine. But our girl Fran has herself, and that’s all she needs. She believes in herself, so she tries out some skin care products and takes dance lessons, all over time and very undramatically. I love that. Instead of a Big Dramatic Makeover Moment, hers is more of a turtle vs. the hare story. When push comes to shove, she has enough confidence in herself and in Scott to help them both when they come to their crisis moment.”