Moulin Rouge!

This story is about truth, beauty, freedom, but above all, love.

One cannot accuse Baz Luhrmann of subtlety. He’s also got a strong sense of style that oozes out of every frame. Even in his more down-to-earth films like Australia, there is a visual flare that proclaims that this is a Baz Luhrmann project. His films all feel like passion projects, which is why he isn’t particularly prolific. When he does latch onto a project, though, even the failures are interesting failures. 

I do not actively seek out Baz Luhrmann films, yet over the course of the last thirty years, I have managed to see all of his features, most recently his Elvis biopic. He is an acquired taste that some find gaudy and overly lavish; you’ll get no argument on that subject from me. Sometimes that garish aesthetic works, such as the film I watched this morning, Moulin Rouge! Sometimes that aesthetic overpowers the film, though. The Great Gatsby, for instance, is a case of style over substance. It’s not a bad film, but it is overly distracting, overpowering a genuinely moving story of love. 

Moulin Rouge! runs the risk of falling into that same category. This is an elaborate production where nearly every moment is filled to the brim with chaotic movement and flashes of color and action. On top of that is the frenetic camera movement, supervised by Oscar-nominated Donald McAlpine. This camera is always on the move, utilizing that movement to further emphasize the chaos on screen. This combination of motion and chaos would be too much for nearly any film, and Baz Luhrmann adds on top of all that a mixture of 80s and 90s jukebox tracks, performed by the cast while carrying out some very elaborate choreography. This shouldn’t work. This should be an auditory and visual nightmare, a fever dream of sensory overload. Yet it somehow isn’t. What we are seeing serves a definite purpose, driving the narrative and the chaotic emotions of true love with a capital L. 

The basic plot of the movie revolves around two individuals from different walks of life. Christian (Ewan McGregor) is a young writer in 1899 Paris. He has just arrived in the Montmartre district to join the Bohemian movement when he suddenly and spectacularly meets Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) and his troupe of performers who are in the midst of writing a play they call Spectacular Spectacular. Impressed by Christian’s writing abilities, they take him to the Moulin Rouge where they hope his talents will impress Satine (Nicole Kidman), the star performer and courtesan. If they impress her, she can convince Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the proprietor of the Moulin Rouge, to let Christian write the show. 

While at the Moulin Rouge, Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh), a wealthy man whom Zidler plans to have her sleep with in exchange for potential financing to convert the club into a legitimate theater. Christian, believing her when she says she loves him, falls in love with her. When Zidler shows up with the Duke, though, Satine realizes her mistake and tries to hide Christian, lest his presence ruin the possible deal with the Duke. This leads to some comical hijinks that eventually see Christian and Henri’s troop pitching a story to the Duke for the stage he may end up financing; a play that will mirror the real-life story of Christian and Satine, falling in love with each other despite the woos of a wealthy maharajah. To appease the Duke, Satine plays along, pretending to find him attractive but finding excuses to avoid him and meet up with Christian, whom she too is falling in love with. While all of this is going on, she has a secret of her own. She is showing clear signs of consumption, a disease that is quite fatal.

Baz Luhrmann is painting true love like an elaborate tapestry; something worth risking your life to achieve. To do so, he peppers throughout the entire film some of the greatest love songs of the past few decades. We will hear songs from Madonna, The Police, Paul McCartney and Wings, Debussy, and even Marilyn Monroe. There are a lot of amazing musical numbers here. There are also plenty of clunkers, too. The audience of the Moulin Rouge belting out Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit is just bad. The Argentinean’s rendition of Roxanne, translated into a tango, feels like it should be a show-stopper, but instead, it bogs down in its own self-seriousness. Likewise, Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh trading lyrics on Madonna’s Like a Virgin is just plain cringy. 

But when this film nails it, it is purely magical. The Elephant Love Medley is a mixture of several songs that will take you back to the 1980s and ends on an impressive rendition of a Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton song. This track has become a popular one on the karaoke scene thanks to the beautiful delivery of Ewan and Nicole.

Accompanying these songs is some first-rate production values. The Art Direction/Set Design is credited to Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch, and you couldn’t ask for a better duo. This team has put together a hyper-realized facsimile of the real Moulin Rouge as we would like to imagine it really was. Looking at it in the film, it is easy to assume that such a place only exists in the imaginations of the filmmakers, but that isn’t quite the case. I’ve never been to Paris, let alone to the Moulin Rouge, but images of the place are readily available, and it is a sight to behold. The iconic windmill and the bejeweled elephant are there, just as they are in the movie. Where the film exaggerates is the atmosphere, which has become a staple of Baz Luhrmann’s filmography. There is bawdiness everywhere, and everything oozes of sex and alcohol. This has a similar vibe to the more recent film Babylon but on a more tame level. Babylon pushed the boundaries of lurid parties on film, whereas this more properly represents burlesque, where everything is a double-entendre, and we’re here to be titilated, not bombasted with gratuitous nudity. 

We’re told right at the beginning of the film where all this is going to end: with the death of Satine. That finale is further emphasized every single time Satine collapses or coughs up blood. We know this is not to be a happy ending; Luhrmann never lets us forget that. Yet we are swept up in the romance and the capital “L” Love. That’s the beauty of this script. Beneath the gaudy set dressing and the silliness of the musical numbers, there is a real story about love that supersedes cognitive reason. Love isn’t something you can just shut off. When it truly happens, the realities of the world fall away, and that love can be the most important thing in life. Satine starts out jaded, a performer and a prostitute, someone who doesn’t believe in love…until she comes face-to-face with it and cannot deny it anymore.

This film will not appeal to everyone; Baz Luhrmann films are like that. You can either go with the vibe of it or be totally turned off by it. Few will come away from it feeling indifferent. It’s a beautifully shot film with every frame worthy of dissection. So much is happening at all times on screen, and I would have loved to have experienced one of Roger Ebert’s frame-by-frame dissections of this movie, examining it from all angles. That type of filmmaking is hard to get right, and even Baz Luhrmann fails at it as often as not. But this one hits it on the bullseye. In the years since its release, it has been translated into a Broadway musical that has become its own kind of phenomenon. Something about it just strikes a chord with a lot of people, and it has rightfully entered the cultural zeitgeist. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Fred Baron, Martin Brown, and Baz Luhrmann

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman

Best Art Direction: Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch (won)

Best Cinematography: Donald McAlpine

Best Costume Design: Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie (won)

Best Film Editing: Jill Bilcock

Best Makeup: Maurizio Silvi and Aldo Signoretti

Best Sound: Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Roger Savage, and Guntis Sics

____________________________________________________

Release Date: June 1, 2001

Running Time: 128 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, and Richard Roxburgh

Directed by: Baz Luhrmann