A dazzling melodrama

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2001)

This film sets your head spinning with its noisy opening, its brilliant colours which burst like rockets on to the screen and the masterful camera work which lifts you up over the roof tops of Paris and propels you through the doors of the celebrated Moulin Rouge. It is like nothing you have seen before. A truly new cinematic experience. Amongst all the fanciful Mont Martre characters - almost grotesque at times- runs a simple love story of Satine, the top star of the Moulin Rouge who is torn between wealth and security offered by a duke and the promise of love by a penniless writer of poetry. What surprises me most is the comedy. Somehow I did not expect it. An hilarious scene (there were many) was the secret meeting of Satine, the prostitute (Nicole Kidman) with Christian the poet (Ewan McGregor). She thought he wanted sex when he was simply determined to read her one of his poems. The clever mingling of well-known songs (quite out of the period of 1900) linked the scenes with amazing effect. At one moment it was the Sound of Music, at another a suggestion of Gilbert and Sullivan- a mad mixture of songs, but it worked and oh so well. I found myself enjoying every moment of this intricate weaving of songs. This film has all the elements of a great production. It will never cease to amaze me how Baz Lurhmann could assemble such a wild lot of characters and bring them together in such a frenzy of sheer entertainment. By the way, don't forget to take your handkerchief.