Moulin Rouge!

Baz Luhrmann has an amazing ability to turn Moulin Rouge into an unusually intense, emotional, "original", (non-)kitsch spectacle that is just very hard not to succumb to. And I loved the grace with which Moulin Rouge teeters on the edge between total kitsch and riveting emotional spectacle. The choreography, the sets, the costumes, the music, the boldness and inventiveness of the direction, the hauntingly beautiful Nicole Kidman... plainly and simply the prototype of a film that can provide an intense emotional experience from beginning to end. A year earlier, Lars von Trier also made a wannabe musical "his own way", which I coincidentally also gave full marks. The difference is that I was still quite nauseous for a few days after Dancer in the Dark and to this day I have no desire for a second viewing. With this film, I know I will want to watch it again very soon and I definitely won't be nauseous in the "Trier" sense :-) (08/08/2013)

A film based on quality music and actors and a love story. Full of color, lights, costumes, and enough dancing to leave you cross-eyed. The presentation is truly artistic and the story moving. Although I don't like pure romance, I have to admit that I shed a tear here. Moulin Rouge! is one of a kind. (26/04/2011)

In the first fifteen minutes or so I was already saying that it is unbearably over-styled, tasteless, bullshit… and wasn’t far from turning it off. But then – and I didn’t notice exactly when it happened – I realised how much I was enjoying it. I don’t think I ever had such a total change of opinion while watching a film. I can’t provide a sufficiently reasonable explanation why I’m giving five stars to this piece of kitsch, but I just can’t help it. (21/08/2009)

Although the makers if this tried to remain on the brink of bearable and laughably bombastic kitsch soft porn, all too often this slips into a stupid, noisy (I don’t think there is one second of silence here or no scenes where someone isn’t jumping around, screaming, whistling etc.) patchwork full of cuts, certainly worthy of an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. However, once in a while it calms down and looks good, and so for instance during the tango or the live scene with Satine and Krystian, all of these criticisms move aside, because at these times Moulin Rouge is simply flawless. A shame that there aren’t more similarly powerful moments in this movie, but on the other hand there aren’t that few of them really. (28/12/2006)

I think I first saw this film on TV when I was fifteen, and as befits that sentimental age, I properly cried. The next day, I already had the soundtrack on MP3 and I didn't listen to anything else for six months. After almost fifteen years, when I am that much older, I had the opportunity to see Moulin Rouge on the big screen as part of the musical package at SFS 2018. My love for this film is obviously undying, because despite having seen it maybe 50 times, I had more fun than ever. The atmosphere in the auditorium was amazing and it was clear that I was surrounded by like-minded fans. Proof of that was the applause that followed the "Like a Virgin" scene. Another amazing moment was when the naively blinded Duke realizes that Christian and Satine are in love, and many people in the room gasped in horror at that moment, and I thought: there are some lucky people who haven't seen the film yet, and I was a little jealous. I thoroughly enjoyed this colourful, kitsch and pompous ride, devouring every moment, singing every song in my head, tapping my foot to every rhythm, laughing at the crazy scenes and shedding a tear at "Your Song" when in the first seconds of Christian's great singing Satine finally shuts up and the night Paris lights up. What else can I praise? The perfect mix of songs, brilliantly performed? The great performances that are moving but also entertaining? The great choreographies? The costumes and sets? I wish I could still raise the rating because Moulin Rouge is perfect and spectacular in every way and I can't wait to watch it again. (04/09/2018)