Moulin Rouge

 

Moulin Rouge 2001

• Director: Baz Luhrman
• Also seen by this director: The Great Gatsby, Australia, Romeo & Juliet, Strictly Ballroom
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo, Richard Roxburgh
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicole Kidman – Destroyer, Top of the Lake, Genius, Queen of the Desert, Strangerland, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Rabbit Hole, Nine, Australia, Margot at the Wedding, Fur, The Interpreter, Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville, The Hours, Birthday Girl, The Others, Eyes Wide Shut, Practical Magic, Billy Bathgate
• Ewan McGregor – Trainspotting 2, American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Star Wars etc, Mortdecai, August Osage County, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Island, Big Fish, Young Adam, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave
• Jim Broadbent – The Lady in the Van, Brooklyn, Filth, Cloud Atlas, Harry Potter, Another Year, Hot Fuzz, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, Little Voice, Gangs of New York, Topsy-Turvy, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Richard III, The Crying Game, Life Is Sweet, Brazil, Black Adder
• John Leguizamo – John Wick, Cymbeline, The Happening, Romeo & Juliet, Carlito’s Way
• Why? The cast and the director.
• Seen: Once before. Now 26 December 2020.

             Stealing songs wildly from musicals and pop music of all eras, this is the glittering and tragic story of the doomed lovers, the cancan dancer Satine (Kidman) and the aspiring playwright Christian (McGregor) at the Moulin Rouge ca 1900.

       It might be the most colourful and frenzied film ever made. It might be the silliest film I’ve ever seen too and it’s so romantic it makes my teeth ache but, to quote the film itself, it is most certainly ‘dazzling’ and ‘spectacular’. As well as mad and wildly entertaining. Kidman and McGregor do their own singing too.

 4* of 5