Tweet The Great Gatsby (2013)

Unlike certain orchestral travesties in the '50s which turned jaunty '20s music into blah elevator music, I hope that if GATSBY utilizes '20s music the arrangements have that authentic sound.

Maybe I am wanting things to be too correct when I watch period pictures? I like people who do their research and don't foist upon us things that are totally incongruous for the period. What I find all too often is that whilst attention is taken to the womens' costuming - sticking a double-breasted jacket and a cloth cap on a man serves in some minds to stick him in the 1920's or 1930's. They forget little things such as men's shirts then had detached collars and starch was used in abundance. When men wore black tie evening dress, their shirt fronts were rigid, they wore starched wing collars and a waistcoat. Double-breasted dinner jackets did not come into vogue until 1925 when introduced by Jack Buchanan.

Musically I don't mind if sometimes a piece is slipped in that might have been a couple of years away from the period but I am more inclined to appreciate a score that evokes the period rather than re-creates it.

Another thing is the language. Colloquialisms that may be of today are out of place in a period picture. I would not expect a 1920's charachter to have a line such as "Hey dude, lay some skin on me." Neither would I expect the attitudes expressed in the character to be the same as of today.

If someone wishes to take a classic work of literature and adapt it into the form of a motion picture, then the essence of that work should be faithfully reproduced on the screen. Anything less would be insulting to the author.

(I said earlier I didn't much care for Baz Luhrmann's efforts - but I fogot that he directed "Strictly Ballromm' which I quite enjoyed).

Yes but Strictly Ballroom isn't a period piece.

Why bother doing a period piece if you don't do it correctly? By having rotten contemporary music are they hoping to draw the tweenies into theaters to see DiCaprio in a story they never heard of? Will 3-D draw them in? They won't be going to see one in any event.

I know there is a long history of Hollywood films that butchered every attempt to recreate a period or era in favor of current fashion (especially with women), films that were totally wrong in clothes, hair, and even eyebrows. But that doesn't excuse yet one more botch.

Good point about use of language. I would find it more than irritating if 2012-speak finds itself in a period film. I'd be thrilled to hear "mind your own beeswax!" in Gatsby; uh, but was that term used in the novel?

I just got around to watching the trailer.
I have mixed feelings about Luhrmann. I liked STRICTLY BALLROOM and, in it's big, dumb way, AUSTRALIA, but MOULIN ROUGE made me sea sick.
In theory, I have no objections to modern music in a period piece, but, based on the trailer it looks like time for the dramamine again. I will probably give this a miss.

I don't know with Luhrman, but the hip-hop soundtrack on the trailer suggests less to me what will probably be the actual score, and more likely something to lure modern audiences in.

That being said, '20s period pieces don't have a particularly strong history at the box office. I wonder if this film will capture the audiences like the '74 film did.

You know that time machine I'm building so I can go back to the 20s and kill Hitler? Well, while I'm there I'm also going to pot Karl Freund before he gets the idea of unchaining the camera. It was a great ride for a while, but it has reached a point by now where every shot in every film has to have a moving camera. If I had a penny for every unnescessary zoom, handheld wobble, steadycam pursuit, crane or even helicopter shot I have seen in recent years that time machine would be completed by now.
Donations welcome.

I don't know with Luhrman, but the hip-hop soundtrack on the trailer suggests less to me what will probably be the actual score, and more likely something to lure modern audiences in.

I hope you're right, and I hope that's the case for "American Gangers" too. The movie is set in LA in the 1940ies but the trailerends with a very anachronistic musical climax.

I don't know with Luhrman, but the hip-hop soundtrack on the trailer suggests less to me what will probably be the actual score, and more likely something to lure modern audiences in.

That being said, '20s period pieces don't have a particularly strong history at the box office. I wonder if this film will capture the audiences like the '74 film did.

Plus, I recall seeing the '74 film with oldsters who probably even remembered the '20s! For so many this would be strange, unfamiliar territory, which I always find a difficult to accept given how "familiar" the era has been to me for decades. I recall the hoopla of the '74 Gatsby; it sort of built upon the retro craze THE STING created the previous year, which also had Redford. I wonder what Redford will think of this new version--indeed, the whole primary cast, who are still with us (save for Howard DaSilva as Meyer Wolfsheim).

