Review: Moulin Rouge (2001)

I was watching Moulin Rouge again (for about the 20^th time, I would estimate) and realized that I’d never done a proper review for it.  I’ve touched on it a bit in other articles (mostly as a comparison), but have failed to fully explain why this movie is so excellent.  Though many may disagree with me (a moderate yet decent 76 / 87% rating at Rotten Tomatoes is not enough in my opinion), I would argue that not only is this Baz Lurhmann’s best movie to date, it also happens to be a work of art on all levels of filmmaking.  Read on to hear what I have to say.

If you haven’t seen it (shame on you!) the story is very basic.  There’s a poor writer that accidently gets mistaken for a duke.  A high-class prostitute at the titular Moulin Rouge tries to seduce him instead of said duke.  The duke is a jerk and the writer and the prostitute fall in love, which leads to all the classic complications involved in a love triangle.  All this is set amongst the back-drop of the Bohemian party-place that is the Moulin Rouge.

So now that you know what it’s all about (yeah, I know it was brief), let me explain my reasoning behind putting this on such a high pedestal.  First of all, the visuals are outstanding.  Luhrmann colors things in such a way that you can feel the connection between this piece of the past and the modern day.  The Moulin Rouge is a club that transcends boundaries of class, all sorts coming here to enjoy a good time in the progressively chaotic atmosphere that characterizes the era (and our own).  He also plays with many visual tricks, both subtle and blatantly ridiculous, punctuating moments of drama and comedy with precision.  The lighting, the glaring splendor of the club itself and the amazing costumes all come together to create an atmosphere that is immersive and hypnotizing.

Secondly, of course, is the music.  Luhrmann likes to take the modern and mix it out-of-era to create a mixture of two worlds.  With Moulin Rouge, he has selected songs that almost everyone knows and used them in such a way that they relate quite well to the individual scenes of the film.  This is where many people get lost when it comes to Luhrmann, unwilling to allow him to assault their viewing experience on two fronts, but if you get past that you’ll realize that he’s done a perfect job here.  He takes an emotion that we can readily relate to and then layers it across an era that we are mostly unfamiliar with to bring a connection that lets the viewer step back in time with a musical guide.  And the songs are remixed in such a way that they still remain unique despite their modern origins.

Thirdly, the acting in this movie is near perfect.  Each person is required to play both a stereotypical movie cliché while at the same time bringing deeper meaning to the character within the context of the story.  We see them acting the fool one moment and then later bringing in deep emotion.  It’s as if someone brought Disney characters to life but made them deal with the real world for a while.  And, of course, they all sing remarkably well.

The best way I could describe how I feel about this movie is to say that Luhrmann distilled the Bohemian culture into a fine tincture, added some pigments and then painted a picture composed of the very essence of the emotional and visual state of that world.  Like crafting fine beer, movie making is an art and Moulin Rouge is about as artistic as they come without being officially labeled as an “art film” (AKA a movie too vague to understand).  Yes, I may be a bit passionate about the movie, but when you’ve seen it as many times as I have you start to notice all those tiny details that come together to make the whole picture.  If you haven’t see Moulin Rouge before, you must put it on your list.

Photo Credits -           

Moulin Rouge courtesy of indiwall.com