The same year that this dancing movie came out, The Cutting Edge, a movie about figure ice skating about a female figure skating champion ended up having to seek a male partner is a more mainstream drama having a similar theme as Strictly Ballroom. The contrasts between the two films are intriguing. While Strictly Ballroom had strong comedic flourishes, The Cutting Edge directed by Paul Glaser held a more light romantic drama tone. Strictly Ballroom had an ethic diversity theme between English and Spanish while The Cutting Edge was more class oriented by social economic differences. Strictly Ballroom included much more dancing scenes while The Cutting Edge was more focused on the convoluted relational tension and evolution between the principle characters D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly. The director of Strictly Ballroom, Baz Luhrmann, seemed struggle with the balance of drama and an almost stylized comedy act in making his movie. Whether or not to have included such exaggerated comedic stunts and flourishes might have been a questionable call on his part. The end result is a fun and engaging movie with a cultural bent. The director would later direct the epic period musical Moulin Rouge (2001) less than a decade later. With such experience and professional, how would Strictly Ballroom turned out if it had been shot that that time?
Review of Strictly Ballroom
Strictly Ballroom
(1992)
A struggle with the balance of drama and an almost stylized comedy
27 January 2019