Moulin Rouge

Rating: 9/10 (7 March 2005)

I have seen many emotional love stories, I have seen many heart warming musicals, and when the two are combined, you have a magnificent film, from BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Baz Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet). It is 1899 in Paris, and aspiring young poet Christian (Golden Globe nominated Ewan McGregor) ignores his father's wishes, and joins the colourful, slightly dark underworld of the legendary Moulin Rouge club, run by Harold Zidler (BAFTA winning Jim Broadbent). While he is there, he not only has passion to create new art for the rich audiences of men, along with his friends and co-creators including Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), but he starts a passionate affair with the highest paid star and most famous courtesan, Satine (Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Nicole Kidman). Their romance is carried out in the club, but what makes their love a tragedy is the nasty Duke (Richard Roxburgh) saying he will only pay for the show, Spectacular Spectacular if Satine is his, love is forbidden in the Underworld, and more tragic, she is slowly dying of her illness (internal bleeding). The ending is not only a fantastic musical with passionate singing from McGregor and Kidman (well, all their singing is magnificent), but it has the tear-jerking ending with Satine dying in Christian's arms, and he finishes his story about this (he was writing about it). Also starring Garry McDonald as The Doctor, Jacek Koman as The Narcoleptic Argentinean, Matthew Whittet as Satie, The Lord of the Rings' David Wenham as Audrey and Kylie Minogue as The Green Fairy with the voice of Ozzy Osbourne. I think the film is also clever for the period story and characters singing modern love and pop culture songs in int, e.g. "I Will Always Love You", "Love Lifts Us Up", "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend", "Lady Marmalade" (which Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil Kim, Mya and Missy Elliot adapted fantastically) and of course, the great couple song, the Golden Globe nominated "Come What May", which was number 85 on 100 Years, 100 Songs. It won the Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Costume Design, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Makeup, Best Sound and Best Picture, it won the BAFTAs for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for Craig Armstrong and Marius De Vries and Best Sound, and it was nominated for Best Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Make Up/Hair, Best Production Design, Best Original Screenplay, the David Lean Award for Direction and Best Film, and it won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Original Score. Nicole Kidman was 21, and Ewan McGregor number 9 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, McGregor was also number 2 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, the film was number 25 on 100 Years of Musicals, and it was number 10 on The 100 Greatest Musicals. Very good!