This certainly wasn't what I expected it would be

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2005)

I probably don't have to tell you what the Moulin Rouge really is and where it can be found. It's one of the most famous cabarets in the world and even today it still breaths an atmosphere of decadence, eroticism and freedom. This of course had to be the subject of a movie sooner or later and in 2001 it finally happened. "Moulin Rouge!" saw its first (stage) light and caused a little shock wave in the world of cinema.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th century a young English poet named Christian, comes to Paris to pursue an unpaid, but free career as a Bohemian writer. Soon he meets a group that asks him to write a musical for them, which they will perform in the Moulin Rouge, the most famous underworld night club in Paris. When he goes for the very first time to that famous night club, he immediately falls in love with the beautiful courtesan Satine. Satine thinks he's 'The Duke', the man she has to please, because her boss expects a lot of money for him so he can build a new and proper theater. The Duke seems to be willing to give him that money, but he has one request: he wants exclusive access to the favors of Satine, who doesn't have any problem with that, because she finally wants to become a proper actress in a proper theater. And normally that request shouldn't pose any problem, but in the meantime Satine has done something no courtesan should ever do: she has fallen in love with Christian. This is the beginning of a dramatic love story that sooner or later will end in a tragedy...
I loved the fact that this movie wanted to give an idea of how the Moulin Rouge looked like in the early nineteen hundreds. I'm very interested in that time period and I was really looking forward to it. And exactly that was MY biggest mistake, because this movie hasn't got much to do with the history of the Moulin Rouge or the people who worked there. This movie isn't much more but an extremely fast paced, almost video clip like, vehicle for popular pop songs from the last fifty years that have been slightly renewed. Sure it all has a modern and slick feeling, but it also gave me the impression of a hollow shell. It almost felt like this was made for all those Americans who don't know anything about Europe, but who love flashy shows and fast consumption and who find everything great and lovely, as long as they don't have to think too much ...
This movie never really gives you a moment to catch a breath, to come back to your senses. It's a constant whirlpool of emotions, music and spectacular events. I know many people love that (if you check the percentage of people that gave this movie a 10, you'll get an idea), but for me personally it didn't really work. I might even say that it sometimes started to work on my nerves. Still, not everything about the movie was bad. The chemistry between Satine and Christian felt real thanks to the nice performances of Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. I never thought those two would ever from a couple in a movie, but I must say that it really worked. So definitely no complaints about that.
As a conclusion I want to add that it is a good thing that the genre of the musical isn't dead yet. It has always had a spot in the history of cinematography and it should have one in the future as well. But I have my doubts about the fact if this is the best way to go. Every day we are flooded by millions of video clips on TV stations like MTV, do we really need that in a movie as well??? Personally I don't think so and that's why I give this movie a 6/10