Baz Luhrmann

Born on September 17, 1962, in Sydney, Australia, Mark Anthony Luhrmann is the son of a ballroom dancer and a farmer turned cinema owner, where the future filmmaker discovered his passion for movies. From a very young age, he was nicknamed Baz because of his great resemblance to a television character who was also called that, the red fox Basil Brush, a puppet from a British program that was successful in the 1960s.

While studying at St Paul’s Catholic School in Sydney, he discovered that he wanted to be an actor after taking part in a school production of “Henry IV”, the play by William Shakespeare . He decided to go to the selection tests of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, and although they did not accept him the first time, he came back with more luck.

When he finished his acting studies, he tried his luck in the world of cinema, but he only got a couple of secondary roles in local productions of medium hair. He eventually played a recurring character on the series A Country Practice , but after shooting six episodes he realized he was going to have a hard time making a living as a performer.

He decided to recycle as a writer and theater director. He brought several scripts to the stage, including a musical of his own, El amor está en el aire (1992) , about a professional dancer who is paired with a rookie. It was enormously successful, as was the subsequent film adaptation, which marked the debut as a filmmaker for Baz Luhrmann , and which, despite starring little-known Australian actors, had international projection. The script was signed by himself along with Craig Pearce , who would become his regular collaborator in this field.

In the film, the filmmaker displayed an enormous visual imagination for musical numbers, which landed him a contract from Hollywood to direct William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with two rising stars, Claire Danes , and Leonardo DiCaprio , who that same year he filmed Titanic . Although it fully respected the original text of the English bard, the action took place in a futuristic city, which gave rise to powerful images. DiCaprio won the Silver Bear for Best Actor in Berlin, where the film also won the Alfred Bauer Award for Innovation. He took the BAFTAs for production design, direction and music from none other than the aforementioned Titanic(The film was also made with the BAFTA for the adapted screenplay).

After the good reception of the film, Luhrmann had great resources for his most ambitious project, Moulin Rouge , a musical with a simple plot, loosely based on “La Traviata” and the novel “Lady with the Camellias”, which had Ewan as protagonists. McGregor and Nicole Kidman . It was right to fit into the plot great pop rock classics such as “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, “The Show Must Go On” by Queen and even “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. With this and the showy staging of the always excessive Luhrmann, he managed to reach the general public at a time when the musical was considered an outdated relic.

The director married Catherine Martin in 1997, a production designer whom he met in his theater days, and who has been in charge of this area in all his films. “We are two people, but at the same time we function as a whole. She is my soul mate, and the other part of me. We complement each other a lot. All my ideas, and everything I invent, I tell her before anyone else, for what I can say is my first audience. Therefore, I believe that Catherine is a key factor in the films that I direct”, explained the director. In 2003 they had a daughter, Lillian, and in 2005, a son, William Alexander.

After his initial works, which make up the so-called “Red Curtain Trilogy”, Luhrmann decided to recover the trail of epic classic cinema in Australia , whose title already made it clear that it was going to be a clear tribute to his country. In fact, he composed the cast based on compatriots: Nicole Kidman (again), Hugh Jackman , Bryan Brown, etc. “We were living in Paris for a while with our two children. We realized that, since they were born, the children accompanied us continuously on our trips, filming and so on, but that they have hardly been in their country. Where will they feel from? What are they? Will they feel uprooted? I started thinking about a film about Australia,” Luhrmann told me at the press conference to present the film in Spain. “I also remembered those movies I watched as a child, big productions that told romantic stories in the middle of historical events. Catherine and I wanted our film to not be the cinema equivalent of a fast food restaurant. It had to be a big banquet. In the end, the film necessarily had to be very luxurious and big.”

Despite the mixed reviews received, he has continued his pretentious approaches in his next work, a fifth film adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald ‘s masterful novel , despite its good critical regard. the one filmed in 1974 by Jack Clayton , with a script by Francis Ford Coppola himself , and Robert Redford as the protagonist. The Australian replaced the latter with a recovered DiCaprio, whom he has accompanied with renowned actors and proven solvency: Carey Mulligan (Daisy), Joel Edgerton (Tom Buchanan) and Tobey Maguire(Nick Carraway). There is no shortage of its overwhelming sets, which caused the budget to skyrocket and the premiere to be delayed until May, missing out on the high awards season. It also uses a pop rock-based soundtrack, although the action takes place in the 20s, which has earned it various criticisms.