Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 musical film which tells the story of a young British poet, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge cabaret, "Satine." It uses the colourful musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France. Some plot details, specifically the poor artist and his dying lover, bear relation to the opera La Bohčme (which Baz Luhrmann has also directed several times), including references to the "Bohemian" subculture. The plot was also inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus in the Underworld.
Description
Moulin Rouge! has a storyline and structure that is said to be inspired and influenced by Bollywood movies: exuberant music, colourful visuals, elaborate sets and costumes, simple story line with a simple conflict, heroine with melodramatic disease, two-dimensional characters, and songs adopted from contemporary musicians. It includes a popular Hindi movie song near the end. Other songs sampled include "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole, "Lady Marmalade" by LaBelle (the Christina Aguilera/Pink/Mya/Lil Kim cover having been commissioned for this film), Madonna's "Material Girl", the titular song of The Sound of Music, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana—all within the film's first twenty minutes. The film uses so much popular music that it took Baz Lurhmann two years to secure all the rights to the songs.
The film takes established rock music songs and modifies them to fit into a tale of a turn-of-the-20th-century Paris cabaret, blending swirling camera motion, loud music, and dancing to powerful effect. However, it depends heavily on suspension of disbelief and must be approached on its own terms.
Primary cast:
The Moulin Rouge on Boulevard de Clichy (Paris, France)
The theme of the movie is love. The main character (Ewan McGregor) is a writer who comes to Paris at the height of the Bohemian movement—a city of artists, parties, and absinthe. He falls in love with the main singer of the Moulin Rouge cabaret (Nicole Kidman), who unknowingly suffers from a terminal case of tuberculosis, and the rest of the movie follows their relationship (with plenty of songs in between), ending with her death.
Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor did their own singing for the film. The necklace worn by Nicole Kidman was made of 1,308 real diamonds and platinum. It was worth an estimated $1 million.
Five other movies with the title Moulin Rouge have been made.
Award wins:
Award nominations:
Quotations
- "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
(an example of the singing dialogue, this line comes from the song "Nature Boy", made famous by Nat King Cole)
- "You expect me to believe that scantily clad in the arms of another man, in the middle of the night inside an elephant you were rehearsing for a play?"
- "Hold on to your hat."
- "Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love!"
- "Above all things I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many-splendoured thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!"
- "You're going to be bad for business. I can tell."
- "Come what may, I will love you, 'til my dying day."
- "Outside it may be raining, but inside it's entertaining!"
- "I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom, and what I believed in above all things, love. There was only one problem -- I'd never been in love!"
- "I love him! Nothing funny, I just like talent"
'Chanel' 4
On the 20 November 2004, Channel 4 of the UK broadcast Moulin Rouge! at 9pm, the premiere on British terrestrial television. During the commercial break at 9:20pm, Chanel premiered their Moulin Rouge!-inspired advert for their signature Chanel No.5 fragrance starring Nicole Kidman, and directed by Baz Lurhmann.
External links
Last updated: 08-02-2005 10:59:17
