Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic trilogy has been released on DVD in this lavish and gracious box set, featuring Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

Luhrmann’s creative mind has soared over the past ten years through different levels of heightened languages, musical numbers, Hollywood styles, Bollywood styles, extreme dance sequences and introducing new and exotic worlds to general mainstream audiences around the world.

Strictly Ballroom won Luhrmann and his team critical acclaim around the world, and launched his creative mind into overdrive as he was inspired to come up with a new and original idea.

Five years later, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet was released, and once again Luhrmann and his team received worldwide acclaim for their innovative style. In this film, he took the Elizabethan English and threw it into a modern setting full of advertising, pop culture and guns - and more importantly made it work!

In 2001, Luhrmann released the final in the Red Curtain trilogy, a film called Moulin Rouge. This film broke all barriers already created by Luhrmann; intertwining the classic Hollywood style musical numbers with pop music, love and the sleazy backdrop of the Moulin Rouge.

These three films are all individual – the only thing linking them is the director and creative team behind them. This individuality makes each film stand out from the others and display a totally different and unique world.

Behind the Red Curtain is a fifth disc in this box set which takes you behind the phenomena known as “Red Curtain Cinema� and explains the details about this cinematic style. With a duration of over two and a half hours, this disc is going to keep you on your toes with the different type of interview, and collection of music videos, scripts and DVD-ROM features. From the main menu, we have four possible options:

The seven minute documentary called The House of Iona takes audiences behind the gates of this house that production company Bazmark calls its home. This wander through the House of Iona is interesting as it shows where these ideas took place, and the working environment of the team.

Red Curtain Cinema is an approximately two-hour interactive ‘interview’ with Baz Luhrmann. This feature in a way is similar to the ‘Follow the White Rabbit’ feature on The Matrix, except here when words appear on the screen, you can highlight them to be taken to extra pieces of footage, clips and interviews about those particular words. By having these selectable words it makes such a long interview interesting, as you can go to particular places if you feel the need to, rather than just sit there passively watching it all go by.

The Showbag is a large gallery of extra features, many of which are DVD-ROM based.

• Now Until the Break of Day is a 4:08 music video which stars Christine Anu, David Hobson, Royce Doherty and is backed up by a gospel choir. This piece was originally a Shakespearian creation written 400 years ago, and converted into a musical opera by Benjamin Briten in 1968. This is a very contemporary interpretation and simply bizarre, yet still screaming with ‘Luhrmann’ talent.
• Dubsy’s Dirt is the first glimpse of DVD-ROM features, where you can look at five clips from the Dubsy’s Dirt series that is available on the Moulin Rouge website. Note that these clips are not actually included on the disc. They are online and must be downloaded in order to be watched, as well as requiring Quicktime 5.0. This applies for all the DVD-ROM features.
• The Screensavers section is another DVD-ROM feature where you can download screensavers, wallpapers, cursors, etc, etc and so forth, you get the idea. These are in the same section of the website as Dubsy’s Dirt.
• The One Day I’ll Fly Away music video is the Tony Phillips remix featured on the second Moulin Rouge soundtrack, and runs for 3:49. This version of the song has a more alternative feel to it, rather than a dance feel as many “remixesâ€� are, and has a really interesting “breakâ€� in the song... if you’ve heard it, you’ll know what this means.
• Toulouse Tonight is another web series which can be downloaded from the Moulin Rouge website. This (as well as Dubsy’s Dirt) would have been better if they were actually on the DVD, rather than hyperlinks to a download. This series has several “episodesâ€� which are: The Can Can, The Bohos, The Duke, Christian, The Extras, Satine, A Day with Toulouse, The Crew and The End.
• The Strictly Ballroom Comic is a way in which Luhrmann storyboarded the film... which is a slightly different method to the more traditional ways.
• The Scripts for the three films have been included too, with the first two dozen pages for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge being included on the disc, and the remaining pages for these two as well as Strictly Ballroom available via a weblink.

The Credits page is a list of people involved with the production and creation of this disc.

This complete package of the Red Curtain cinema phenomena is a brilliant look at an alternative theatrical experience that is full of energy, life, art and most importantly... love. Don't let this box set pass you by.