'So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight'

The fashion industry is teeming right now with the bi-annual event which is fashion month, currently exhibiting to the world what we will be wearing come next Spring/Summer. Inspiration for collections taken from all over the globe, one that struck me most was the appearance of Twenties themed costumes cavorting down the runway. It struck me because I am very aware of Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which is due to come out next year, coincidence? Maybe not so much, but the influence of the jazz age encapsulated Gucci, Etro and Ralph Lauren's show (not so surprising from Ralph who suited the men for the 1974 adaptation starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford). 

Images via Style.com (Etro, Ralph Lauren (2nd & 3rd image), Gucci

For me, the thought of this film being released gives me tingles of delight and even more so that it is to be directed by Baz Luhrmann. 

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet is perfect, for me (I know my boyfriend wouldn't agree as he has quite a distain for the film) it can't be faulted. A successful post-modern interpretation as it doesn't adapt the play to fit a modern age, the modern age is built to fit the play and also the context and time in which it was written. The amount of detail and thought that has gone into the film shows that Baz Luhrmann is fit for the job of recreating The Great Gatsby for the big screen. 

A book that is first and foremost about superficiality I think will be well suited alongside Luhrmann's postmodernist approach, a bombardment of many a popular culture references. I do however find his films, quite gritty and dirty in terms of styling and visuals, where to me, visually The Great Gatsby on the surface is simplistic and fresh (which I put down to the 1974 adaptation's brainwashing). Going back to the book however and choosing to ignore the Robert Redford version, the book is drenched in darkness which is revealed slowly through the novel, starting out appearing as a happy, perfect world; which soon appears to be just a pseudo veneer, slowly deteriorating. The characters are the darkness, with secrets a plenty, sectarian views displaying obvious signs of racism, sexism and elitism, adultery, lies, murder and domestic violence, there is a lot of scope for Luhrmann to feel at home with his gritty and dark styling and visuals that are apparent in his previous films.