Freedom, Beauty, Truth, Love

Rating: 10/10 (3 April 2006)

The first time I saw Moulin Rouge was in that week of collective numbness following 9/11. We had made our way first to the Grosvenor Square US embassy to make a gesture of solidarity and its impromptu garden or remembrance and from thence to Odeon marble arch. The film itself astonished us - from its manic opening 10 minutes when we seemed witness to a star-studded, epic and monumental folly of film-making, to being, like Satine, swept from our firmly-planted critical feet and propelled along by its spectacular (spectacular) visual and intellectual ravishments. At that moment, leaving the theatre it seemed a joyous manifesto of what, decadent, dissolute, secular and unrooted as we are, we stand for in this world, which has true value, and what stands against us - cold, unforgiving and immune to the ideals of the 'Bohemian Revolution'. I have watched it many times since, its fascination unfading like that of the Wizard of Oz, as it is almost a version of that film for adults, but instead of a monochrome ending we are plunged into the deepest black - which in all truth we know awaits us all in any case. Wizard of Oz is equally applicable to its director, as it is a directorial feat that transforms it, alchemically, from lead to gold. Without the boldest and most extreme editing, and a tongue continually planted in its cheek most of the dialogue sections between the setpieces would have ruined the film, even accounting for some stellar performances from the principles. Instead they are played melodramatically yet sincerely, and it works, allowing the story to flow between the sensual, comedic and tragic delights expressed for the most part in song and dance.