No one does glamour, corruption, musicality, and a strong motif of red throughout quite like Baz Luhrmann. And Cineworld is bringing some of his best scenes back to the big screen, with a heavy dose of Leo and closing with 2022's Elvis, which you can chase with Baz Luhrmann's new documentary film EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.
Running from 20th until 30th March, catch four incredible films directed by Baz Luhrmann, booking now.
BOOK BAZ LUHRMANN SEASON TICKETS
Moulin Rouge! (20th March)
Satine’s introduction while performing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”
Having helped Henri and his troupe finish their play Spectacular Spectacular, they take Christian to the Moulin Rouge in the hope those same talents might impress the star performer and courtesan, Satine enough that she will convince the proprietor of the Moulin Rouge, Harold Zidler, to put on their show.
Our first introduction to both the Moulin Rouge and Satine (played by Nicole Kidman), this performance is everything you’d expect from Baz Luhrmann. There is glitz and glamour, constant moving parts and shifting frames, and many an ode to what it is to be a theatre kid.
Christian and Satine sing “All You Need is Love” on the rooftop
When you’re standing on a rooftop, the building of which is shaped like a life-sized elephant, declaring love triumphs all, is there really a scene any better than that? Well, add a popular love song from The Beatles, and you’re getting there.
While Satine attempts to resist the feelings bubbling between her and moneyless bohemian Christian, the man is earnest in his declarations, so much so he bursts into song and she is perilous to resist.
The Great Gatsby (24th March)
Nick Carraway meets Jay Gatsby for the first time
There is so much build up to meeting the enigma that is Jay Gatsby, the anticipation of which is stoked up ever more as Nick Carraway begins to piece together his neighbours story. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story is one of the American Dream as told through rose-tinted glasses – or the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg on that looming billboard – and wealth and where true power comes through.
As a man attempting to build the appearance of all these things, it goes without saying we meet Gatsby at one of his parties filled with opulence and excess. There are streamers and fireworks and overflowing glasses of champagne. And as Nick makes his way through, taking a drink from a waiter, trying to discover the identity of the mysterious host, it is revealed the waiter was Jay Gatbsy afterall, a dashing Leonardo DiCaprio raising a coupe to Nick as fireworks explode behind him.
An epic soundtrack meets a bittersweet montage with “Young and Beautiful”
The Great Gatsby soundtrack deserves all its flowers. With Jay-Z’s production, covers are given a new lease of life that speak to both the roaring twenties and the 21st Century audience in which Baz Luhrmann’s book to screen adaptation introduced it. From Beyoncé’s “Back to Black” cover to Florence + the Machine hitting that green light symbolism in “Over the Love”. Then there’s the almost haunting “Young and Beautiful” track, performed by Lana Del Rey, which was released alongside the first trailer.
In the film, it plays out as Gatsby and Daisy are beginning to get to know each other again. Gatsby endeavours to show Daisy his house, and show off all the ways he has risen in stature, and all the materialistic things that show off his wealth. A montage plays out as he shows her his home and they spend more time together, all while Nick witnesses it play out.
The pair fall in love again, but it ends as Daisy falls under the showering down of Gatbsy’s fancy clothes, reality setting in that they cannot undo the last five years in which they’ve been apart and Daisy has moved on.
Romeo + Juliet (27th March)
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir (at the gas station)?”
At the time, Baz Luhrmann’s retelling of a Shakespeare play was radical, bringing it hurtling into the modern day. Verona, Italy? More like the fictional Verona Beach in Miami, complete with tropical shirts and gun-wielding gangs.
This scene is integral in establishing the rivalry between the two families, this time in the form of two business empires, with the younger generations playing out this tension on the streets. Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, attempts to break up a run-in between his own and Tybalt Capulet (Juliet’s cousin), before the Chief of Police, Captain Prince, arrests the pair of them and forewarns their lives “shall pay the forfeit of the peace” should these disputes continue.
Romeo and Juliet first see each other through the fish tank
A modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Montague gatecrashes a Capulet party under the influence of drugs, all in the hope of seeing the woman he has a crush on, Rosaline. As he disappears into the bathroom, though, he catches sight of another woman through a fish tank in the wall.
Dressed in medieval knight armour, Juliet is dressed as an angel, and the pair press their noses against the glass, falling in love before our eyes. All with Des’ree singing the soulful and endlessly romantic “Kissing You”. Be still, our beating heart! Before they can find each other on the other side of the glass, though, Juliet is whisked away and the two are yet to discover each other’s true identity and that their love story is doomed from the start.
The ending you never want to come – when Romeo realises too late Juliet isn’t dead
So often, early on his early career at least, Leonardo DiCaprio seemed to find himself in roles where we as an audience preyed for a different ending everytime. Before there was Titanic, though, there was Romeo + Juliet, a tragic ending to end all tragedies. Well, it is arguably what Shakespeare did best!
In an attempt to avade her arranged marriage to Paris, Juliet hatches a plan with Father Lawrence to take a potion that will allow her to fake her own death. Her comatose body will be laid in the Capulet vault where she will awaken 24 hours later and her and Romeo will be free to run off together. However, Father Lawrence fails to get a letter to Romeo to inform him of this plan. He therefore believes his great love is dead and takes with him a vial of posion to take at her side.
As Romeo drinks the posion, Juliet wakes up. He is conscious long enough to realise she is in fact alive, the timing dramatic and heartwrenching all at once. Distraught, she takes his gun and shoots herself in the head, her body falling across his.
Elvis (30th March)
Elvis’ first concert got us weak at the knees
Before there was One Direction, before there was The Beatles, it was Elvis Presley that sent all the women feral. Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of Elvis captures Elvis’ early career as Colonel Tom Parker picks him up and sets him on a journey to stardom.
He first witnesses Elvis’ potential at a Louisiana Hayride performance, where we see the audience at first doubt him, before women find themselves beside themselves with hysteria over what quickly becomes Elvis’ trademark hip wiggle.
Elvis jailtime worthy performance
Elvis’ music and performance style was influenced heavily by the African-American Beale Street scene. This, along with his overtly sexual performances, enraged political figures, including segregationist Senator James Eastland. And while Colonel Tom Parker attempted to shape Elvis into something more palpable, Elvis pushes back.
In one performance, he sings “Trouble” at Russwood Park, a sultry blues song that turns feral as Elvis gyrates his hips and crawls across the stage, fratnising with the women in the audience. It causes such a stir that Elvis and his band are arrested.
Catch Baz Luhrmann's award-winning films at our Baz Luhrmann Film Season, running from 20th unitl 30th March.
BOOK BAZ LUHRMANN SEASON TICKETS
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