Strictly Ballroom

The story follows Scott Hastings, the frustrated son of a family of ballroom dancers, who has been training since the age of six. His mother Shirley teaches ballroom dancing, and his father Doug meekly handles maintenance chores at the dance studio, while secretly spending hours in a back room watching old footage of his bygone dance competitions. Scott struggles to establish his personal style of dance on his way to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship, but his innovative and flashy steps are not considered "strictly ballroom", and as such are denounced by Australian Federation head Barry Fife.

Scott loses a competition because he started dancing his own steps, and his dancing partner Liz Holt leaves him to team up with Ken Railings, whose partner Pam Short has broken both her legs in a car accident (as just previously wished upon by Liz). With Scott now alone only three weeks until the championships, Shirley and her co-instructor at the studio, Les Kendall, start desperately hunting for a new partner for Scott. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to both of them, Scott is approached by Fran, an overlooked "beginner" dancer at the studio. Scott eventually agrees to partner with Fran, intrigued by her willingness to dance "his way".

The pairing faces its first challenge when Fife, in an effort to pull Scott into line and prevent him from threatening the Dancesport status quo, arranges for Scott to become the new partner of Tina Sparkle, an established Champion dancer. When Shirley and Les hear the news, they are overjoyed; Fran, happening upon them exclaiming over their happiness about Scott's new dance partner, misunderstands initially and believes they have discovered that she and Scott have become partners. When she realises the truth, she leaves, devastated. Scott chases after her and, although she is hurt, he entices her to dance backstage with him, and her anger is forgotten. However, their dance is witnessed by several onlookers, among them Shirley and Les, who then do everything they can to persuade both Scott and Fran that the best way forward for all concerned is for Scott to forget about Fran and sign on as Tina Sparkle's partner.

Fran, accused of damaging Scott's chances, reluctantly accedes and returns home crestfallen. Scott argues with his mother, telling her and all he won't be manipulated, so he won't become Tina's partner. He follows Fran home, where he is discovered and challenged by Fran's overprotective Spanish father. Scott, to appease the father, proposes that they dance a Paso Doble for the assembled company. Fran's father and grandmother demonstrate how the Paso Doble should be danced, and offer to teach the youngsters.

Fran and Scott spend the next week training, supported by her family. However, Fife intervenes, telling Scott that Scott's father, Doug, ruined his career by dancing his own steps, which he's regretted ever since. Not wanting to cause his parents further heartache, Scott reteams with Liz to attempt to win the Pan-Pacific.

During the competition, Doug explains to Scott that Fife lied; Fife had convinced Shirley not to dance with Doug so he, Fife, could win the competition. It is also revealed that Fife is plotting to sabotage Scott in favor of audience favorite Ken. Scott runs after Fran and persuades her to dance with him.

In the next round, Scott and Fran make their own dramatic entrance and begin dancing, immediately riveting the audience. Fife tries to disqualify them, but Scott's friend Wayne Burns, having overheard Fife's treachery along with his partner Vanessa Cronin, disconnects the PA system, allowing Scott and Fran to dance a Paso Doble routine that wins the audience over. Desperate, Fife tries to turn off the music, but Scott's younger sister Kylie and her partner Luke interfere until Fife's girlfriend Charm Leachman disconnects the sound system. Fife then disqualifies Scott and Fran, but Doug begins clapping out a beat to enable Scott and Fran to continue dancing. The audience claps along, as Scott and Fran begin dancing again. Liz, having had a change of heart, turns on Fife and Leachman and restores the music, and Scott and Fran's spirited dancing brings down the house. Doug asks Shirley to dance with him and the whole audience joins them on the floor. As the performance finishes, Scott and Fran kiss, the competition forgotten.

• Paul Mercurio as Scott Hastings
• Tara Morice as Fran
• Bill Hunter as Barry Fife
• Pat Thomson as Shirley Hastings
• Gia Carides as Liz Holt
• Peter Whitford as Les Kendall
• Barry Otto as Doug Hastings
• John Hannan as Ken Railings
• Sonia Kruger as Tina Sparkle
• Kris McQuade as Charm Leachman
• Pip Mushin as Wayne Burns
• Leonie Page as Vanessa Cronin
• Antonio Vargas as Rico, Fran's father
• Armonia Benedito as Ya Ya, Fran's grandmother
• Jack Webster as Terry
• Lauren Hewett as Kylie Hastings
• Steve Grace as Luke, Kylie's dance partner
• Kerry Shrimpton as Pam Short

The film plays with clichés and stereotypes, mocking and embracing them at the same time. Luhrmann has also commented that the film revolves around stories similar to David and Goliath, Cinderella and The Ugly Duckling.

