Moulin Rouge! is a masterpiece.
In this jukebox musical set at the end of the nineteenth century, a poor bohemian writer falls in love with a beautiful courtesan who works at the infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris.
I like to imagine director Baz Luhrmann looking through a scrapbook of his artistic influences—Madonna on the cover of Vogue, scenes from La Bohème, Garbo in Camille and Mata Hari.
Trying to decide what direction he’d take his great film—farce or tragedy, set in modern day or at the fin de siècle.
Did he want to emulate the over-the-top expressions of silent films or the frenetic smash cuts of MTV music videos?
A soundtrack inspired by The Sound of Music or Nirvana?
Then I imagine him slamming the scrapbook shut and saying, “Hell with it. I’ll put it all in.”
And damn if he doesn’t.
It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s tragic. And even though he uses modern filming techniques, at its heart it’s a big old fashioned story about love—complete with a penniless songwriter, a mustache-twirling villain, and a hooker with a heart of gold.
And yet he makes it completely his own creation, superior even to his similarly eclectic Romeo + Juliet.
No one has ever come close to imitating it.
I don’t think Baz himself could recapture the lightning he caught in the bottle of Moulin Rouge!
Baz begins the ascent to the film’s climax when the Argentinian belts out the first words of Sting’s Roxanne. While the Moulin Rouge dancers tango, Christian (the penniless songwriter) waits in agony while his lover Satine is forced to sleep with the Duke who bought and paid for her.
Watching it is like riding a roller coaster full speed downhill.
Cinema doesn’t get any better than this.
And if the Academy had given Nicole Kidman the Oscar she deserved for her iconic portrayal of Satine, they wouldn’t have had to waste one on her the following year for that awful film The Hours.
This is part of my Movies I’m Grateful For series, running daily through the month of November.
Other films include: Splash | New Moon | The Lucky One | Thelma and Louise | Katy Perry: Part of Me | Crazy Rich Asians | Under the Tuscan Sun | Terminator 2 |
This is a fun romantic film with a great soundtrack. What’s not to like?
Is the ONLY answer!
I’m not a musical fan so didn’t see this but now I want to!
It’s definitely one of those love it / hate it films. But’s it’s so unique and creative, you gotta try it!
I’ll see if I can find it on streaming, I’m home alone tonight, the remote control is mine all mine!!
You go girl!!!!
Love this movie, but admittedly have only seen it twice in all this time. My wife is not big on musicals, even though I’ve been trying to “encourage” her to appreciate this one in particular. Your last paragraph about Nicole’s Oscar being mistakenly assigned to the wrong movie is spot-on.
When it first came out, I watched it a million times. Hadn’t seen it in quite a while, so I re-watched it for this project – it really holds up and I enjoyed it as much as ever.
I’m waiting for someone to contradict me on The Hours…..but so far, no takers! Kidman has made so many good movies, it kind of irks me that it took a fake nose to get her over the top…..
🤣🐽
That give me a literal LOL