INTRO: Construction on the Eiffel Tower, then the largest man-made structure in the world, was completed in 1889. And that wasn’t the only world-renowned location to open to the public in Paris that year. 1889 is also when the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in the Montmartre district… and the things that went on in that venue are so legendary, more than a dozen films have been made about it over the decades. The film we’re looking at in this episode of Revisited may be the most popular of the bunch – it’s director Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 Oscar-nominated hit with a very appropriate name: Moulin Rouge!
SET-UP: The Moulin Rouge was named for the windmill on top of the building – a tribute to the fact that several other windmills used to stand in the area. The cabaret was one of the first places in Paris to have electric light, and that light helped lure in patrons of all classes. From the rich to the destitute. After all, it only cost one franc to enter the stucco elephant that stood in the garden. Inside that elephant, patrons could smoke opium while watching belly dancers. And inside the Moulin Rouge, the courtesans were creating the modern form of the can-can dance.
Australian filmmaker Luhrmann was inspired to make a movie set in and around this iconic French location after watching a Bollywood movie during a trip to India. Luhrmann was dazzled by the style of the film – the mixture of comedy, drama, tragedy, and musical sequences. And he was in awe of just how captivated the audience was by what was playing out on the screen. How involved they were in the story. He began to wonder if it would be possible for a Hollywood movie to work for viewers in the same way that Bollywood movie did. Luhrmann was raised by a ballroom dancer, a fact which inspired his feature debut Strictly Ballroom, and has worked extensively in theatre, both as an actor and a director. So he brought a lot of music and theatre knowledge to Moulin Rouge. In addition to classic musicals, vaudeville, and cabaret culture, he has named the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, Giacomo Puccini’s opera La bohème, and the Alexandre Dumas story Camille as direct influences on his film.
The story Luhrmann crafted with his frequent collaborator Craig Pearce is set in 1899, ten years into the Moulin Rouge’s long reign as a tourist destination. The character we follow into the mad world of the cabaret is Christian, a young English writer who has come to Paris to immerse himself in the bohemian lifestyle. To be one of the “children of the revolution”. He immediately falls in with a bunch of artists who are planning a play they will put on at the Moulin Rouge… if they can secure a financier. The artists take Christian to the Moulin Rouge after he helps them with the writing of the play. This character is obsessed with love, he believes in it deeply, he wants to write about it. Problem is, he has never been in love before. This changes at the Moulin Rouge. When Christian spots dancer-slash-courtesan Satine, it’s love at first sight. Unfortunately, Satine has been promised to the wealthy Duke of Monroth, who will finance the play Spectacular Spectacular and the cost of converting the Moulin Rouge into a theatre. In exchange, he demands a contract that binds Satine to him exclusively. Christian is able to win Satine’s heart in return, but they have to keep their romance secret. If the Duke finds out Satine is in love with a penniless writer instead of himself, he’ll pull his funding. Spectacular Spectacular won’t happen. Worse yet, the Duke obtains the deed to the Moulin Rouge as part of his deal and could shut the place down completely. After his henchman kills anyone the Duke orders him to.
Luhrmann had recently had great success making a modernized and highly stylized version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for 20th Century Fox. As Moulin Rouge began to move forward at the same studio, there was some consideration given to the idea that his Romeo and Juliet star Leonardo DiCaprio might star in this film, too. That idea only lasted as long as it took for Luhrmann, DiCaprio, and a piano player to try to get through a performance of the song “Lean on Me”. DiCaprio said that as soon as he went for a high note, Luhrmann realized he had an atrocious singing voice.
The casting process was extensive, and Luhrmann has teased that he has “audition material of people you wouldn’t believe.” Among the other actors who were considered for the Christian role were Jake Gyllenhaal – who seriously impressed Luhrmann with his singing abilities – and Gyllenhaal’s future Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath Ledger. Courtney Love auditioned for the role of Satine, which ended up going to Nicole Kidman. Ledger got to read with Kidman, and Luhrmann felt they had incredible chemistry, even though Ledger was substantially younger than his potential co-star. But then Ewan McGregor caught the director’s attention. And when he proved that he could sing, he was cast as Christian.
