An exclamation point can make all the difference. Some movies are so audacious that they divide an audience. Some people love it while others hate it. Such was the reaction of the crowd when I saw Moulin Rouge!, a surprise nominee for Best Picture of 2001, at the Showcase Theater on La Brea Avenue. I, of course, loved that director Baz Luhrmann and the cast were taking movie musicals into wilder, uncharted territory. Partner At The Time, however, hated it, thinking it was overwrought and gaudy and tacky. Perhaps that's what I loved about it, to be honest.
Compared to the 1952 movie with the same title (but no exclamation point), Moulin Rouge! focuses not on the life of the artist Toulouse-Lautrec (played here by John Leguizamo). No, the 2001 version instead concentrates upon the love affair between a struggling young writer from London, Christian (Ewan McGregor), and the star of the nightclub stage show, the "dazzling diamond" Satine (Nicole Kidman). She mistakes Christian for a wealthy duke (Richard Roxburgh) and attempts to seduce him in order to guarantee money for a new musical production called, with no seeming trace of irony, Spectacular Spectacular. When she finds out that Christian is really a penniless artist, she tries to get rid of him, but he has already made her fall in love with him by writing a poem--a song, really--on the spot. The poem is actually the lyrics to Elton John's "Your Song," and as sung by McGregor with open voice, it's little wonder Satine is smitten.
However, you can't put on a show unless you have money, and Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), as the owner of the Moulin Rouge, forces Satine to begin a relationship with the Duke. He wants the show to go on, regardless of what she must do to secure the Duke's attention. She keeps the Duke at bay for as long as possible while carrying on a secret relationship with Christian. The Duke, being a hysterically jealous man, discovers the true nature of the "rehearsals" Satine and Christian have been conducting, and he demands an ending to the musical-within-the-musical-movie that gives the character that is his surrogate control over the courtesan who stands in for Satine.
I've not yet mentioned the one little problem that complicates the love story even more. Satine has tuberculosis and will not live for much longer. She may not even survive to the opening night of Spectacular Spectacular. Zidler knows this, but he doesn't tell her until it is almost too late. He figures that the show must take precedence over her relationship with Christian; she just needs to make the Duke happy so that the money is secure. That makes him a pretty heartless pimp, to be honest. Neither Christian nor the Duke are aware of her condition, so the attempts by one of the Duke's henchmen to kill Christian backstage on opening night take on a greater poignancy. Even though the lovers escape these dangers, they can have no hope for a future given Satine's condition.
The film begins and ends with a red velvet curtain. I think it's supposed to call attention to the film itself as a "performance" rather than a representation of real life. There are numerous references to the fact that the film is not realistic in nature, not the least of which are the many incongruous choices of songs that the characters sing. The so-called Elephant Love Medley where Christian woos Satine includes, just as a small sample, U2's "In the Name of Love," Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs," and Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," as well as a generous portion of David Bowie's "Heroes." In addition, Satine continually talks about being a "real actress," a goal she hopes to achieve with the new production Christian will write for her and the Duke will bankroll. It's almost as if Kidman herself is making a bit to be considered a "real actress" with this role, given how much of a departure it was from her usual choices.
I have so many favorite moments in this film. Aside from the Elephant Love Medley, topping the list might be the wildest version of "Like a Virgin" committed to film, and that includes the performance Madonna gave of the song on the Video Music Awards. Broadbent's Zidler dons a tablecloth to act the part of Satine in order to persuade the Duke to give her more time to submit to his advances. While cute, young male dancers surround them in a whirl of activity, Zidler and the Duke act out a bizarre seduction sequence, ending with the Duke in full vampiric pose atop Zidler. It has to be one of the gayest production numbers in film history, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Close behind would be the secret love song that Christian writes for Satine as a way to confess her love for him without the Duke's knowledge. It's fully performed in a large-scale Bollywood-style number near the film's end, and in addition to being one of the few original songs in the movie, it earns our attention by expressing some heartfelt sentiments between two characters in whose lives we have become invested. The song, entitled "Come What May," was not nominated for an Oscar itself because it was written for Luhrmann's earlier Romeo + Juliet. It wasn't ever used in the 1996 film nor have I heard of it being recorded before the release of Moulin Rouge!, so it seems silly to me that Academy rules disqualified it from consideration.
I can't neglect mentioning the version of the Police's "Roxanne" by the narcoleptic Argentinian (Jasek Koman). Yes, you read that correctly. Performed ostensibly as a tango and intercut with scenes of the attempted rape of Satine by the Duke, it's not easily forgotten. The dancer who seems to be the object of the Argentinian's rage dances with several male partners, but none are quite as aggressive as the Argentinian himself when he gets his hands on her. I can't really describe why I am spellbound by this sequence; you have to see it to believe it. Perhaps it's the way that this song, like so many of the other popular hits that have been remade here, are recontextualized to fit the plotline. You can't quite listen to the Police's version without simultaneously considering the one in Moulin Rouge!, and that's true for many of the numbers included in the film.
Much of the film, aside from the framing device of Christian writing the story of his relationship with Satine, is set in 1899. To recreate the area of Paris known as Montmartre during that time period, the film makers chose to use CGI most of the time rather than actual sets. It's a gutsy move that allows them to manipulate the setting more easily. For instance, Christian can just step out of his building and be inside the elephant-shaped dwelling in which Satine lives, and they can both go to the roof of her elephant and be walking through clouds while singing. It's as simple as that.
Admittedly, the movie does have its weak points. Not everyone is a talented singer, but that's to be expected when you have performers better known for acting than singing. The central repeated theme of the film--"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return"--is little more than a cliche. And, outside of one or two production numbers, the film never does very much with the motto of the bohemians who populate the film and surround Christian: "Freedom. Beauty. Truth. Love." Still, I think this movie was a deserving nominee for 2001.
I loved Kidman's performance here. She is, at different times, funny and tragic and sexy and delicate. I don't often think of her as a warm presence in films, but her Satine is one of the best performances she's ever given. And I love how she is often bathed in a blue light that accentuates the paleness of her skin, which is only enhanced visually by the redness of her hair and of her lipstick. McGregor makes a charming male lead, and even though I am sometimes distracted by how wide he opens his mouth to sing, I still think he's perhaps the strongest singer of the cast. I hate to use the word "campy" to describe the performances of actors like Broadbent and Leguizamo and Roxburgh because I think the word is overused and misunderstood, but they are all so good at going over-the-top with these parts that it's really the best word to describe them.
Personally, I was quite pleased that Moulin Rouge! was nominated for Best Picture. It wasn't a conventional choice, by any means, and the film certainly has its detractors. Most of the people who didn't like the film, I suspect, didn't enjoy the film makers' obvious lack of desire to follow more conventional storytelling techniques. Those of us who loved the movie tend to love it for just that very reason. The next year, a musical would win the Oscar for Best Picture for the first time since 1968's Oliver! (another exclamation point, eh?). That film, Chicago, is often given undue credit for reviving the musical as a film genre. However, Moulin Rouge! came first and rightfully deserves respect for being the movie that got people talking about musicals as an art form again.
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