The Auteurism of Baz Luhrmann: An Analysis of Moulin Rouge! And The Great Gatsby

Abstract

Baz Luhrmann is widely known for his personal vision in his five feature films. Luhrmann has claimed that the first three films have the “Red Curtain” style, and their style is different from his last two films. Through the Auteur theory and Formalist style, it is shown that Luhrmann has a consistent personal stamp in all his films. The visuals, the editing, the narrative use of the characters, the symbols and themes of Moulin Rouge!, a Red Curtain style film, is compared to The Great Gatsby, Luhrmann’s last film, to show how strikingly similar they are. Before the analysis of the oeuvre, Luhrmann’s career is overviewed. My contribution to the field is to show that Luhrmann is an authentic auteur by proving a detailed analysis from areas in his films that have not been deeply discussed.