Photo by Matt Hart – ©2013 Bazmark Film III Pty Ltd
She is 28. Shown as Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” by director Baz Luhrmann and production/costume designer Catherine Martin.
Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin create a gorgeously over-the-top Gatsby for the new millennium
May 10, 2013 by
The Great Gatsby/2013/Warner Bros. Pictures/143 min.
By Michael Wilmington
Director Baz Luhrmann’s razzle-dazzle, ultra-snazzy movie of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age masterpiece, “The Great Gatsby” – which has been unjustly trashed by a number of critics – is a sometimes sensational movie that may not match the aesthetic brilliance and roaring ’20s allure of the book. (How could it? )
But it gives us plenty to enjoy anyway: a great story, much of Fitzgerald’s matchlessly lyrical narration and memorable dialogue, and a strong cast. Leonardo DiCaprio makes one of the best Gatsbys possible in a part that now seems perfect for him. Tobey Maguire plays Nick Caraway, Carey Mulligan is Daisy Buchanan and Joel Edgerton is her husband Tom.
There’s also a truly spectacular visual realization – by Luhrmann and his wife, Catherine Martin, who is the film’s production and costume designer – set in a dreamy fabrication of 1922 Long Island and Manhattan (actually shot in Luhrmann’s and Martin’s native Australia) that knocks your eyes out again and again.
This is Luhrmann’s (and Martin’s) Gatsby, as much as Fitzgerald’s: a romantic musical Gatsby, a hip-hop Gatsby, a gorgeously over-the-top Gatsby for the new millennium. But Luhrmann so obviously loves and admires the book that it becomes not only a beautiful movie and the best Gatsby film adaptation of the several made so far (1926’s with Warner Baxter, 1949’s with Alan Ladd, and 1974’s with Robert Redford), but, for me, one of the best movies of the year so far. It’s also a picture that deserves far more appreciation than it’s getting from a lot of my colleagues.
“The Great Gatsby” opens today.
On the radar: a new Marilyn book, Met show, ‘Bernie’ bound
May 4, 2012 by
There will surely be much fanfare to mark the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, Aug. 5, 1962. For starters, there’s a new book, “Marilyn by Magnum” (Prestel Publishing, $29.95). The Magnum photographic cooperative was founded in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour.
In the book, we see the work of Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Philippe Halsman, Bruce Davidson, Dennis Stock, Bob Henriques, Erich Hartmann and others.
The images range from glamorous portraits to intimate candids to Marilyn working on movies. Says Magnum: “In richly toned black and white as well as lustrous color, these photographs reveal Marilyn’s uncanny ease in front of the camera.”
Marilyn Monroe, 1952. By Philippe Halsman; copyright Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos
Marilyn in her apartment, 1952. The photo on the desk is of Italian actress Eleonora Duse, whom Marilyn admired. Copyright Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos
Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller in Hollywood, Calif., 1960. Photo by Bruce Davidson; copyright Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos
Talking shop: The Met’s Spring 2012 Costume Institute exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, explores the striking affinities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian designers from different eras. Baz Luhrmann directed videos of simulated conversations between Schiaparelli and Prada.
Screenworthy: Richard Linklater’s black comedy “Bernie,” starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey, looks well worth seeing. I missed screenings because of all the festivals in town but am hoping to catch it asap.
Sunnyside Upton: Kate Upton goes retro glam with an Old-Hollywood inspired photo shoot at the Beverly Hills Hotel in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar.
From FNB readers