Sense Of Style In Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann is well-known for his dazzling sense of style, and his work is easily recognizable by it’s unique atmosphere. The greatest examples of his movies are Moulin Rouge (2001), Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996). All these movies fall under particular style of filmmaking, and no surprise, Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby also falls under that category.
Luhrmann’s style can be described as provocative, bright, bold, risky, chaotic and unique. Maybe the picture he shows is not necessarily historically correct or realistic, but combinations of light, color and movement helps to create the imagery which is bizarrely dramatic, but still well perceptible. The Great Gatsby seems like the visual follow of Moulin Rouge,

To reach that effect Luhrmann used a mix of smoke, stereoscopy, slow camera motion, light and sound. Smoke is one of the most famous elements of Cinema. It was successfully used in theatre and cinema to create sense of depth in the room or on the screen. The green light scene It’s no exception. Even though smoke is artificial and created mostly by image planes layered on top of each other, in relationship with light it still helps viewer to understand how far the light is. Stereoscopic effects helps to increase that effect.
Camera motion is slow, and image is dreamy and blurry, which helps to create the right mood, and not get distracted from the narrative.
The other interesting detail of that scene is costumes. Gatsby is portrayed as a character who prefers light clothing, and who most of the time is always wearing white or beige suits. This helps to show him as a romantic figure. Also the light clothing is the symbol of high class. It’s easier to put stains on light clothing, so this is not right clothing for lower and working class. And the color white ads sense of purity to Gatsby’s

The green light appeared multiple times in the movie just as a tiny signal, but It also had a large scene in the middle of the movie. This also played a significant role in the story, but It was a bit different than intro and outro versions. It was less dreamy, and the light was used just as the element. The Setting is a bit different. We see Nick and Gatsby having a conversation after the party, and Jay is telling Nick about his plans for future with Daisy. This time scene looks more like a memory than other 2 versions of it (which are portrayals of feelings mostly). By nick’s reaction we understand that he thinks that Jay is mad, but he still feels sympathy to his friend. Surprisingly enough, in this scene Jay is also wearing a black suit. This signals viewers that in this scene dark side of Jay is appearing on the