I don't remember any "craze" concerning the '74 film, which earned only $26M. I remember it as a critical bomb as well. I watched it a few months back and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. Even the casting of Mia Farrow didn't seen as bad, but I sure don't remember any hoopla of positive response in 1974.

I don't remember any "craze" concerning the '74 film, which earned only $26M. I remember it as a critical bomb as well. I watched it a few months back and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. Even the casting of Mia Farrow didn't seen as bad, but I sure don't remember any hoopla of positive response in 1974.

Not exactly a craze, but it and "The Sting" fed the nostalgia boom of the 1970's.

I don't remember any "craze" concerning the '74 film, which earned only $26M. I remember it as a critical bomb as well. I watched it a few months back and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. Even the casting of Mia Farrow didn't seen as bad, but I sure don't remember any hoopla of positive response in 1974.

The marketing campaign was HUGE. They tried so hard to make it an "event" picture. IIRC Brooks Brothers even came out with a Gatsby line of clothing. Johnny Mercer made fun of it in the lyrics to "My New Celebrity is You"
(Sorry I don't have the lyrics in front of me. Susannah McCorkle has it on her Mercer album)

Something tells me that this new version will have some great bits and at least one memorable set piece. It will be a "If the rest of it had been as good as that part" kind of movie.

In theory, I have no objections to modern music in a period piece

I have enough for both of us--plus a thousand others.

I don't remember any "craze" concerning the '74 film, which earned only $26M. I remember it as a critical bomb as well. I watched it a few months back and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. Even the casting of Mia Farrow didn't seen as bad, but I sure don't remember any hoopla of positive response in 1974.

The marketing campaign was HUGE. They tried so hard to make it an "event" picture. IIRC Brooks Brothers even came out with a Gatsby line of clothing. Johnny Mercer made fun of it in the lyrics to "My New Celebrity is You"
(Sorry I don't have the lyrics in front of me. Susannah McCorkle has it on her Mercer album)

Indeed there was a massive pre-release campaign, but unfortunately many a critic seemed intent on killing off the film.
I saw it almost immediately and it haunted me (in a good way) for days. At best the film broke even; it was not a notorious flop--just that the expectations were sky high. I think it looks better than ever now.

I don't remember any "craze" concerning the '74 film, which earned only $26M. I remember it as a critical bomb as well. I watched it a few months back and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. Even the casting of Mia Farrow didn't seen as bad, but I sure don't remember any hoopla of positive response in 1974.

Not exactly a craze, but it and "The Sting" fed the nostalgia boom of the 1970's.

There was most definitely an Art Deco/1920s revival in the early 70s, but the Gatsby film was an outgrowth of it rather than a cause of it. The '74 film does nothing for me, although it doesn't actively annoy me like the '49 version.

Rumors are rumors, but supposedly someone has seen a 20 minute preview of GATSBY and it apparently has period music. I guess that's reassuring.

Somewhat off-topic, The Music Box Theater in Chicago is showing a new35mm print of the 1949 Great Gatsby in mid-August as part of its...Film Noir Festival? Strange festival programming choice aside, I'm excited to have the opportunity to see it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/cel ... _blog.html

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... 0847.story



The Great Gatsby's release date has been postponed until next summer.

This is puzzling since TGG is more appropriate for a fall release.
Perhaps Baz Luhrmann can't keep his hands off of it.
Too bad Irving Thalberg isn't around to save this potential
catastrophe.

I'm not that happy about it either--if anything, why not a spring release?

It looks every bit as faithful to the source material's tone as Battleship.

YMMV, since I like Baz Luhrmann I'm not having any problems with the trailer, it looks interesting. I am wondering why people who don't like Baz Luhrmann would go see it.

I like Baz Luhrmann as well and I thought Moulin Rouge brilliant with its nod to the past- it was pure entertainment and some people just didn't get it. Maybe the 3d will be used for the passage from the novel about the women sitting on the sofas with the white curtains blowing into the room I am not a big fan of the novel but I will wait until I see it-however I own a vintage clothing business and I am not impressed by the costumes from what I have seen. Moulin R had fantastic costumes except for N. Kidman's hair which I know was a nod to Rita Hayworth's in Gilda.

