Tripwire Reviews Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom 4K Restoration

Still Dancing To Its Own Beat

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief reviews the 4K restoration of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, out now…

Strictly Ballroom 4K restoration
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter

Australian director Baz Luhrmann, who went on to helm such over the top onscreen melanges like Romeo and Juliet with Clare Danes, Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman and biopic Elvis with Austin Butler, kicked off his career with this likeable Aussie comedy parody about the world of Australian ballroom dancing. Mercurio plays Scott, an up and coming dancer whose world is turned around when he meets Fran (Morice), a girl from Sydney’s Spanish immigrant community. He is torn between dancing in the more traditional ballroom fashion or turning to the flamenco tinged style that Fran and her parents want him to embrace. Scott’s father, Doug (Barry Otto) is a man with a dark past, a shadow of himself, a former dancer who apparently went off the rails years ago. Strictly Ballroom plays to the strengths of the best in Australian cinema, with their ability to straddle British and US approaches to drama while creating something that is uniquely theirs. Bill Hunter as the duplicitous dance judge Barry Fife is wonderfully over the top while the rest of the supporting cast including Brit Pat Thomson and camp as Christmas Peter Whitford as fellow judge and dancer Les Kendall all help to flesh out Luhrmann’s wonderfully quirky and idiosyncratic look at the bizarre world of ballroom dancing.

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778ih)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice
GTV ARCHIVE

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778is)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Paul Mercurio
GTV ARCHIVE

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778ir)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Paul Mercurio
GTV ARCHIVE

Luhrmann invests this story with an almost Gilliamesque approach while the main couple (Mercurio and Morice) have a touching emotional chemistry to their relationship. As a director, despite a very flamboyant tale, he manages to rein in some of his more annoying tics letting the story breath and really engage with the viewer. It could have been just a workmanlike romance drama but he breathes unique life into it with some wonderful visual flourishes. Despite a career that has lasted a number of decades, for me there is something that he never managed to match again with his future work. He even makes the hokey country mouse to confident dancer tale of Fran connect with the viewer, partly down to Morice’s nuanced performance.

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778im)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Paul Mercurio
GTV ARCHIVE

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778in)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Paul Mercurio
GTV ARCHIVE

Editorial use only
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/Shutterstock (864778io)
‘Strictly Ballroom’ – Tara Morice.
GTV ARCHIVE

The 4K restoration brings the production to life with verve and aplomb, making it pop off the screen.

Strictly Ballroom is a wonderfully unconventional take on what could have been a very predictable romance, enhanced by a particularly strong cast and a confident use of its setting. People forget just how popular it was too as it inspired the BBC to bring back its dancing programme as Strictly Come Dancing.

Joel Meadows