Mikometer Rating: 10 of 10
Mikometer Rating: 10 of 10The trend in movies these days seems to be to repeat or redo a proven classic. The original Moulin Rouge was a rather interesting biography of Toulouse LauTrec directed by John Huston in the fifties. The new Moulin Rouge has LauTrec in the cast, but is not a biography, or even a historical drama. It could best be described as a Movie Musical for the New Millennium. The characters are all larger than life, and the set design is all artifice. Each scene is chockablock with singing, dancing, and energy, and the sets are so full of eyecandy it almost seems as if the movie wants to make the audience feel as if they are high on drugs.
I'd been itching to see this movie since I first read the trade articles about it. Baz Luhrmann, who directed the "modern" version of "Romeo+Juliet" is one of those "visual directors" who is taking the art of moviemaking to new levels. With Moulin Rouge the levels are as high as they can possibly be taken at this point in time.
The only thing taken from the original film is the title. This Moulin Rouge tells the tale of young Christian (Ewan MacGregor), a budding would be writer who goes from London to Paris to bask in the glow of hedonsim and gather the inspiration to write. His tale is told against a backdrop which was largely created in the computer, and while I sometimes feel that certain directors merely ape the computer effects to no effect, each speeded up segment, or dissolve, or composite seems fresh, and is in keeping with telling the story, and the effects serve the story to such an extent that I found the film not only entertaining, but exhilarating, not to mention mindbending.
The first thing the audience sees when the film begins is a red velvet curtain, the likes of which used to be in theaters everywhere. As the band strikes up the overture, from The Sound of Music, the figure of the band leader appears "down front" frantically waving his baton. The credits are not just presented as if they were those of a silent movie, but immediately one is treated to the "cultural blender" aspect of the piece, where we know instinctively not to take anything seriously or at face value. The images and the songs we hear are out of time and place, and curiously at one with the piece we are witnessing. It's as if the "manufactured world" of Moulin Rouge makes a kind of sense, not only to itself, but to the audience. Each piece of music reacts to, and reports on the scene being played out before us.
From the credit sequence, to the zooming shots through Paris streets to the nightclub itself, and then in the scenes played out inside, the viewer can hardly make sense of the images he sees. The images bombard us and attack us, and we can scarcely make out the details, but the frantic pace and the prodigious amount of visuals serve to remind us of the place we are visiting: the raucous world of Paris, and the Moulin Rouge itself.
Christian visits the nightclub with his new friends, which include a manic turn by John Leguizamo as Lautrec, looking nothing like Jose Ferrer. Before embarking, the friends take absinthe, and the film gloriously mimics a drug induced state as we enter the famed nightclub.
Inside we meet Zidler, the owner, played by Jim Broadbent, who is kind of a "music hall" character in each film I've seen him in. He was William Gilbert in Mike Leigh's "Topsy-Turvy", that fantastic musical of Gilbert and Sullivan. He plays Zidler in much the same vein. We also meet Satine, Nicole Kidman's tragic chanteuse. She's also a courtesan, and the plot is set in motion when she mistakes Christian for the wealthy Duke, who wants to invest in Zidler's new show, if he can obtain Satine's sevivces in the bargain. When Satine realizes who Christian really is, she has already fallen in love with him, and even though the real Duke comes courting, and offers to fund the new musical written by Christian, Satine has to fool the Duke into thinking nothing is going on between her and Christian. Since Christian is writing the musical, all the clues to the relationship are written in to the play within a play, and this is delicious plotting, of the sort in Shakespeare's comedies.
Nicole Kidman sparkles as Satine. I always felt she was underused in "Eyes Wide Shut" and it's a thrill to see her here. Ewan MacGregor is believeable as Christian, although he doesn't really make much of an impression.
What I thought would turn me off, of course, is the choice to use "current" rather than "period" music in the musical numbers. The musical numbers featured in the preview, Lady Marmalade, and Roxanne, don't make much sense out of context, but Luhrmann uses each musical piece in perfect context, and the movie shines because of it.
There is a scene where Zidler is explaining to the Duke what sleeping with Satine will be like, and he starts reciting the words to the Madonna song "Like a Virgen". At first is seems odd, then the song becomes a full fledged Movie Musical Moment, and at the end, the audience watching the film with me, applauded. This is the first time in recent memory where I can remember the audience applauding in the middle of a film.
Reviewers haven't been able to understand this film. They seem to like parts of it, but think it is too over the top. I feel that Luhrmann probably exceeded his expectations. I'd seen Pearl Harbor the week before, and everybody in print seemed to want to talk about the "love story" in that film. The "love story" in Moulin Rouge, while being very subtly simple and in a film reeking of artifice, seems far more real and touching to me. I felt for these characters, for all their bombast. And I felt a special feeling upon viewing their exploits.
I feel that this in not merely a great film, but a wonderful experiment using the form of the old Hollywood Musicals mixed in a blender with popular music and everthing the computer graphics wizard can cook up ca. March 2001. I give this film the first 10 of 10 for 2001, and see it as the first film worthy of consideration for an Academy Award.
Mikometer Rating: 10 of 10
'Moulin Rouge' PG-13
Nicole Kidman: Satine
Ewan McGregor: Christian
John Leguizamo: Toulouse-Lautrec
Jim Broadbent: ZidlerTwentieth Century Fox presents a Bazmark production, released by Twentieth Century Fox. Director Baz Luhrmann. Producers Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann, Fred Baron. Screenplay by Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce. Cinematographer Donald M. McAlpine. Editor Jill Bilcock. Costume designer Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie. Music Craig Armstrong. Production designer Catherine Martin. Choreography John O'Connell. Art director Ann Marie Beauchamp. Set decorator Brigitte Broch. Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written and copyrighted 2001 by Michael F. Nyiri