Luhrmann created Strictly Ballroom in the red curtain cinema genre which follows three rules. First, the story needs to be set in a heightened creative world. Second, it is based on a recognizable story shape, such as that of Cinderella and David and Goliath. Third, red curtain cinema is known as audience participation cinema in that audiences should be aware that what they are watching is not real.

The film version of Strictly Ballroom was developed from an original short play of the same name. It drew on Luhrmann's own life experience—he had studied ballroom dancing as a child and his mother worked as a ballroom dance teacher in his teens[5] and inspired by the life of Keith Bain (who grew up in the same town as Luhrmann).[6] While studying at NIDA in the early 1980s, Luhrmann and a group of fellow students devised a short comedy-drama set in the cutthroat world of competitive ballroom dancing.[3] This original 1984 NIDA production was a critical success and, after graduating, Luhrmann was invited to re-stage the play for the Czechoslovakian Youth Drama Festival in Bratislava in 1986. He invited his school friend Craig Pearce to help him rewrite and expand the script. With its themes of artistic repression and underdogs battling against the odds, the play was a success at the festival, winning both the best director and best production awards.[3]

Strictly Ballroom film set used for Fran's family business and residence. (site since redeveloped, approx. to the Star City Casino complex, Pyrmont)

This led Luhrmann to direct more theatre productions back in Australia, and in 1988, as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations, the Sydney Theatre Company invited him to establish an experimental theatre ensemble, Six Years Old, which took up a residency at The Wharf Theatre for that year. Alongside Luhrmann and Pearce, the new company included one of the original NIDA collaborators, actor Catherine McClements, plus production designer Catherine Martin (whom Luhrmann subsequently married), set dresser Bill Marron and costume designer Angus Strathie, all of whom went on to collaborate with Luhrmann on his films. The group work-shopped the expanded version of play, which had a trial season at the Brisbane Expo in 1988 before opening at the Wharf Studios on 24 September 1988.[3]

During its successful run at the Wharf, the play was seen by an influential Australian music executive. Ted Albert was a leading record producer and music publisher, best known in Australia as the discoverer and original producer of 1960s pop sensations The Easybeats. By the time he saw Strictly Ballroom, Albert was the managing director of his family-owned music publishing company Albert Music (formerly J. Albert & Sons) and its subsidiary, the highly successful record label Albert Productions, which scored a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s with acts including John Paul Young and AC/DC.

Albert's wife Antoinette (known as "Popsy") took him to see the play after seeing a newspaper ad; they loved the energy, colour and musicality of the play and Ted Albert immediately saw the potential to develop the play into a film using the musical resources available to him through Alberts' publishing and recording enterprises. Soon after, Ted set up the film production company M&A Productions with ex-Film Australia producer Tristram Miall; they tracked Luhrmann down through NIDA and approached him with the offer to transform his play into a movie.[3] In its early stages, with the involvement of writer Andrew Bovell, the script took a more serious tone, including a subplot set around the trade union at the BHP steelworks in the industrial city of Newcastle. Luhrmann balked at the move towards naturalism and eventually, with Albert's agreement, the director brought in his old friend Craig Pearce, who was able to translate Luhrmann's theatrical vision into a workable screenplay.[3]

