Tous le Soirs: SPECTACLE - CONCERT - BAL

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2002)

Three days after standing on Place de Figalle in front of 'le Moulin Rouge' (and bought some of Lautrec's posters as a souvenir), I decided to go and see the movie. Moulin Rouge! turned out 2 B plain and cliche entertainment. I guess that's what it's supposed 2 B and should be treated like that. It was a disappointment in general with some good moments and dynamic cinematography. The point is that it was flat but musical world with round bellies and lots of booze: Burgundian, flamboyant, bohemian, cancan and tragic. Tragic because the actors didn't have the chance to give the love story (which could have been good) sense.
'Smells like teen spirit' (Nirvana), 'Your Song' (Elton John), 'Heroes' (David Bowie), 'One day I'll fly away', 'Roxanne' (Sting) and the inevitable 'The show must go on' (Queen) are examples of the arrangements for the score. The original songs once are great, but the rest of the movie didn't do much for me. I can understand the nostalghic feelings for those songs, but that doesn't really contribute to a great movie: it merely sets a firm tone and provides convenient dialogue from songtexts.
The exclamation mark should have been removed from the title and especially from the movie itself if you take my meaning. Neither being a fan of Kidman and McGregor nor of musicals in general, I still say that Kidman and the cinematography deserve 2 B nominated, but no winners as far as I'm concerned. 6/10