There aren’t any historical figures who match Satine exactly, but the character was partially inspired by real Moulin Rouge can-can dancer Jane Avril. A person who has been described as “graceful, soft-spoken, and melancholic”. Jane Avril had previously been played by Zsa Zsa Gabor in the 1952 film Moulin Rouge. Several other characters in Luhrmann’s film are directly based on, and share names with, real people who spent time at the Moulin Rouge around the turn of the twentieth century. John Leguizamo takes on the role of popular artist Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, whose legs stopped growing after he broke them both in his early teens. Lara Mulcahy plays Môme Fromage, which was the stage name of a real Moulin Rouge dancer. DeObia Oparei appears as Le Chocolat, who would perform a clown act at the cabaret. Keith Robinson is performer Le Pétomane, who had a stage act that was so unique – built around the fact that he could fart on command – that it’s shocking the movie never shines a spotlight on his ability. The Satie character, played by Matt Whittet, was inspired by composers Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel. The supporting cast also includes Richard Roxburgh as the Duke of Monroth, Jacek Koman as The Unconscious Argentinean, and Caroline O’Connor as the trouble-causing Nini. With an appearance by Kylie Minogue as a Green Fairy from the label on a bottle of absinthe. Played by Jim Broadbent, Moulin Rouge owner Harold Zidler is based on real-life Moulin Rouge manager Charles Zidler… but the real Zidler was dead by the time the events of the film take place. He passed away in 1897.
Luhrmann wasn’t interested in meticulous historical accuracy, as is most evident in the songs chosen for the film. Moulin Rouge isn’t carried by original songs, nor is this jukebox musical filled with the songs people would really be singing in 1899. The songs belted out by the characters are totally anachronistic. They sing songs that performers like Queen, Nat King Cole, Madonna, and The Police wouldn’t originate until many decades later. There are so many popular songs in the film that it took Luhrmann two and a half years to acquire the rights to use them all. Some songs, like ones by The Rolling Stones and Cat Stevens, he had to let go of because he couldn’t secure the rights. Courtney Love didn’t land an acting role in the movie, but she did give the filmmakers permission to use the Nirvana song “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
REVIEW: Luhrmann considers Moulin Rouge to be the third and final chapter in what he calls his Red Curtain trilogy. Following Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet. These films don’t have any direct connections to each other, but as Luhrmann explains: they all have very simple stories and take place in heightened worlds. To keep the audience awake and engaged, they each use a device like dancing, singing, or iambic pentameter, a style of writing that was popularized by Shakespeare. Lines written in iambic pentameter consist of ten syllables that alternate between short or unstressed syllables and long or stressed syllables. All of the films in the Red Curtain trilogy were also designed to be comic tragedies. Moulin Rouge fits the criteria perfectly, as its story of star-crossed lovers is extremely simple and straightforward, but the viewer becomes deeply invested in this story due to the song choices and the performances of McGregor and Kidman. The opening scene of the film makes it clear that this story is going to have a tragic ending. But Luhrmann still keeps us wondering what’s going to happen. And makes the viewer hope that maybe somehow there will be a happy ending after all. If only Christian’s narration would stop telling us that everything’s going to go wrong.
Luhrmann was able to create a heightened world for the film by shooting it almost entirely on stages at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. The movie doesn’t often look like it’s taking place in reality, it appears to be happening inside a piece of artwork. It took six months to shoot Moulin Rouge, from November 1999 to May 2000, and the production ran over schedule, so Luhrmann and his cast and crew had to hustle to vacate the soundstage before George Lucas moved in to film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones there. McGregor stuck around, though, since he also starred in Attack of the Clones. One reason why filming took longer than expected may be the fact that Kidman received multiple injuries during the production. She broke ribs twice – once from a corset being pulled too tight, another time from being lifted in the air for take after take. And she tore cartilage in her knee when she fell down some stairs while dancing in heels. But even with these injuries she soldiered on and did everything that was required to properly bring Satine to the screen.
Watching Moulin Rouge, it seems like it must have been an exhausting project to work on. There are so many dance sequences and musical numbers, and it comes off as being all the more exhausting due to the film’s fast pace and frenetic editing style. The first fifteen minutes of this movie will be an endurance challenge for some viewers. Everything moves so quickly, the actors are so excited and loud, there’s goofball characters and a Green Fairy, cartoon sound effects, there’s dancing and laughter, you’ve got Jim Broadbent screaming in your face about having fun. It’s sensory overload. Which is fitting, because Christian is surely experiencing sensory overload as well. He has just gotten to Paris, met a group of people pursuing a thrilling artistic venture, and now he has been dropped into the insanity of the Moulin Rouge. According to Luhrmann, the idea was to express the excitement the cabaret brought to its patrons in 1899 in a way that modern viewers could relate to.
