The Moulin Rouge is a film, the like of which I’ve never seen before. In places all I could think about was wanting to tell people to go and see this immediately. This is unusual, as normally whilst enjoying a film I’m totally enraptured, barely aware there is an outside world, let alone one I would wish to interact with.
I must stress however that the story line is not what made the film so special. The plot is a standard tale of doomed love. I’m not spoiling anything here, this all explained in the opening scene. Set in the turn of the previous century ultra-bohemian Montmartre, Paris, against the seedy backdrop of underworld sex shows and entertainment the film naturally centres on the nightclub the Moulin Rouge. Where every night the ‘rich and the powerful’ come to dance with and be entertained by the ‘young and the beautiful’. Owned by the showbusinessman opportunist Zidler (Jim Broadbent), he and the dancers dream of the day where they can turn the club into a proper theatre.
Ewen
McGregor as Christian is a penniless poet, fresh from England, hoping to join up with the children of the revolution in these exciting new times and explore his bohemian philosophies of Beauty, Truth, Freedom and Love. He meets Toulouse Lautrec (John Leguizamo) as you do; who is so impressed with Christian’s talent that he insists he write the play due to open in the Moulin Rouge. The star of the show is to be none other than the woman known throughout Paris as the ‘Sparkling Diamond’. Satine (Nicole Kidman) is the star courtesan of the Moulin Rouge: all singing, all dancing, all she wants is diamonds, forbidden as she is by her trade, to ever find love.
By a coincidence that wouldn’t be out of place in a Carry-on film instead of having a ‘private meeting’ with an ultra rich Duke (Richard Roxburgh) ready to invest in the Moulin Rouge, she meets our lad Christian and they fall in love. Of course the two can’t be together because Zidler promises the Duke Satine in a deal to finance the renovation of the club.
Doomed love, we all know, has been done once or twice before. The writer and director of The Moulin Rouge, Baz Lurhmann has done it before himself with his version of Romeo & Juliet. The story itself is not what kept me enthralled but the way it was told.
In fact the Moulin Rouge feels quite similar to Romeo & Juliet in photography and direction. Visually dramatic the whole cinematic experience of the Moulin Rouge is a lavish display of colour, sound and action. From our very first visit inside the nightclub itself you become certain you’re in for a roller coaster ride of music, dance and imagery. Even before that the film is interrupted by the surreal (a narcoleptic Argentinean actor) and this surreal edge (a little reminiscent of ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’) never leaves the film.
I can’t emphasise enough how much of a treat the film is to enjoy as a optical spectacular. There is always something going and the dance scenes fly at such a pace that I’m certain it would take a few sittings to fully appreciate the detail in each scene. The drawback of this is whenever the film focuses back onto the story you feel like your coming down from something more exhilarating but its never long before the action hots up again.
Anyway, so far I’ve suggested an inconsequential story line (although suggestions of Othello in there) and breathtaking scenes, so impressive the plot seems to get in the way of the film, yet I’m raving about how worth watching it is. Why? The dialogue. Quite simply the script is intelligently and brilliantly written. If you like music and know the lyrics of more love songs than is perhaps healthy the script of the Moulin Rouge will take you somewhere no film I know of has ever even attempted to go.
Lyrics from some of the more famous love songs in history are squeezed into dialogue and throughout the film you never feel more than three minutes from a song, (some of which creep up at the most unsuspecting moments). Even if you don’t like musicals you don’t have to worry about your attention drifting. The songs move along so quickly, you can be listening to the Can-Can smoothly change into Smells Like Teen Spirit and not have time to notice where one stops and the other begins before it changes back again.
In all, the Moulin Rouge looks amazing. It sounds amazing and its use of music superb, Goreckie by Lamb for instance is a beautifully apt choice. Although the story line is less than original it’s told in such a way that I suggest you see this film at the next possible opportunity.
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Production Year: 1999 - Music / Performing Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: Exempt - Starring: Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, Richard Attenborough
"Optical Spectacular"..nice phrase! I'll catch this on DVD...the prospect of Kidman and McGregor in a Baz Lurhman film is enough for me. And I love the music video for Come What May (with the terrific remix)...can't get enough of that one. Cheers, J.
superpricee 07.09.2001 14:58
A very, very good op that I enjoyed reading - although I doubt i'll enjoy the film, as it's not really my thing. Although I'll doubtless be dragged along kicking and screaming to see it by the other half. cheers - Ricky
peppersinclaire 07.09.2001 13:54
I've been itching to see this film for AGES... I really hope it lives up to the hype! Great op, there's only one problem. YOU'VE SEEN IT AND I HAVEN'T! P$
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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...
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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...
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![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)")
Sep 7th, 2001
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