Watching Moulin Rouge for the first time on its release 10 years ago was easily the most exhilarating movie experience of my life.
From its opening with an orchestra conductor maniacally conducting the 20th Century Fox fanfare as a red curtain rises behind him, to the reaffirmation of the film’s mantra at the very end of its closing credits, Moulin Rouge’s dizzying pace grabs you and holds you in its intoxicating grip and never lets go for a nanosecond as you get swept up in its many powerful and visceral emotions.
Moulin Rouge is the third and final part of what director Baz Luhrmann describes as his “Red Curtain Cinema” trilogy.
The director describes this as a particular cinematic language binding the films in the trilogy together (1992’s Strictly Ballroom and 1996’s Romeo and Juliet being the first two).
It is a theatricalised cinematic form which has three main elements: the basic plot is based on a popular myth – in Moulin Rouge’s case it is Orpheus’ journey through the underworld; it is set in a heightened world, here Paris at the turn of the 20th century; and the film has to have a device to invite the audience to participate– and Moulin Rouge’s soundtrack, chock-full of instantly-recognisable music, certainly draws the audience into the action.
It is impossible to describe the film itself and the experience of watching it in a mere 700 words; but the film’s mantra – “This story is about freedom, beauty, truth...and above all, love” – does the job pretty niftily as it applies perfectly not only to the movie’s development, but also the actual final product.
In bringing the film to the big screen, Luhrmann certainly en-joyed the creative freedom few directors have within a studio system.
By all accounts, Moulin Rouge should never have worked. On paper it must have sounded completely demented – a reworking of the Orpheus myth with snippets of La Bohème and the best excesses of cinema, opera and theatre thrown in for good measure; with a soundtrack featuring a totally anachronistic mash-up of songs from the worlds of pop, rock, rap, opera... and Bollywood musicals? Huh?
And yet Luhrmann did not budge from his original vision and realised it on an epic scale to extraordinary critical and commercial success.
The beauty of the film lies in every aspect, not only manifested by its extraordinarily extravagant costume and production design – from Nicole Kidman’s exquisite dresses to the superbly reconstructed Moulin Rouge and its environs (and that elephant); but also by the breathtakingly choreographed song-and-dance numbers and the quite astonishing CG that recreated the sepia-toned, fantastical turn-of-the-20th century Paris that serves as a backdrop to the story.
The truth of the film is found in the actors’ performances across the board. Each and every member of the considerable ensemble, led by its charismatic leads Kidman and Ewan McGregor, tackle their roles not only with great gusto – many of them showing off hitherto undiscovered vocal talents – but with an honesty that makes their characters real and relatable, so important in a film that boasts as many highly comical and camp moments as it does genuinely heartbreaking ones.
Each performer plays every beat to perfection, displaying equal deftness with screwball comedy as with full-blown drama, the film’s inevitably tragic denouement leaving not a dry eye in the house.
That honesty is never more palpable than in the love story that rises, phoenix-like, from the colourful cacophony and chaos that permeates the film. The chemistry between Kidman and McGregor is genuinely powerful and they both give career-best performances.
In Kidman’s courtesan with dreams of a better life and McGregor’s idealist poet with dreams of love, Luhrmann found the perfect protagonists for one of the great love stories of the 21st century.
Critical and audience plaudits greeted the film upon release; and numerous awards followed suit; although Oscar’s virtual shunning of the film was unexpected.
Moulin Rouge did walk away with the Best Costume and Best Production Design awards; yet the Academy ignored it in the bigger categories, failing not only to acknowledge its astounding originality and the innovative take on the movie musical, but also Luhrmann’s creative genius – he was not even nominated in the Best Director category, an omission I found unforgiveable.
Yet this omission cannot take anything away from Moulin Rouge. The film remains living proof of the vibrant, awe-inspiring and emotionally stimulating filmmaking that we are lucky enough to occasionally experience on the silver screen.