Strictly Ballroom: Writing Paragraphs developing ideas about Belonging.
It is important to practise clear concise writing that links together insights into the topic Belonging, specific scenes and details from Luhrmann’s film, and analysis of how the text creates meaning {analysis of camera shots, use of music and colour, juxtaposition, irony, visual setting etc}.
Develop these opening sentences into paragraphs by answering the questions (1) Where in the film do you see this?, (2) How does Luhrmann convey this idea in these scenes? Then further develop the argument by considering: (3) What is the message about Belonging? What does this show you about Belonging?
(a)“Strictly Ballroom” portrays a world where obsession with belonging leads people to live in fear of what others will say and incapable of thinking for themselves.
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(b)One of the key lessons about Belonging in Luhrmann’s “Strictly Ballroom” is that, as groups of “belongers” set up their clubs, societies and in-groups, they inevitably gain their sense of identity by excluding, and typically humiliating, others. Thus Belonging for some is purchased at the price of suffering for others.
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(c)Alongside these negative aspects of Belonging, Luhrmann also celebrates the positive side of Belonging.
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(d)“Strictly Ballroom” ultimately develops a “feel-good” image of multicultural Australia marked by the eventual inclusion of others as the few old-fashioned conservatives at the top are defeated and a new era of harmony begins.
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(e)Luhrmann’s film leads us to seethe contrast between authentic belonging where people speak and act from the heart and an artificial, rule-obsessed style of Belonging.
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(f)This film made it clear to me that we can ruin our lives if we let ourselves be dominated by the need to belong.
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Sample Paragraphs on Strictly Ballroom
(a)“Strictly Ballroom” portrays a world where obsession with belonging leads people to live in fear of what others will say and incapable of thinking for themselves. Shirley Hastings, Scott’s mother, is a perfect example of this. The panic in her voice whenever she mentions the name “Barry Fife” captures her fear as do her frequent fits of crying. Luhrmann’s portrayal of her as an ageing make-up plastered woman with exaggerated teeth, permanently on the edge of hysteria, obsessed with her son’s prospects of winning (“It was his year, it was his year, it was his year” spoken in shrill crescendo as she crumples the calendar) captures for us the hollowness of a life lived obsessed with belonging. She typifies a life lived in fear, “a life half-lived” as Fran’s Grandmother would say. Even in the last scene she is incapable of clapping her son’s brilliant dancing, trapped inside her lifetime obsession with false group values.”Strictly Ballroom” powerfully demonstrates how the need to belong so easily belittles us, making us forget what really matters in life as we strive to conform to the group.
(b)One of the key lessons about Belonging in Luhrmann’s “Strictly Ballroom” is that, as groups of “belongers” set up their clubs, societies and in-groups, they inevitably gain their sense of identity by excluding, and typically humiliating, others. Thus Belonging for some is purchased at the price of suffering for others. Fran, the film’s Ugly Duckling, is humiliated throughout the movie. In the scene just after she has fallen behind the curtain while dancing with Scott, she is surrounded by Mrs Hastings, Liz and others as medium shots portray her humiliating treatment:”What were you thinking? . . and you’re clumsy”, then the patronizing voice of Shirley “Now Fran I think it would be best. . .” Fran’s misery is most of all shown in the two outbursts when she lets fly her pent-up emotions. At the Pan Pacifics as Scott tries to argue that it’s hard for him, she retorts “Hard? How hard do you think it was for me?” Her positioning as the outcast throughout the movie, established by her dowdy clothing, lack of make up or grossly excessive make up, her lack of a partner, all mark her as the classic outsider. Luhrmann uses this stereotype of teen movies to show the alienated migrant child scorned by the conformist Anglo world. Fran’s pain stands in for the pain of those excluded from a smug, self-satisfied but ultimately culture-less society.
(c)Alongside these negative aspects of Belonging, Luhrmann also celebrates the positive side of Belonging. The growing bond between Fran and Scott, both as dancers and young lovers, represents an authentic belonging in contrast to the fake world of the Dance Federation. As Fran and Scott dance on one side of the curtain juxtaposed with Nathan and Tina’s extravagant dancing on the other side, we see their slow focussed movements enact the budding of passion, perfectly synchronized with the sultry tune of “Perhaps”, giving the sense of a true belonging together that can lead to personal fulfilment. More dramatically, at the end of the movie as couples fill the dance floor and the artificial world of Barry Fife collapses in a pile of meaningless trophies, Luhrmann celebrates the joy of belonging, of sharing in dance as a natural activity. In a way dance itself (“it takes two to tango”) becomes a perfect emblem of belonging as a life-enhancing experience.
(a)“Strictly Ballroom” ultimately develops a “feel-good” image of multicultural Australia marked by the eventual inclusion of others as the few old-fashioned conservatives at the top are defeated and a new era of harmony begins. Close ups of Doug’s hands clapping capture a new beat as dance now emerges from feeling and popular will instead of the fiats of the corrupt ultra-sleaze Barry Fife shown symbolically collapsed against a pile of trophies. Luhrmann skilfully moves the action forward as Scott and Fran dance at first to the clapping of only Doug, then Fran’s father but soon the whole crowd. When Liz reconnects the music and other couples join the dancing, through the close up of feet crossing the barriers of the stage Luhrmann’s visual metaphor of “the barriers falling” suggests an end to the exclusion of the non-Anglo world with its roots in an authentic culture and rather an inclusion of the previous outsiders into a wider society. The tune used at the close is up-beat but not Spanish – mainstream but positive; the words “Love is in the air” typify a sentiment no one can really disagree with. It is a highly positive emotive finale where ethnic divisions disappear.