I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of The Great Gatsby last night (it opens in Australia tonight). It was perfection down to the very last sequin.
I’m not even going to attempt a book versus film comparison because it’s all bloody brilliant. I love the book. I love Baz Luhmann’s interpretation.
There are oodles of reviews and you could spend a lot of time reading them. And I could spend a lot of time writing another but I won’t. Instead, this is what I loved:
- Luhrmann does a movie soundtrack like no other. One reviewer said that Luhrmann makes movies that are basically music videos. This was said with a not-very-nice tone. Pah! Take it as a compliment Baz, you’re in a class of your own.
- The party scenes. Astounding.
- The scene when Daisy turns around to see Gatsby. In Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, the moment when Romeo and Juliet first saw each other through the fish tank was a breathtakingly memorable movie moment. He’s done it again with Daisy and Gatsby – it’s exquisite.
There is no question that this movie was worth the wait and worth the hype. It exceeded my expectations. Can’t wait to see it again.
