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Monday, May 20, 2013

The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann, 2013 (PG-13)



Nominated for the Oscars 2014 for the following categories: Costume Design, Production Design

with Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception, J. Edgar, Hubble, Django Unchained, Marvin's Room, Titanic, Shutter Island), Tobey Maguire (Deconstructing Harry), Carey Mulligan (Shame, Drive, An Education, Never Let Me Go), Joel Edgerton (Zero Dark Thirty, Warrior), Isla Fisher (Rango), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Adelaide Clemens, Callan McAuliffe, Amitabh Bachchan, Elizabeth Debicki
from the director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia...

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as literary icon Jay Gatsby in this adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. Fascinated by the mysterious, affluent Gatsby, his neighbor Nick Carraway bears witness to the man's obsessive love and spiral into tragedy.

First, I haven't yet seen the original "Great Gatsby", coming soon. Second I haven't read Fitzgerald's novel. Third, no, I am not illiterate, I plan on catching up with all I missed of literature and cinema over the next decades. I therefor watched the movie with the reference of Australia, Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet. I wouldn't say I was deceived, I guess in this one like in Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet, I felt a bit harsh the anachronism of music and style. At the same time, it was for moment exhilarating to have the feeling of modernity. I am not a big fan of Tobey Maguire, but I liked him being almost standing constantly in the way, and somehow at the same time making all this possible. Leonardo DiCaprio was the real surprise. After seeing him in J. Edgar, Shutter Island and Inception as an older man, I was convinced he simply got old (38 years old). But in this movie, at time, you see him as the kid of Romeo + Juliet and Titanic, rejuvenated, all transformed by his acting, beautiful, fascinating. It reminded me how brilliant he is. Overall, because of Luhrmann's caricaturist style, I felt the movie was a succession of sketches, a little disconnected from each other, the aesthetic of Gatsby's house taken from a Walt Disney animation movie, while the portrayal of New York in the 20s was actually quite interesting. Oh and about the story, not quite subdle but a unique view of New York social classes.

watch trailer:

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