A breathtaking masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2001)

There aren't really any words I could use to describe the experience of seeing Moulin Rouge for the first time, but I will try.
Baz Luhrmann is known films that distance the audience from reality by use of dance (Strictly Ballroom), language (Romeo + Juliet), and music here in Moulin Rouge. Yet in all of his films, the music conveys the meaning and the depth of emotion of the scene far better than just dialogue alone.
Some people have criticized Moulin Rouge for its use of non-period songs, but in my opinion, the music is what brings the emotional story of Satine and Christian to life. Luhrmann draws upon songs familiar to us--ones likely to tug at our personal heart strings and call up memories of our reactions to the songs--and interweaves them spectacularly to amplify the feelings going on at the time. I couldn't imagine any sort of music that could define the particular feel of the Moulin Rogue club scene better than the mix of "Lady Marmalade," "Teen Spirit" and the "Can Can." It gives a sense of the spectacular, the thrill, the eroticism, and the bigger-than-life sensation, to which defies description. The Roxanne tango sequence was exceptional, using both the dramatic situations of the characters and the expertly woven dance sequence together, and using the music to build it into one the most brilliant sequences of cinema I've seen in a long time.
The images of the film are as breathtaking as the musical scope. The first half rushes by in an absinthe-induced dream, where the people and situations seem bigger and brighter, and the hallucinations are just as real as the people. The style of the drab outer Parisian world seems to be cut from the same cloth as the early films and the degaurre-type photography, giving the sense of the old and the classic, but also the sense that the outer, older, non-bohemian world is somehow out-dated to the colorful, larger-than-life underworld of the Moulin Rouge. And then, just as the theatre of the period was beginning to, the style swings from spectacle to more realistic. Yet even these more down-to-earth scenes have visually exceptional and other-worldly quality. As for the acting, I think that as a whole, the ensemble cast did a fabulous job, getting back to the styles of acting at the time, when pratfalls and circus-like conditions were the norm.
As to the plot, I've heard many people call it "fluff," so to speak. The plotline may be simplified, but the story--true love--is something that every human being longs for deep inside. True love, in its most basic form, doesn't need fancy trappings or complicated situations, just as most of the emotions racing around inside our hearts. It's simple, pure, and uncomplicated. And this simple love story, conveyed through a brilliant score and heart-felt acting, has carried away so many people with its scope. That scope doesn't necessarily come from wrinkles in the plotline, but from the scope of the human heart and our capacity to believe in true love.
I think that Baz Luhrmann and his team have creating a trancendant piece of literature that has touched many people already, and will most likely be rewarded come Oscar time, whether or not the rest of entertainment year picks up steam.
In closing, I would urge you to see it, and appreciate it for whatever it means to you.