Thankfully, the film calms down a bit soon. When Christian spots Satine and the love story begins. Once you reach the sequence, set inside that legendary stucco elephant, of the smitten Christian trying to convince Satine to give him a chance, you can’t help but start caring about these characters. And while the two sing lyrics from songs by The Beatles, Kiss, Phil Collins, U2, Wings, David Bowie, Dolly Parton, and Elton John to each other, falling in love right before our eyes, you might even fall in love with the movie. That’s the most joyous part of the film, because Christian quickly learns that being in love with someone is more complicated than he ever imagined. Especially when you have a creepy, insanely jealous Duke lurking around at all times.
There’s not much to the story of Moulin Rouge and we know it’s not going to end well as soon as it begins. But Luhrmann brought that story to the screen with style to spare, and the actors did incredible work in their roles. The love Christian and Satine feel for each other is palpable, and comes across as being so deep and genuine, watching the film turns out to be a heartbreaking experience. But it’s worth the ride to see Luhrmann’s visuals, to see the life and emotion the actors imbue their characters with, and to hear the songs they sing.
LEGACY/NOW: Moulin Rouge was originally scheduled to reach theatres in December of 2000, but was pushed back to a summer 2001 release. Giving Luhrmann more time to perfect the visuals in post-production. The delay worked out, because the film was a financial success. Made on a budget of fifty million, it ended up earning nearly one hundred and eighty million at the global box office. It also went over well with critics – and received praise from directors of classic musicals. West Side Story and The Sound of Music director Robert Wise and Singin’ in the Rain director Stanley Donen both had positive things to say about the film. Wise was quoted as saying that Moulin Rouge had “reinvented the Hollywood musical … in a way that is always surprising, always enlightening, and always exhilarating”. Donen called the film an expertly done musical that “challenges our notion of pace by presenting every moment as a showstopper”.
The film’s status in pop culture was greatly enhanced by the release of a soundtrack album that Luhrmann produced. Although the soundtrack features some of the songs as performed in the movie, it also has covers of songs that weren’t in Moulin Rouge. Like Beck covering Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs”, a trio including Bono covering the T Rex song “Children of the Revolution”. And a cover of the 1970s hit “Lady Marmalade” by some of the biggest female vocalists of the time: Mya, Pink, Lil’ Kim, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott. That soundtrack was a massive success, selling more than seven million copies and going double platinum. The “Lady Marmalade” single ruled the Billboard charts for weeks, and Paul Hunter directed the singers in a video styled to resemble Moulin Rouge. The video won both Best Video of the Year and Best Video from a Film at the MTV Video Music Awards, and the song won a Grammy in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.
The movie won its share of awards as well. Moulin Rouge received six Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Original Score. The original song “Come What May”, which Christian writes for Satine in the film, was also up for Best Song. Kidman went home with the Best Actress award, the film won Best Original Score – and it also won that Best Picture award. Moulin Rouge was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but “Come What May” was disqualified because it hadn’t been written specifically for this movie. It had been written for, but not used in, Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. Somehow the Academy also neglected to give Luhrmann a Best Director nomination. Golden Globe Best Picture winners often win Best Picture at the Oscars as well, but Moulin Rouge didn’t. Instead, the award went to the movie that won Best Picture in the Drama category at the Golden Globes, A Beautiful Mind.
Moulin Rouge did win Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. And while it was nominated for twelve BAFTA Awards, making it the most nominated film of the year at that year’s BAFTAs, it only won three: Best Original Music, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actor Jim Broadbent. The National Board of Review picked Moulin Rouge as the best film of 2001, and so did the viewers of the BBC’s Film 2001 television program. The American Film Institute ranked it in the top ten of the year. Over time, the film has continued racking up accolades, with multiple polls naming it as one of the best films of the twenty-first century. Empire Magazine even ranked it at number two hundred and eleven on their list of the five hundred greatest movies of all time.
Luhrmann wondered if a Hollywood movie done in a Bollywood-esque style would work for the audience, and the answer was a loud and clear “Yes”. A “Yes” that has been reverberating for over twenty years now. Moulin Rouge deserves all of the attention it gets, as it is an incredible artistic achievement that is also a very emotionally engaging musical love story. One that teaches us the greatest thing you’ll ever learn: which is just to love, and be loved in return.
