Discuss Strictly Ballroom
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Very entertaining Australian comedy-dance feel-good movie
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on March 13, 2018 at 4:36 PM
This is a really fun, entertaining movie, with an array of delightful, often hilarious, characters and performances. I especially enjoy the woman and man who portray Scott's parents (particularly the mother, who's a hoot), and the actress who portrays Scott's original dance partner, Liz (the beautiful blonde). The music, itself, is also winning.
I was very sorry to learn that Pat Thomson, who plays Scott's mom Shirley, died, the result of an aortic dissection, prior to this premiering, thus never got to bask in any of the glory. So regrettable, as she's a major cast standout and gives an hysterical, while at the same time believably sincere, memorable performance. Miss Thomson posthumously won the Australian Film Institute Awards award for Best Supporting Actress.
Fun trivia tidbit: When you hear the cover version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", the female singing voice is that of this movie's 'Fran' actress, Tara Morice.
Check out the posted (on Overview page) film trailer. It perfectly captures the very entertaining spirit of this crowd-pleasing movie.
Reply by AusFem
on March 13, 2018 at 8:55 PM
Fantastic movie, the shy ugly duckling turns into beautiful confident swan. The best part imo the Final Dance which to me was spectacular
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk-nWE9yeG8)
Reply by genplant29
on March 13, 2018 at 9:10 PM
I love it! I remember this movie was a big international hit, winning a number of awards (and nominated for various others), and very popular, during its era. Still is lots of fun!
Fran certainly did polish up well.
Reply by genplant29
on March 14, 2018 at 3:32 PM
Another fun piece of trivia: The big dance competition finale was filmed during the lunch break of an actual ballroom competition, in an already fully set up and well decked-out venue. That explains why there's a combination of many well dressed people throughout the background, all the banners, etc., and why the stands are inconsistently filled (many people were off getting lunch). Nearly all background people presumably were actual competition participants and regular audience members.
Reply by AusFem
on March 18, 2018 at 9:19 AM
Yes I checked out some of the characters of the movie. Tina Sparkle (Sonya Kruger) was a professional ballroom dancer and is still very well known in the entertainment industry. She did a stint as a judge in Dancing With the Stars as did Paul Macurio (Scott).
The bad girl that played Liz Holt (Gia Carides) is married to Anthony La Paglia.
It's amazing how the balloon like ballroom dresses have morphed into little skimpy outfits lol. I guess that's one of the reasons ballroom dancing has again become very popular.
Reply by genplant29
on March 20, 2018 at 2:14 AM
The woman and man portraying Scott's parents are the only cast members who I feel like I may have possibly seen before (though may simply now find them "familiar" seeming due to having first watched this movie circa 1993). Anyone else (and probably even those two), I'm pretty sure I've not seen in anything else.
Last week, in the course of looking through cast bios, I saw that Gia Carides and Anthony LaPaglia divorced a couple years ago, after being married for nearly twenty years. I really enjoy Carides in this movie as Liz. Now that I look through her filmography, I realize that I've seen her also in at least My Big Fat Greek Wedding.