#503. Moulin Rouge! (2001) - Spotlight on Australia

Directed By: Baz Luhrmann

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo




Tag line: "Above All Things This Story Is About Love"

Trivia:  The wardrobe department created three hundred costumes and, at one point, eighty people were employed for this task

Moulin Rouge is a gem, a film that breathed new life into the musical genre. 

Loosely based on the tragic novel of the same name, Moulin Rouge takes us to Paris at the start of the 20th century. Christian (Ewan McGregor), who believes very strongly in "truth, beauty, freedom, and, above all, love", has just arrived from London to take part in the so-called "Bohemian Revolution". 

To this end. he rents an apartment across the street from the world-famous Moulin Rouge, a windmill-shaped nightclub run by Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) that serves as the spiritual center for the entire Bohemian movement. 

The star of the Moulin Rouge is Satine (Nicole Kidman), a courtesan who yearns to be a serious actress. Before long, Christian joins with the Bohemians, falls in love with Satine, and runs afoul of a nasty English Duke (Richard Roxburgh) who also has his eye on the beautiful showgirl. 

The Duke’s desire to possess Satine is so overwhelming, in fact, that, in exchange for agreeing to finance the Moulin Rouge's transformation into a legitimate theater, he ‘purchases’ her from Zidler. Satine understands what the Duke’s money means not only to the Moulin Rouge, but her dreams of becoming an actress, yet she's deeply in love with Christian. Will the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom and love win out in the end? 

In an interesting twist, Moulin Rouge relies on contemporary rock music (such as DeBarge's “Rhythm of the Night” and Elton John’s “Your Song”) to tell its century-old story of love. Director Baz Luhrmann’s plan in incorporating these hits of today into the setting of the early 20th century was, as he puts it, to “de-code” the excitement contemporary visitors to the Moulin Rouge would have experienced. It was his belief that, had he instead fallen back on music from that time period, it would've left modern audiences uninspired. With its ingenious ‘re-realization’ of recent hits, Moulin Rouge instantly draws us into the exhilaration of it all, and the world-famous nightclub is alive once again. 

Of the many musical numbers performed throughout the film, my favorite is the highly-charged, ultra-romantic medley that takes place high atop the Moulin Rouge's Elephant Room (thus named because...well...it's shaped like an elephant), where Christian attempts to woo Satine by belting out a mixture of instantly recognizable tunes, including “Up Where We Belong” and “Heroes”. 

In fact, ‘highly charged’ is the perfect description for this entire film. If there’s one thing Moulin Rouge has in abundance, its energy, making great use of a quick-cut editing style that keeps events flowing along at a frantic pace. In the wrong hands, such an approach could have been distracting. Not here, though; the opening number at the Moulin Rouge, complete with chorus girls dancing the Cancan and patrons in tuxedos performing a rendition of Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, boasts such an exciting rhythm that it drives the sequence forward, as opposed to confusing it. 

This, in combination with the energetic soundtrack and marvelous performances, works towards making the entire Moulin Rouge experience a delightfully overpowering one.