Spring Break
An impressionistic portrait of 'Australia'
Cinematic flapper
Anna Nguyen
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Lifestyles
The cinematography of the film is amazing; I was absolutely mesmerized from the start. It exhibits the inimitable artistic mastery of Luhrmann's skills, eerily painted as a fairy tale. Classic films such as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" are certainly alluded to and it becomes evident that the auteur was inspired by old Hollywood glamour.
The demise of the film, I find, is it's too ambitious. The film mixes genres such as westerns, odes to old, campy Hollywood films and a war epic, and it becomes a bit of a mess. The first half of the film is absolutely engaging; I like the banter between Lady Ashley's snobby English behavior and the Drover's rugged outcast disposition.Unfortunately, the second half becomes overly romantic, losing a lot of the humor provided in the beginning.
But a beautiful mess it is. I enjoyed it as a motion picture and enjoyed the cinematic experience it provides. I walked out of the theater thinking too much about "Australia." And I'm still thinking of it. I find it to be a good distracting agent that allows me to escape a bit from the tedium I've come to be acquainted with and see a new, gorgeous country in opposing themes of brutal reality and a floating dreamscape.
Anna Nguyen is the lifestyles editor for The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Monday.
The demise of the film, I find, is it's too ambitious. The film mixes genres such as westerns, odes to old, campy Hollywood films and a war epic, and it becomes a bit of a mess. The first half of the film is absolutely engaging; I like the banter between Lady Ashley's snobby English behavior and the Drover's rugged outcast disposition.Unfortunately, the second half becomes overly romantic, losing a lot of the humor provided in the beginning.
But a beautiful mess it is. I enjoyed it as a motion picture and enjoyed the cinematic experience it provides. I walked out of the theater thinking too much about "Australia." And I'm still thinking of it. I find it to be a good distracting agent that allows me to escape a bit from the tedium I've come to be acquainted with and see a new, gorgeous country in opposing themes of brutal reality and a floating dreamscape.
Anna Nguyen is the lifestyles editor for The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Monday.
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