Moulin Rouge Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT aol DOT com)July 7th, 2001
MOULIN ROUGE
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
July 3rd, 2001
The beauty, flash, energy and movement of "Moulin Rouge" is astounding. It is not just a film, it is a kinetic, visual barrage of richly colored images and upbeat music that thrill and dazzle the mind and enrich the heart. It is also the most tantalizing love story of the year by far.
Ewan McGregor is Christian, a young writer who holds certain ideals in mind, namely the pursuit of "truth, beauty, and love." As soon as he arrives in Paris, he is thrown into the world of the Moulin Rouge, which holds all his ideals and more. The Moulin Rouge shown in this film is less the actual nightclub of 1900 and more like a sinful, panoramic display of decadence gone wild. It is so wild and hyperkinetic that director Baz Luhrmann makes us feel we are inside a demented madhouse where anything can ha ppen - we feel we are at the Moulin Rouge firsthand enjoying the party of our lives.
Before embarking at the Moulin Rouge, Christian is introduced to the dwarf artist Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) who lives above Christian's tenement. Lautrec comes crashing through Christian's roof one day and, after some initial patter, discovers he can use Christian's creative mindset for a show called "Spectacular Spectacular." The show could prove fruitful for the Moulin Rouge and for introducing the star dancer Satine (Nicole Kidman) - as well as provide income for Lautrec and his merry band of ar tists and dancers. In order to get backing, they must persuade the snooty Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh) to finance it. In one startlingly funny scene, the group improvise the entire show to the Duke - a sort of rambunctious version of a Hollywood pitch meeting. The Duke is overwhelmed and yet sold to the idea. There is only one hitch - the Duke must also have Satine as his bed mate and possible wife.
The character of Satine is the one that shines the most in "Moulin Rouge." She is a prostitute and flashy dancer but underneath her exterior lies a deathly ill woman whose heart sings whenever she sees Christian. Christian adores Satine and is inspired by her. Satine is pleased by the attention and loves Christian but she is also aware of her duties, to please the sneering Duke who is after all financing the play. One character in the film even sings the famous phrase, "And the show must go on."
"Moulin Rouge" has an old-fashioned romance that is as old as the Ten Commandments. Writer seeks and receives inspiration from prostitute who has a heart of gold. My, my, what an innovative idea! The difference is in the execution. Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman set the night sky sparkling with fireworks thanks to their charisma and credible romantic longing. All it takes is for McGregor to sing "All You Need is Love" against a starry nightscape and you know he sincerely means every word he utters.
Nicole Kidman continues to surprise me in every film she is in. From her cold-hearted murderess in Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" to her heartfelt performance in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," Kidman breathes life on screen with her radiance, beauty and intelligence. In many ways, she is as enigmatic as the late Greta Garbo, and her Satine masks her pain as well as her happiness. Kidman is the rare actress who makes you stare at her, as watchable as anyone else right now, and she had me swooning long aft er the film was over.
The film itself throws all kinds of visual razzle-dazzle pyrotechnics at us, including a constantly roving camera, very fast, precise cutting, lots of dancing, vibrant Technicolor colors, bodies swarming the compositions in such a way as to make Merce Cunningham blush, and so on. "Moulin Rouge" is not just a film, it is the "Natural Born Killers" of musicals - frenzied and high-pitched as hell. Director Luhrman is practically teasing you, testing your stamina while you watch the fantastic, rapid images unf old on screen. Boredom is not an expected reaction while watching this Moulin Rouge kick. There is even a justifiably trippy montage where the dance group take some absinthe and start to see images of multiple fairies singing and dancing. There is also a bravura tango number using Sting's "Roxanne" that is as marvelous and powerful a production number as any I've seen of late. And, if that is not enough, Madonna's "Like a Virgin" is used ever so briefly to comedic effect.
Despite the cartoonish casting of Richard Roxburgh as the Duke and a few lulls towards the end, "Moulin Rouge" is a fascinating, exhilarating, exhausting and vastly entertaining kaleidoscope of the famous nightclub itself. It's a postmodern pop musical guaranteed to leave you in a giddy high after it is all over.
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