Is this really the best they could come up with for a new tourism campaign. Something about the invitation to “go walkabout” makes me really uneasy. You know I loved Strictly Ballroom and it remains one of my favourite Australian films. I also enjoyed the fluff and sparkle of Moulin Rouge, but every time I have gone to the movies lately and been treated to a trailer for Australia (hey! rhyming!!) my skin sort of crawls. And I don’t mean in a good way.
Maybe I’m in the minority here…
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Not as far as I’m concerned, but then I’m no fan of Baz Luhrmann’s. I particularly disliked Romeo + Juliet (why the plus sign, Baz? Ordinary conjunctions serve an important purpose, you know) but I know I’m in a minority there.
What’s been annoying me about Australia is the insistence–I think from Luhrmann himself, though it may have been advertising schtick–that it’s showing aspects of Australia that are never incorporated into films, like . . . the outback?
Yep, never seen that in a film before.
But, then, I’m not an Australian, so perhaps my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt?
oh…romeo and juliet…i’d actually forgotten about that one…which perhaps shows how “un-memorable” it was…i think that was definitely a wrong turn…i’d also forgotten about the plus sign…which i would suggest is pretentious in the extreme
grain or salt or not…i think you’re right…what about “japanese story”?…what about in grade 5 when we were taken on a school excursion to see we of the never never…pretty sure that had some outback cattle station in it of some kind?…although my memory of it is quite hazy (and now I think it was a rather strange excursion to take a group of 10 year olds on)…in fact I’m pretty sure “the outback” looms large in the australian popular culture imaginary and I’m very sure others more learned than myself have written about it at length (if not they should have!)
one thing baz is pretty good at is generating publicity (as they say, even bad publicity is good publicity)
(“un-memorable”…I couldn’t think of the word “forgettable” – geez!)
and “pretentious”…I’m pretty sure in one of the muppet movies/ shows at some point miss piggy is accused of being pretentious…to which she replies “pretentious..moi?” thereby proving the accusation is true…if it wasn’t miss piggy it was someone else…and if it wasn’t someone else then i’ve made it up…okay stopping blathering on now….