The producers had difficulty in securing funding for the project, which mostly featured a cast of newcomers. The only "bankable names" in the cast were Barry Otto and screen veteran Bill Hunter, and although co-star Paul Mercurio was well known as a dancer through his work with the Sydney Dance Company, Strictly Ballroom was his first acting role. With the original budget set at over AUD 5 million, government film funding bodies were reluctant to back such a left-field project with few major names in the credits. The script was then pared back and the subplot dropped, but when Miall approached the Film Finance Corporation, he was told that they would not back such a high-budget film (in Australian terms) with a first-time director. He was told to replace Luhrmann, but he refused, promising to make further cuts. Miall and Albert then pared the budget down to AUD 3.3 million and the FFA then agreed to provide around 65%, on condition that the producers were able to raise the remaining AUD 1 million and secure a local distributor. They sent Luhrmann to the Cannes Film Festival in hopes of finding an overseas distributor, but this came to nothing. After returning to Australia, Miall and Luhrmann had a fortuitous meeting with Andrew Pike, head of the Canberra-based independent distribution company Ronin Films. Intrigued by Luhrmann's colourful pitch which involved sketches, set miniatures and pieces of costume, Pike agreed to back a limited local release, although he later admitted that, had he seen only the script, he would probably have turned it down.[3]

Although the FFC funding was now in the pipeline, the production faced its most serious challenge when, on 11 November 1990, Ted Albert died suddenly from a heart attack (the film is dedicated to him). This threw the entire project into doubt, but Ted Albert's widow Popsy decided that it should go to completion in honour of her husband, so she took over as executive producer, with Miall as producer. With her blessing, Ted's family company Albert Music invested AUD 1 million, with the remaining AUD 300,000 sourced from private investors. Even after completion, the team were greeted with stiff resistance from exhibitors: Luhrmann recalled that one exhibitor walked out before the film had even finished, declaring that Luhrmann was ruined and that he would never work again.[3]

The film was accepted for the Cannes Film Festival, but another tragedy struck just before its first screening—actress Pat Thomson, who played Scott's mother, was diagnosed with cancer and she died in April 1992, only one month before its Cannes world premiere in May. Strictly Ballroom had its first public screening at midnight in the Un Certain Regard programme and proved to be an instant hit—the cast and crew received a fifteen-minute standing ovation, which was repeated the following night; it became one of the major hits of the festival, winning the Prix De Jeunesse and triggering a bidding war among international distributors.[3]

It was a huge success when released in Australia in August, and it swept the field at the 1992 AFI awards, gaining 13 nominations and winning in eight major categories. It was also a major success at the 1993 BAFTA awards, gaining eight nominations and winning three awards for 'Best Costume Design', 'Best Original Film Score' and 'Best Production Design'. Other major accolades included a 1994 Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture, 'Newcomer of the Year' at the 1993 London Critics Circle Film Awards, the 'People's Choice' award at the 1992 Toronto International Film Festival and 'Most Popular Film' at the 1992 Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film was released on DVD on 19 March 2002 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.[7]

Strictly Ballroom holds a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews.[8]

Among the songs featured on the soundtrack are:

• "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II
• New versions of "Love is in the Air" and "Standing In The Rain" by John Paul Young. The film's version of "Love is in the Air" re-entered the Australian charts and became a Top 5 hit, peaking at #4 on the national chart in October 1992.[17]
• A cover version of John Paul Young's "Yesterday's Hero" by Ignatius Jones
• "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" by Doris Day
• A cover version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" by Mark Williams and Tara Morice

Both "The Blue Danube" and "Time After Time" were played in the 1984 and 1986 Strictly Ballroom stage productions.

In May 2011, it was announced that Strictly Ballroom would be adapted into a stage musical and premiere at the Sydney Lyric theatre. It premiered on 12 April 2014.[4] The production moved to Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne in January 2015,[18] and the Lyric Theatre, QPAC in Brisbane in September 2015.[19]

The show received its British premiere on 30 November 2016 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. The show had its North American premier in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre on 25 April 2017.

The film has become a staple of pop culture, being referenced in various media worldwide.

• Many television series have episodes with titles referencing the film, including Phenom ("Strictly Lunchroom"), Even Stevens, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody ("Loosely Ballroom") and Groove High ("Slightly Ballroom").
• The film is frequently referenced on the American iteration of Dancing with the Stars, as well as influencing the name of the original UK version Strictly Come Dancing.

• Cinema of Australia
• List of films set in Sydney

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Strictly Ballroom

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Strictly Ballroom.

• Official website
• Strictly Ballroom The Musical
• Strictly Ballroom at IMDb
• Strictly Ballroom at AllMovie
• Strictly Ballroom at Rotten Tomatoes
• Strictly Ballroom at Box Office Mojo
• Strictly Ballroom at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Strictly Ballroom at Oz Movies