Breaking my own rules

I have a self-imposed rule that I don't watch the movie without reading the book, but tonight I was a renegade and did just the opposite.

I know The Great Gatsby is an American literary classic, but not one that I had ever been tempted to read. I was drawn to seeing the movie by a respect for Leonardo Di Caprio and a growing girl crush on Carey Mulligan. I was a little dubious about whether it not I would enjoy the directiorial style of Baz Luhrmann, having not enjoyed what he's done in the past. But I hadn't seen a movie for ages, and as I am trying to keep myself super busy in the evenings at the moment, it seemed like a good one to tick of the list if 'seen its.'

While it had some lulls, I really enjoyed it. It had the visual wow factor; lots of glitz and glamour and 20s schwang. And I loved the make-up, jewellery and accessories, especially Daisy's headband in one of the party scenes .... see pic.

I wasn't so sure about the music... The incorporation of hip-hop seemed a little incongruous with the sense of period other aspects of the film tried to illustrate. 

But what I really loved was the direct commentaries from the book by Tobey Maguire's Nick Carraway. I have enjoyed reading quotes from the book tonight (thanks Google) and recalling the scene from the movie. It's enough to (almost) make me want to read the book after the effect!

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.” 

"And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” 

“Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.” 

"I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” 

"Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!"

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”