Moulin Rouge! (Widescreen Edition)
by Baz Luhrmann
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo, Nicole Kidman, Richard RoxburghDirector: Baz Luhrmann
Brand: KIDMAN,NICOLE
Producer: Baz Luhrmann
Writer: Baz Luhrmann
Producer: Catherine Knapman
Producer: Catherine Martin
Producer: Fred Baron
Producer: Martin Brown
Writer: Craig Pearce
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-14
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Moulin Rouge! (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: A gorgeous creation
Summary: 5 Stars
The third and final installment of Baz Luhrmann's Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy (Strictly Ballroom / Romeo + Juliet / Moulin Rouge) trilogy is the first musical in recent memory to capture public notice. 'Moulin Rouge' is the story of a young writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor) trying to get a break in 1899 Paris. The focus of the Bohemian community in which he resides, is a nightclub called the M'oulin Rouge,' where Satine (Nicole Kidman) is a dancing courtesan that wishes to become a great actress, but suffers from a serious disease. The great switch of the 'Moulin Rouge' from nightclub to theater is dependent on a duke's (Richard Roxburgh) financing. A comical sequence of events leads to Christian and Satine falling in love, but being put under enormous pressure, as the financing of the theater conversion is dependent upon Satine remaining the mistress of The Duke. 'Moulin Rouge' is built on a very simple, almost Shakespearean plot, but with the addition of Baz Luhrmann's touches, is made into so much more.
One's first impression of 'Moulin Rouge' is that of a passionate assault on the viewer's senses. Bright, vivid colors, intricate sets, skillfully designed costumes, incredible music and songs, are all carefully shaped by the director into a magnificent example of how well the medium of film can be used to enhance a musical. Despite 'Moulin Rouge's lackluster reception by cinema audiences, the quality remains there waiting for the viewer to discover. It should be noted that many of the current film-going generation have never seen a musical and that lack of experience may have lead to a souring of their tastes for the film. The recent success of subsequent Hollywood musical adaptions suggests that this attitude is no longer so prevalent and it is likely that if 'Moulin Rouge' had premiered in this environment, it would have received a great deal more praise from critics and audiences alike. In spite of these issues, director Baz Luhrmann has handed down to the film-going public a movie which takes the best aspects of a musical, with the best aspects of motion pictures, to create something very special and worthy of close inspection by those who appreciate either a musical or a stylistically magnificent movie.
Little known, but very important in understanding why 'Moulin Rouge' came into being is Baz Luhrmann's loose trilogy of films, exploring the various methods of expression in films, other than traditional dialogue. Strictly Ballroom was the first in the series from Luhrmann and dealt with the expressive qualities of dance. Audiences failed to latch onto this en masse, but it carved for itself a very specific and important niche in modern cinematic history. In 1996 Luhrmann explored poetry and prose as methods of expression for his actors in his retelling of Shakespeare's classic, and perennial Hollywood favorite, William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (Special Edition), albeit with some of the modern adaptions to the classic storyline that fans of Luhrmann have come to expect from him. The final installment of the series is the great leap into the realm of music and song, and comes from a more mature and experienced director, leading to a seamless weaving of a classic storyline, with breathtaking sets and visual style, an amazingly perfect ensemble of actors and musicians, and an absolutely unbelieveable soundtrack to create nothing less than the greatest filmed musical since the 1960s.
Summary of Moulin Rouge! (Widescreen Edition)
A spectacle beyond anything you've ever witnessed. An experience beyond everything you've ever imagined. Behind the red velvet curtain, the ultimate seduction of your senses is about to begin. Welcome to the Moulin Rouge! Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor sing, dance and scale the heights of passionate abandon in the year's most talked-about movie from visionary director Baz Luhrmann (William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom). Enter a tantalizing world that celebrates truth, beauty, freedom and above all things, love.A dazzling and yet frequently maddening bid to bring the movie musical kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge bears no relation to the many previous films set in the famous Parisian nightclub. This may appear to be Paris in the 1890s, with can-can dancers, bohemian denizens like Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), and ribaldry at every turn, but it's really Luhrmann's pop-cultural wonderland. Everyone and everything is encouraged to shatter boundaries of time and texture, colliding and careening in a fast-cutting frenzy that thinks nothing of casting Elton John's "Your Song" 80 years before its time. Nothing is original in this kaleidoscopic, absinthe-inspired love tragedy--the words, the music, it's all been heard before. But when filtered through Luhrmann's love for pop songs and timeless showmanship, you're reminded of the cinema's power to renew itself while paying homage to its past.
Luhrmann's overall success with his third "red-curtain" extravaganza (following Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet) is wildly debatable: the scenario is simple to the point of silliness, and how can you appreciate choreography when it's been diced into hash by attention-deficit editing? Still, there's something genuine brewing between costars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (as, respectively, a poor writer and his unobtainable object of desire), and their vocal talents are impressive enough to match Luhrmann's orgy of extraordinary sets, costumes, and digital wizardry. The movie's novelty may wear thin, along with its shallow indulgence of a marketable soundtrack, but Luhrmann's inventiveness yields moments that border on ecstasy, when sound and vision point the way to a moribund genre's joyously welcomed revival. --Jeff Shannon
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