Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Member since:11.07.2000
Reviews:625
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If you read the title of my opinion then that is the only explanation I can come up with for how this film came about in the writer/director's mind. Moulin Rouge was always going to be something different right for the first viewings of the trailers.
The film is based around a flamboyant Paris nightclub called the Moulin Rouge. The lavish shows put on are run by Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) and are certainly the best thing in town. A young poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) comes to Paris and gets drawn into writing a musical for the moulin rouge. Here he falls in love with the enchanting show stopping performer Satine (Nicole Kidman). There love is forced to be kept secret from a wire moustached duke (Richard Roxburgh) who wants exclusive ownership of Satine's love in exhange for financing the musical and turning the moulin rouge into a theatre.
Naturally
things go wrong, love goes down troubled paths with devestating results but sometimes amusing ones as well.
The first thing to say is that this isn't a film in the conventional sense. In fact it's more of an elaborate stage play/pantomime. The love story plot creates a thin backdrop to some showstopping musical numbers. What is used here is modern musical numbers in an old 1800's setting. The introduction to the Moulin Rouge delivers a huge song and dance number that incorporates such artists as Nirvana, David Bowie, T-Rex and many others.
Later on in the film we get renditions of Elton John and best of all an innovative take on 'Like A Virgin'. This is how most of the films narrative is told, characters rarely speak to each other through normal words, they talk through lyrics.
The acting is quite good. Kidman is enchanting and I would say this is a very big role for here and something that could lead to at least a nomination for an oscar. I haven't seen many female performances so far this year that are up to this standard. She can also sing very well and all I can say is Tom Cruise is a fool for letting her go.
McGregor is also very good and can sing although some notes are a bit iffy. Once again this is a bit of a breakthrough for him and something different. Broadbent is also very good and seems to have broke out of eighties television roles with ease, slowly turning into the first person you would call if you were doing a musical film. Also turning up are Roxburgh who is also very good at the moustache twirling villain who's actually a very lonely and flawed man. John Leguizamo turns up as Toulouse Lautrec and is very flamboyant, I spent the entire film wondering how they managed to convincingly shrink him down to dwarf size.
In terms of direction, this is a mammoth task to take on. Luhrmann obviously had a distinct vision for the film from day one and every drop of colur and style is pushed onto the screen. The film is very hyper-kinetic in style. There are a lot of fast cuts here but it keeps in pace with the film's style. Unlike films such as Tomb Raider which cut fast to get something half decent from poor footage this actually works and doesn't get annoying or brain spinning. The production design is sprawling and full of life. Kidman conducts her business inside of a large jewel encrusted building in the shape of an elephant-that's the kind of thing to expect. All I can say is that Luhrmann has done an amazing job and certainly had a good director of photography.
But of course there have to be flaws but this has very minimal ones. At times the musical numbers get very overbearing and mixed to the point of ear shattering. Of course with modern digital sound some have found cinema volumes louder. I've never really been effected by this, in fact the cinematic experience is better for it. Moulin Rouge uses the full capability of the digital realm but even I got very uncomfortable at the level of pitch some points in this film had. This is also a film that is going to be widely hated by some people and I can see why. It's not a film in the general word, it's far from conventional and some will find the musical elements very tiresome after a while.
However this is more of an experience than just a film. credit must be given for putting something different on the screen than the usual fare. Give it a look and make up your own mind.
Is it the best film you'll see this year? Probably not, that's still to come I would imagine but it's certainly going to be one of the most memorable even just for the alternate take on the well known 20th Century Fox opening logo.
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Production Year: 1999 - Music / Performing Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, Richard Attenborough
Production Year: 1992 - Music / Performing Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, David Bowie, Def Leppard, Extreme, Elton John, Bob Geldof
Watching Baz Luhrmann's award-winningMoulin Rougeis a lot like falling in love. It is ... more
total immersion cinema and while you're experiencing it ("watching" is too passive a word) you can't imagine that cinema could be for anything else. In the harsh, obj...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Watching Baz Luhrmann's award-winningMoulin Rougeis a lot like falling in love. It is ... more
total immersion cinema and while you're experiencing it ("watching" is too passive a word) you can't imagine that cinema could be for anything else. In the harsh, obj...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Passion - filled poet falls for a breathtaking courtesan in this exotic musical love story ... more
from the unique and spellbinding imagination of visionary director Baz Luhrmann. Stunning performances from stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor fuel this movin...
Advantages: As imaginative as Crouching Tiger or Being John Malkovich, highly original film-making Disadvantages: Self-limiting choice of genre and plot
![Moulin Rouge -- Two-Disc Set [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78237871.jpg "Moulin Rouge -- Two-Disc Set [DVD] [2001]")
![Moulin Rouge! [Special Edition] (2001)](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/97375302.jpg "Moulin Rouge! [Special Edition] (2001)")
Aug 29th, 2001
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