Simply fantastic

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2017)

Written for English class.
Moulin Rouge! (2001) is a movie musical that takes place in the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris - Christian (Ewan McGregor), a young writer, falls in love with the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman). Their love is doomed from the start, since Satine is set to marry the wealthy Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh), who has promised to invest in the cabaret if he gets Satine in return. In spite of all, the two start a dangerous love affair.
To some viewers the characters may seem unrealistic and hard to understand, but after learning more about Luhrmann's style in general, I believe that that is exactly what he was going for. Christian is a hopeless romantic, ready to do anything for love, while Satine is at first extremely skeptic and doesn't believe in true love. In Moulin Rouge! these two main characters aren't the only ones with strong personas - Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the head of the cabaret, is comically melodramatic and jolly, while the Duke (Richard Roxburgh) is exactly his opposite - so snappy and angry it may feel overdone at times. All of the actors in this film do a fantastic job portraying such dramatic characters.
One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is "El Tango de Roxanne". This scene depicts Luhrmann's style quite well - the entire set, (especially the lighting) and the dancing are very dramatic and truly engage the viewer. Furthermore, the editing jumps from one place to another very quickly. Luhrmann's style can also be heard in the songs - the song they are dancing to is the rock song Roxanne by The Police, released in 1978, combined with the tango "Tanguera" by Mariano Mores, released in 1953. The events of Moulin Rouge! occur somewhere in the early 1900s, so neither one of these songs would have been released back then.
Moulin Rouge! has been one of my all-time favourite movies ever since I first saw it. I absolutely love everything about it, and what especially stuck with me were the music and the actors, who all did a fantastic job. Not to mention the ending, which left me speechless for days. The production design, as it is in all of Luhrmann's films, is breathtaking - every scene feels extremely carefully thought out.