Baz: One of the proud moments for us was Robert Wise, who directed Sound of Music and West Side Story, he is the great-great grandfather of musical cinema and he said, "I've seen Moulin Rouge and the musical has been re-invented". I bring this up because you get that kind of thing and that's wonderful.
Baz: We went to this huge, icecream picture palace to see a Bollywood movie. Here we were, with 2,000 Indians watching a film in Hindi, and there was the lowest possible comedy and then incredible drama and tragedy and then break out in songs. And it was three-and-a-half hours! We thought we had suddenly learnt Hindi, because we understood everything! [Laughter] We thought it was incredible. How involved the audience were. How uncool they were - how their coolness had been ripped aside and how they were united in this singular sharing of the story. The thrill of thinking, 'Could we ever do that in the West? Could we ever get past that cerebral cool and perceived cool.' It required this idea of comic-tragedy. Could you make those switches? Fine in Shakespeare - low comedy and then you die in five minutes.
Baz: The primary myth part came out of a revelation of the value of Shakespeare. Those are dramas that play to the simple person and the complicated person.
Baz: So we thought, let's look back to a cinematic language where the audience participated in the form. Where they were aware at all times that they were watching a movie, and that they should be active in their experience and not passive. Not being put into a sort of sleep state and made to believe through a set of constructs that they are watching a real-life story through a keyhole. They are aware at all times that they are watching a movie. That was the first step in this theatricalised cinematic form that we now call the Red Curtain.
Baz: ...if you make a film full of risk, studios don't run towards you to give you $50,000,000 in order to reinvent the post-modern musical, I can tell you. If you do manage to cajole them into doing it and you want to maintain the flag of creative freedom, you better make sure that it pays its bill.
Baz: That's the only plan I've got - to not have a plan.
Baz: There's no doubt that when you're up for an award you want to win, but, finally, art is not a horse race. If Gladiator was a great film in its form and Crouching Tiger a great film in its form, which is better? They're just different. It's not a horse race. You can't say, you know, Gladiator is so much faster!
He was among the guests at Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's wedding.
In 2004, he directed the world's most expensive advertisement for Chanel No. 5 starring Nicole Kidman.
His father died the first day of filming Moulin Rouge.
His first child, Lillian Amanda Luhrmann, with his wife Catherine Martin, was born in Sydney on Friday, October 10th 2003. His second child, son William Alexander Luhrmann, was born June 8th, 2005.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!