Moulin Rouge (2001)

Synopsis: In turn of the century Paris, aspiring poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) arrives in bohemian Montmartre, home of the famous Moulin Rouge nightclub. Befriended by painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) Christian finds himself writing a musical play that will be performed at the Moulin Rouge starring Paris's most famous courtesan, Satine (Nicole Kidman), who has ambitions of becoming a serious actress. Christian and Satine fall in love but their happiness is threatened by the Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh), whose financial support for the production is conditional on his exclusive access to Satine.

One of the ongoing mysteries of contemporary cinema must be how it is that Ewan McGregor manages to land so many lead roles. In the hot bread shop of film acting he is decidedly white sliced. Yet, inexplicably, here he is again, centre-stage with Nicole Kidman, who, at least on the basis of this performance, is in a rack above named malt-enriched. Rita Hayworth she's not, but she enters into the spirit of her character as a cabaret performer and, best of all, handles the (melo)dramatic aspect of her role with panache. If there is a multi-grain performer, however, it is Jim Broadbent, no doubt awarded the part on the basis of his appearance in Mike Leigh's marvellous but neglected Topsy Turvy of last year. As Harry Zidler, he mugs and roars and sweats his way through Luhrmann's film with garish make-up, big hair and unbridled enthusiasm, igniting every scene that he is in. Bringing up the rear in a commendable fourth place is Richard Roxburgh as Satine's predatory admirer.

With his small masterpiece Strictly Ballroom (1992) Luhrmann, established himself as an auteur. For his reputation however, his output has been surprisingly small and restricted in scope. His 1996 follow-up, Romeo + Juliet, was a misfire but he returns to form and then some with Moulin Rouge. With his co-writer Craig Pearce with whom he also worked on the previous two films he takes a melodramatic romance story  )immediately derived from Giuseppe Verdi's much-loved opera, La Traviata) and packages it in a marvellous pop/rock production with superb art direction, costume and lighting. The long sequence early in the film, built around Elton John's "Your Song " is a splendid confection of images and staging but there are many inventive re-interpretations of pop standards from Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" to The Police's "Roxanne" although admittedly, as if approaching exhaustion of ideas and energy, the latter is not an outstanding interpretation.

Is Moulin Rouge a musical? Well, not really. Certainly not in the sense of Oklahoma (1956) or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) with original songs. It's more of a throwback to Tin Pan Alley revue musicals like Gold Diggers of 1933 which cobbled together a handful of popular songs with a stock storyline. Whilst often musicals are built around a division between on the on-stage performances and off-stage storyline (usually of the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl etc. variety) with Moulin Rouge there is really no off-stage. Rather it is a delirious but at the same time superbly controlled paean to the popular love song which owes much to Luhrmann's wife Catherine Martin's production design, Don McAlpine's cinematography and Jill Bilcock's superb editing. And Ewen McGregor ain't half bad.

 

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