Ecstasy and agony at best!

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2001)

Impresario extraordinaire! Two thumbs up for Baz Luhrmann for this flamboyant production! An opulent & breathtaking movie with spotlights on the fin-de-siecle pleasures of the era's Parisian cabaret - the exotic rendezvous haunt for dreamers and for those seeking an exuberant and licentious life! Watching this flick is like watching Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings come alive! Whoa, `C'est viva la Montmartre' in operatic sensation! Yep, a series of phenomenally busy-busy scenes with fabulous touches of melodious panache to hold back the audiences' breath! The cooing of great favorites from The Sound of Music to the Beetles! OK, this is a film that defies the era's historical authenticity with close to two and a half hours of these contemporary pops and musicals, yet it incorporates them very nicely to emphasize the scenes and replace the dialogue! Fascinating and truly creative! Overall, everything about this movie fits in like a stunning mosaic piece of art! It carries the spirit of Bernstein's West Side Story, Bonblil's Les Miserables and Chamin's Can-Can... truly a combination of agony and ecstasy! This flick is a non-stop lashing out of everything symbolic of exuberant entertainment! Brilliant, extravagant, and outrageously mesmerizing! Powerfully cinematic with glamour at best! Yet it embraces Montmartre's bohemian life with a bizarre circus quality about it! And within the exotic fantasia lie the telltale of seedy encounters, corruption, prostitution, and the tragedy of a dramatic Romeo-Juliet romance! It's a clandestine love yarn rooted amidst virtue, sins, power, beauty and frantic gaiety! And Satine inflicted with tuberculosis? Not unbelievable! That was the period when tubercle bacillus was identified. Superb cast of talents... they spell out the personalities beautifully! Hey, and it's not fake lip service from McGregor and Kidman... their singing voices are praiseworthy! If there are flaws in this production, I personally care less! The well-choreographed cancan razzmatazz, the music numbers, the colorful costumes and the poignant tragedies actually fired away my complete regard for flaws! Gosh, one fast entertaining scene stomping off from another with such rapid shots. I simply sank into my seat at the end... so fabulously awed and deeply touched by the finale! Just can't wait to see it again! My rating: A+