"It's not psychological drama. (The characters) are not meant to be psychologically revealed."
Baz Luhrmann's Australia, supposedly a big bomb, is still making money after breaking through the US $200 million barrier -- an interesting sign that "operatic" can be pretty popular, and that everything opera stands for still strikes a chord with a contemporary audience. The movie is still making money ( US $207 million and counting) and the DVD (UK link here) and Blu-Ray (UK link here) are selling surprisingly well.
Opera Chic almost instinctively endorses everything Baz Luhrmann does on general principle, even when he builds an entire, really long movie around the alarmingly serene visage of Nicole Kidman, because the crazy-haired Aussie director works with the volume control constantly cranked to maximum emotional impact -- his films go against the grain of the current cinematic fashion in a way that makes them very dear to OC's heart (Opera Chic is not crazy about the Bazzster's old Bohème, but whatever -- as soon as Opera Chic runs a major opera house, and it might happen sooner than you think, she's hiring Luhrmann to stage Verdi's forgotten masterpiece, Jérusalem).
The late great Douglas Sirk's modus operandi not being available to modern film makers anymore -- unless they end up frozen in an elegantly taxidermied manner, "Far From Heaven" style -- Luhrmann has forced himself to imagine an alternative path to operatic splendor in cinema -- unlike the cemeterial grandeur of The Godfather, for example. His films are unabashedly devoted to the feverish, relentless nature of romantic love -- the gray mousie realists be damned. As Elvis Mitchell wrote about a Luhrmann film, it "has so much heart that the poor overworked organ explodes in every scene". Luhrmann makes movies that want to call you by name -- in this, he seems to be rather close to the intent of your average opera composer giant of the past.
Now, if only Hugh Jackman could sing unamplified --