Strictly Ballroom [Blu-ray]

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Overview

This wildly off-beat comedy is about a male dancer (Paul Mercurio) who refuses to follow the accepted rules of ballroom dancing and creates his own style of choreography, which infuriates the ballroom dancing establishment. Before he's scheduled to compete in the Pan-Pacific ballroom championships, he's forced to take up a new partner (Tara Morice), a beginner who initially seems without promise. With his help, she turns into an assured and wonderful dancer. Baz Luhrmann's visual style may be too bright, gaudy and exaggerated for some tastes, yet he treats his characters with compassion, which makes Strictly Ballroom such an engaging comedy.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/30/2013
UPC:	0031398160915
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	PG
Source:	Miramax Lionsgate
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	22,404

Special Features

Strictly Ballroom: From Stage To Screen" Featurette; Deleted Scene; Design Gallery with Narration; "Samba To Slow Fox Dance" Featurette; Audio Commentary

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Paul Mercurio	Scott Hastings
Tara Morice	Fran
Bill Hunter	Barry Fife
Barry Otto	Doug Hastings
Pat Thomson	Shirley Hastings
Gia Carides	Liz Holt
Peter Whitford	Les Kendall
John Hannan	Ken Railings
Sonia Kruger-Taylor	Tina Sparkle
Pip Mushin	Wayne Burns
Leonie Page	Vanessa Cronin
Antonio Vargas	Rico
Armonia Benedito	Ya Ya
Peter Lynch	Extra: Kendall's Studio
John O'Connell	Try-out Coach
Bob Adams	New Steps Family
Michael Burgess	Merv
David Hirschfelder	Composer
Kris McQuade	Charm Leachman
Jack Webster	Terry
Steve Grace	Luke
Paul Bertram	J.J. Silvers, State Finals MC
Lara Mulcahy	Natalie
Brian M. Logan	Clarey
Todd McKenney	Nathan Starkey

Technical Credits

Craig Pearce

Baz Luhrmann

Andrew Bovell

Craig Pearce	Screenwriter
Baz Luhrmann	Screenwriter
Ted Albert	Producer,Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Tristram Miall	Producer,Producer
Roger Savage	Sound Mixer
Ian McLoughlin	Sound Mixer
Phil Judd	Sound Mixer
Andrew Bovell	Screenwriter
Julius Chan	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

In this delightful 1992 musical comedy, innovative director Baz Luhrmann exhibits the same visual flair and iconoclastic spirit that made his more celebrated later hit, Moulin Rouge (2001), such a genre-bending treat. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at a contest for ballroom dancers at which the highly competitive Scott (Gus Mercurio) plans on breaking with tradition, much to the consternation of his conservative partner (Gia Carides), his overbearing mother (Pat Thompson), and the ballroom-dancing "establishment." He chooses a new partner, a bespectacled "ugly duckling" named Fran (Tara Morice) and stakes his reputation on her untested ability by choosing a complicated flamenco routine guaranteed to raise eyebrows. To an extent, Strictly Ballroom caricatures movie musicals, but the kidding is good-natured and the lead players are enormously likable. The film is also something of a Cinderella story, a little less credible than some might like, but no less entertaining for that. Luhrmann supplies a commentary for the DVD, whose other special features include deleted scenes (hidden "Easter egg" style), a featurette on dancing entitled "From Samba to Slow Fox,"and a gallery of images from the film presented in 3D.