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The MTV and Brand
Equity Youth Marketing forum got off to a bright start with
dancers moving to music from the Oscar winning musical Moulin
Rouge. The brain behind the endeavour, Australian Baz
Lurhmann, was on hand to talk about 'movies as cults'.
Luhrmann
may be best known as a film director but his company Bazmark
Inq, founded in 1997, makes other products like music, theatre
and parties. He attended the National Institute of Dramatic
Art in Sydney which is where he conceived his feature debut
Strictly Ballroom. The film got a special mention for
Cannes' prestigious award Camera D'or and he was on his way.
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"A
cult film is one which we drag into our lives. We quote
lines from it, we live it. This is what I would call participatory
cinema. There is a deep underlying truth conveyed which
is believable."
Baz Lurhmann |
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At
the seminar, the director defined a cult film thus "A cult
film is one which we drag into our lives. We quote lines from
it, we live it. This is what I would call participatory cinema.
There is a deep underlying truth conveyed which is believable."
Luhrmann proceeded to draw parallels between a religious story
and a cult film. With both, one only needs to read or see
parts again and again to undergo an intense emotional experience.
In order to distinguish a cult figure from a cult film he
cited the example of Woody Allen and his film Annie Hall.
While the filmmaker is a cult figure, Annie Hall cannot
be considered a cult film.
Cult films run the gamut from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
to Star Wars. However, the grandfather of all cult
films is The Rocky Horror Picture Show a film he acknowledged
most Indians had little if any knowledge of. 27 years on,
it still plays in select clubs and outlets abroad. Luhrmann
mentioned that Rocky..'s director was a recluse who
made just that one film.
As expected, Luhrmann highlighted the crucial role of a story
in the cinematic form. There are two kinds of stories. The
'classical' kind is universal and well worn. The ending can
be foreseen. The other kind is 'abstract'. Films in this category
play tricks with narrative and sometimes the viewer has to
figure out at what point of time the film is in. The wizard
of odd, David Lynch is a good example, he said. He also pointed
out that a film can have abstraction on an idea.
A
cult film's primary source can easily be traced. The science
fiction classic Star Wars for instance has its roots
in the theory of myth involving King Arthur. William Shakepeare's
Romeo and Juliet has its origins in Greek myth.
He showed a video asking the audience to identify clips from
different cult films. They included Tarantino's gangster landmark
Pulp Fiction and the Judy Garland starrer The Wizard
of Oz.
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"A
cult film's primary source can easily be traced. The science
fiction classic Star Wars for instance has its
roots in the theory of myth involving King Arthur. William
Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet has its origins in
Greek myth."
Baz Lurhmann |
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He stressed the importance of reinventing the language of
a cinematic form. The western film genre could be revived
from its slumber if this happens he said.
For Romeo and Juliet, Baz needed to make Elizabethan
language accessible to a young audience. It was necessary
to engage them and so he had to see to it that the whole idea
got accepted in a new way.
To achieve this he sought modern equivalents for period settings.
For instance, sword fighting was converted into gun fighting.
He showed a clip showing how the opening scene was staged
to the motion of a Flamenco dance. He deliberately used references
from different styles of pop culture like the Spaghetti Western
where the camera is in the viewers face. Even if viewers have
never seen a spaghetti western the stylistic language is easy
to recognise, he said.
With Moulin Rouge the director tried to convey personality
traits in the various characters through songs. For instance
through the song 'Diamonds are a girl's best friend' he is
directly telling the audience that the character played by
Nicole Kidman has sold her soul for money.
It took the filmmaker five years, and resulted in Moulin
Rouge.
Click
for details of Michael Wood's presentation
Click
for details of Lee Lynch's presentation
Click
for details of James Best's presentation
Click
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