Moulin Rouge is a classic love story, given the Spectacular Spectacular treatment by visionary director Baz Luhrmann. It is a musical of such magnificent proportions, of such audacity, of such colour and such exuberance that I fell in love with it when I first saw it at the cinema, and which I had to buy for my DVD collection when I found it on BOGOF at HMV earlier in the week. I couldn't quite believe my luck, having found out just how good the DVD was after renting it shortly after its release, and have devoted much time to having yet another watch of it, all in the name of research you understand. I hope you are sitting comfortably, as I have an awful feeling this is going to be a long one...

All too soon though, it becomes apparent that Satine was only open to his advances because of the money she and Ziddler were going to make out of it. Not to be deterred though, Christian goes about seducing her and inevitably they do fall in love with one another - but not before the plot takes a tragic turn when we learn that Satine is dying from TB. However, blissfully unaware of this, the infatuated couple must keep their love secret from the Duke (who is now also in love with Satine) as it is only by keeping him convinced of her love that he will continue to pour money into the building of the Moulin Rouge's new theatre. Thus we are set up with a simple yet effective love story between prostitute and poet, backed up by a cast of Duke's dancing girls and Bohemians in the world's most famous nightclub. We are well aware from the beginning that it is to be a doomed love like that of Romeo & Juliet - but this inevitability does not stop us enjoying the passion, colour and innuendo of the story at all. The moral of the story (if you can call it that, but I am lost for what else to name it) is the repeated line "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return".

Director - Baz Luhrmann
Music director - Marius DeVries
Choreography - John O'Connell
Written by - Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce

Because We Can, by Fatboy Slim - a typically catchy and exuberant new working of the music the Moulin Rouge is famous for. This song has a strong bass beat and is a contemporary dance version of the Can-Can, which is featured in the first scenes of the film that take place in the club. It is perfect for expressing the energy and colour of the setting, and is very hard to listen too without wanting to get up and dance too!

In addition to this, there is music by Christina Aguilera, Bono, David Bowie and Beck.

· DVD extras - disc one
As well as the film itself, disc one contains the "behind the red velvet" extra. When turned on, this allows you to access film commentaries by the writers, a production commentary or one of the technical descriptions of the film. Once you have seen Moulin Rouge, it is quite nice to be able to hear the reasoning behind what you have seen and found how it was made and put together, and the commentaries (especially the one by the writers) is especially worth a watch. The DVD menus are put together just as well as everything else, again using the Art Noveau style and with the addition of the green absinthe fairy that was seen for one of the film sequences (a cameo by Kylie Minogue), so even that becomes a pleasure to use!

Any complaints? Only that I would have liked a screensaver or PC wallpaper to be included as other films have done - other than that, great value for money.