Though he began his as an actor, director/freelancer/financial manager Baz Luhrmann bring about his flamboyant power was better served behind the scenes. Born BazMark Luhrmann in a Sydney, Australia, suburb, Luhrmann returned to Sydney after a Arcadian childhood to appear at the National Launch of Dramatic Arts. In spite of he appeared with Judy Davis in the integument Winter of Our Dreams (1982), Luhrmann redirected his artistic pursuits, creating the original reading of what would b... ecome his future film premiere, Strictly Ballroom (1992), the stage in 1986.

He continued to mount musical theater and opera productions throughout the 1980s and early '90s, including a 1950s-set type of Giacomo Puccini's La Boh??me in 1990. Working with longtime collaborators Craig Pearce and Catherine Martin, Luhrmann brought his vibrant sensibility to film with the cinematic version of Strictly Ballroom. Stuffed of garish colors, buoyant dancing, and ironic despite it true sentiment, the romantic fable made a splash at the Cannes Movie Festival and became an worldwide, -attractive hit. Luhrmann next worked his postmodern magic on an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). As with La Boh??me, he re-conceived the story for the 20th century, setting the famed tale of teen love in the candy-colored, Versace-clad milieu of "Verona Beach." With stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes delivering Shakespeare's expository writing as if it were everyday, an eclectic soundtrack, and editing as kinetic as the Oscar-nominated production think of, Romeo + Juliet became a coffer-office hit. Beforehand he began production on the Nicole Kidman-Ewan McGregor musical Moulin Rouge (2001), Luhrmann put together music from his film and the West End train for the CD Something for Everybody (1998). He notched a to which he replied charge unwed with "Everybody's Free (To Tax Sunscreen)," placement the text of a famous commencement speech to music from Romeo + Juliet.

Merging personal and professional lives, Luhrmann and Martin married in 1997. After a long gestation, Moulin Rouge made a splashy debut as the breach dusk enticement at the 2001 Cannes Covering Anniversary. Notwithstanding depreciative reception split to Luhrmann's postmodern reinterpretation of the musical, with gambol numbers edited into a furore and stars Kidman, McGregor, and Jim Broadbent warbling such famous pop songs as "Your Song," "Heroes," "Like a Virgin," and "Smells Like Teen Spirit," his elaborately colored, sumptuously stylized vision of Belle ??poque Paris and the eponymous night speckle earned kudos across the . Seen as a hazardous proposition for a mass audience uncommon to musicals, Moulin Rouge earned ardent fans and respectable box office as a durable alternative to the exhibition of uninspired summer 2001 blockbusters.

After winning the National Food of Scrutinize's Best Picture award, several Golden Globe nominations, and Shining Sphere statuettes to save Best Actress Kidman and Best Picture (Lilting or Comedy), Moulin Rouge earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Depict. Though he was nominated because Director's and Writer's Guild awards, in what way, Luhrmann did not profit Oscar nods in either sphere. Even, Luhrmann's wife and creative partner Martin won the Oscars benefit of Kit Lay out and Technique Directorship, acknowledging Luhrmann and company's fabulous visual attainment. Returning to his live theater roots, Luhrmann followed his Moulin Rouge success by reviving his version of La Boh??me for the New York stage in December 2002.

Having come full circle creatively with La Boh??me and the concurrent release of his theatrically aroused "Red Curtain Trilogy" of Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Rouge on DVD, Luhrmann subsequently struck out in a fresh course with plans to film an epic biopic of Alexander the Great, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the notable Greek conqueror.