Well doesn’t this look truly
scrumptious? I must admit I’m pretty darn excited about 2012's The Great Gatsby. The Luhrmann stamp
isn’t to everyone’s taste, and that's probably because it borders on the tasteless. His oeuvre seems locked in a
perpetual circus, a whirling carousel of sequined glamour on an almost
sickening level of gaudiness. His take on the old Fitzy classic is bound to
induce a marmite-like divide. But love it or hate it, one can’t deny that Luhrmann
does more than most directors to bring the essence of texts from page to screen
- I can’t help but think of Romeo and
Juliet without recalling his 1996 version, the decorated guns, the chintzy porcelain
angels, the use of water, all strong visual motifs that suddenly brought
Shakespeare alive for an image-driven generation. Too often adaptations of
great works fail because they make a pallid comparison to their original source,
with little done to make the most of the cinematic medium. It may be gaudy, but
Luhrmann at least attempts to bring the colour back to age-old masterpieces.
 |
| Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan star in The Great Gatsby |
And what better opportunity to
deploy this fetishized focus on the image than in recreating Gatsby, the
original great pretender, to whom façade is everything and the truth is veiled
by the most opulent of masks? The trailer gives a tantalising taste of what’s
to come, featuring a snapshot of all the gorgeous ecstasies and tragic agonies experienced
by the mysterious man and the atomised characters around him. Nothing will ever
come close to the lyricism of the novel, but I can’t help but feel The Great Gatsby going to be Luhrmann’s
biggest hit yet.
1 comment:
I'm really excited about this film. For one thing the casting looks spot on; Toby Maguire has that unasuming look that I'd imagined of Nick Carraway all along, Carey Mulligan has the perfect look for the conflicted Daisy without being too bold, and no-one does complex personalities better than DiCaprio.
Yes, it may be super-gaudy but like you say, one of the main reasons that Fitzegerald's book is held up as a classic is because of his unique ability to paint extremely vivid and detailed scenes with his words. I agree with you that putting it on the screen is not enough, to do his work justice this film needs to be a visual feast and it looks like that is what Luhrmann is delivering.
Filming it in 3D may sounds like a bit of a fad to the sceptics, but I think its a great idea. By going for the whole shebang and filming in this format Luhrmann is making a statement and separating his film from just another re-hashing of another well knowing story (If he pulls it off that is!). He knows this could be the benchmark for this classic yarn, and in essence he's future-proofing his film for the next generation of cinema. Its a bold move but a good one I think.
Im looking forward to seeing it!
Post a Comment