The Wrap today reports that rapper Jay-Z is writing an original score for Luhrmann's THE GREAT GATSBY.
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/j ... tsby-71006

[Christopher Jacobs]

The Wrap today reports that rapper Jay-Z is writing an original score for Luhrmann's THE GREAT GATSBY.
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/j ... tsby-71006" target="_blank

o.m.g.

I never liked what Baz Lurhmann did with ROMEO AND JULIET, MOULIN ROUGE and everything else he's done. Too loud screechy, headache inducing visually disorientating and smacks of self indulgent attention seeking. I don't have much anticipatation for THE GREAT GATSBY. Gen X or Y can have it.

The Wrap today reports that rapper Jay-Z is writing an original score for Luhrmann's THE GREAT GATSBY.
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/j ... tsby-71006" target="_blank

Jay Z is also busy writing new songs for the remake of "Annie" to star Willow Smith.

I never liked what Baz Lurhmann did with ROMEO AND JULIET, MOULIN ROUGE and everything else he's done. Too loud screechy, headache inducing visually disorientating and smacks of self indulgent attention seeking. I don't have much anticipatation for THE GREAT GATSBY. Gen X or Y can have it.

Brother, tell it like it is! Merely reading those names sends me to the medicine cabinet for dramamine.

I don't enjoy Luhrman's stuff, but at least he makes movie musicals. I walked out of the movie version of LES MISERABLES on Friday because it took all the issues that I had with the stage musical, didn't fix them and added in compositions that worked int he stage show but don't on the screen -- the decline of Fantine appears, on the screen as if she is fired and winds up arrested by Javert that evening. I was seething at that when the awful recitative argument between Valjean and Javert began and I couldn't take it any more.

However, between my disdain for Gatsby, my indifference to DiCaprio and my dislike of Luhrman, I am not going to bother.

Bob

I don't enjoy Luhrman's stuff, but at least he makes movie musicals. I walked out of the movie version of LES MISERABLES on Friday because it took all the issues that I had with the stage musical, didn't fix them and added in compositions that worked int he stage show but don't on the screen -- the decline of Fantine appears, on the screen as if she is fired and winds up arrested by Javert that evening. I was seething at that when the awful recitative argument between Valjean and Javert began and I couldn't take it any more.

I just watched Funny Girl on TCM. The first act finale "Don't Rain on My Parade" is strung out from the waiting room of a Baltimore railroad station to a tug boat in New York Harbor... and William Wyler, directing his first musical knew how to shoot it to make it both continuous and discrete. It's amazing how in less than fifty years people have forgotten how to direct a movie musical, even with the evidence present.

Bob

[Christopher Jacobs]

I thought Luhrman's STRICTLY BALLROOM was rather odd but sort of interesting in its way, and I actually really liked his ROMEO + JULIET as one of the best adaptations of the play ever put on film. MOULIN ROUGE, on the other hand, is something I had mixed feelings about but mostly enjoyed it for what it was and not what I was hoping it should have been. With THE GREAT GATSBY, I'll have to wait and see, but unless the whole thing is extremely stylized, it's not a story that I can see being anywhere near as effective by straying drastically and intentionally out of period for some aspects (like music) but not others.

I could see Quentin Tarantino trying something off-the-wall and possibly interesting with GATSBY. I wonder what David Lynch or Tim Burton might have done with it, but think that Martin Scorsese might have been most likely of modern directors to be able to do it justice, and even Steven Spielberg might have come up with a decent version, certainly a period-appropriate one. Peter Bogdanovich might have been best-suited for it, however.

I actually really liked his ROMEO + JULIET as one of the best adaptations of the play ever put on film.

Better, anywhere near, or even in the same universe, as Zeffirelli's? Oh, say it ain't so, Chris! As with all "contemporary" Shakespearean adaptations, such as Richard Burton's Hamlet, how is one supposed to surmount the absurdity of 16th C. English in the mouths of people dressed like oneself, or references within the dialog to 16th C. household furnishings, weapons, etc.? Why don't directors with a taste for the "theater of the absurd" direct their talents to productions of Beckett, Ionesco, & the like, and keep their mitts off Will?