What Is The Secret To Baz Luhrmann’s movie Making Style

When audiences see “A Film By Baz Luhrmann” in the title card of a movie trailer, they pretty much know what they’re going to see. In the most fabulous way, they’re going to experience color, energy, music, and a bombastic, often exaggerated tone that has made the Australian director incredibly divisive. And yet, he’s made some of the most successful movies of the past twenty-five years.

Of course, his most recent, Elvis, was lauded by many critics, particularly due to Austin Butler’s performance. While the actor may have suffered while making the sensationalized biopic, there’s no doubt his career has benefited from it. That’s also despite the fact the 2022 film left out some pretty glaring details about Elvis’ life, including skipping over the shady part of his relationship with Priscilla.

While many film critics and historians have tried to explain exactly what Baz Luhrmann’s film style is, the director recently spoke about it himself. Here’s what he had to say…

How Baz Luhrmann Makes His Audience “Buy Into” His Movies

Discussing the success of Elvis and what went into bringing the film to life, director Baz Luhrmann shed light on how he creates his extremely unique style. In his interview Luhrmann calls himself the “Stanley Kubrick of confetti”. In so many ways, this is an accurate description of his level of detail as well as his focus.

Much like a shot from a confetti canon, Baz Luhrmann’s style is big, loud, and colorful. It’s also extremely fast, which is a complaint he’s received before, particularly in regard to his editing style. But Luhrmann knows precisely what he’s doing and he knows that some people are not going to like it.

“The idea of that — the pacing and the editing and all of that — is to make you kind of lean forward and go, I’ve got to work here as an audience member. I can’t just sit back and eat my popcorn. I need to absorb this information. The idea behind my intensity of attack on the audience is to get across that I am not doing a traditional thing, which is quietly lulling you and sneaking up on you,” Baz Luhrmann explained.

Luhrmann explained that there’s a moment in each of his films where the audience unconsciously signs an agreement with him. He called this agreement “a contract” and it’s ultimately the moment where they buy into his over-the-top style.

“In Strictly Ballroom it’s when Ken Railings comes in and says, ‘Pam Shortt’s broken both her legs, and I want to dance with you,’ and it’s ridiculous,” Luhrmann said. “In Moulin Rouge!, the signing of the contract is when they dance to “Your Song” and they kiss, and then they have the whole farce about “Spectacular, Spectacular,” and at the end of that, he goes, ‘Generally, I like it.’ In Romeo + Juliet, it’s, ‘Now, where’s Romeo?’ And he’s down on the beach.”

As for Elvis, Baz Luhrmann claimed there are two moments when the audience essentially signs on to what he’s doing with the story. The first is the “pink-suit moment” when Elvis buys the iconic suit at the Beale Street men’s shop. The second is when Elvis meets the Colonel, played by Tom Hanks.

“After that, you’re into the style of the film or you’re not. You’re coming with us or you’re not. And some people do leave the theater and go, I don’t know what this s*** is. I’m out!”

Why Baz Luhrmann’s Movies Change Tones

Moulin Rouge! is more than a musical. It’s slapstick comedy. It’s a Shakespearean drama. It’s a fever dream music video. It’s multiple things at once. The same goes for The Great Gatsby, Elvis, and even Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman’s Australia.

Baz Luhrmann claimed that he does this because the directors he admired did. This includes Ingmar Bergman, Orson Wells and John Ford.

“[John Ford will] mix high comedy and broad comedy, and get you up there so that he can hit you in the guts with psychological drama. He flips the coin all the time,” Luhrmann explained.

“My upbringing was in a very isolated place where we only had one black-and-white television,” he continued. “My diet was old movies. I think I skipped a generation and I was programmed by films like Citizen Kane and The Red Shoes. Those old movies were not considered high art in the ’70s — or, you know, there was only a little bit of that happening. It was programming that was sort of dumped out on regional television. So my style comes from a combination of being extremely classical and old-fashioned, but also trying to find an extremely modern way of languaging that. I always make my movies for the future, not for the present. I want them to have relevance later.”

While what Baz Luhrmann does on screen may not be everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no doubt the director will continue doing what he’s doing. His directorial choices have made him one of the most recognizable and respected filmmakers of his generation. Most importantly, he has legions of fans eager to see what kind of colorful, crazy film he’ll do next.