The countdown to the days before the film I have anticipated forever has begun!!
F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel. It is compact, spare, gorgeous, heartbreaking and haunting. Its theme of America being a place anyone can reinvent themselves is one that makes the classic era of Hollywood so seductive to me. And, as Theda Bara, Joan Crawford, Clara Bow and countless others after them whose stories were created by a Hollywood publicist learned, Jay Gatsby found you cannot run away from your past.
There has been some snarking and trepidation about this latest movie version Gatsby. I have read that there have been 5 previous versions, but I can only find 4 (1926, 1949, 1974 and the 2000 TV version) and all have left fans of the novel wanting more. I am most familiar with the 1974 Robert Redford/Mia Farrow version. While it is visually beautiful, it left me wondering when Gatsby and Daisy were going to show up. From all that I have read and seen, this new 3-D Baz Luhrmann production will not be a reverential from-the-page-to-the-screen recreation. As he did in Moulin Rouge (which I loved), Luhrmann will use contemporary music as a background. I'm a little nervous about this, but I am going to trust the director's vision here.
As if the trailers and delayed opening are not enough of a tease, Vogue gave us these beautiful photos of Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.
"She blossomed for him like a flower"
Before seeing these photos, I couldn't picture Carey as Daisy. Now, I can't wait to see her. She looks as bewitching as Fitzgerald's creation.
On the other hand, Leonardo DiCaprio seemed to me to be the perfect Gatsby from the moment I heard he was going to play the part. He is one of the main reasons I am so excited and hopeful about this film. This could be the role he was born to play. He has the romantic longing coupled with the danger that is Gatsby.
"The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God - a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that - and he must be about his Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to his conception he was faithful to the end."
Tobey Maguire seems to be a perfect choice for Nick, and the rest of the cast looks mighty good, too.
So cheers to and fingers crossed for this new attempt to tell Jay Gatsby's story. It promises to be big and bold and beautiful. Oh please, please be vulgar, dangerous and romantic!!!!! Please, please be great!!!
Click HERE and take a tour of the incredibly lavish sets of The Great Gatsby.
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