It's All About Love.... Or Is It All About Absinthe?

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2001)

Enough has already been written about the use of music & the luxurious imagery of this film, but one disturbing fact remains uncertain concerning what happens on screen.
Things go pretty well up to a certain point, the young writer (McGregor) seemingly recounting his tale, the narcoleptic Argentinian dropping through a rotten floor into his apartments just after he arrives in Paris(if you've stayed in French hostelries you'll appreciate just how possible that would be in some of them!), an occurrence that leads to the meeting with Tolouse Latrec & his troupe. So far so good.
Then they take their first sip of Absinthe, a powerful hallucinogenic drink, renowned for introducing people to "The Green Fairy". Sure enough up she pops, in the form of Kylie Minogue & to the voice of Ozzy Osbourne (no stranger to drugs himself). Now the film goes into hyperspace & the imagery aquires a twisted other worldlyness that persists, only broken by the odd reprise of McGregor's character sat at the typewriter tapping out what happened.
Glasses of Absinthe are continually popping up throughout the film, suggesting further consumption. McGregor's hotel has another clue, with a faded advert for Absinthe to the right of his window. Although Absinthe was particularly popular & no doubt widely advertised & consumed, the way you are propelled through the gates of the Montmarte region once the first glass has been downed suggests that this is not merely attention to detail.
The scenes from then on fit very well with an Acid trip. For instance it may be tempting to say that finding your true love makes you fell that you can dance on air, but is this really Baz Lerhman borowing from Buzby Berkley or Fred Astaire? True he borrow enough from others, but the trend that builds up is suspicious.
Perhaps one of the final scenes is the most suggestive. Near the climax the Duke's asassin has a gun which is knocked out of his hand. The weapon exits via a window in the theatre & flies through the nightime Paris air, only to bang into the Eiffel Tower. In a clear breach of perspective the comparative sizes of the gun & tower have changed dramatically, with either the tower being shrunk or the gun being enlarged. Clearly something is not right here.
All in all it seems that Baz Lerhman has been playing with our minds, something that Ridley Scott did with such skill in BLade Runner, only Lerhman is more up front about it. Maybe it is simply something else he has borrowed, like all the other references. But this doesn't make it a bad film.
I don't think too much should be read into this, even if it's all just an attempt to mess with the viewer's mind. Let's face it what's more surreal that a bunch of kids & a nun in plain clothes suddenly breaking into song for no other reason than there's Nazis approaching? It worked for The Sound of Music & it shouldn't be forgotten that in the world of cinema real life ends when the lights go down & only restarts when you discover that you can't remember where you parked the car ..... & it's raining.
On balance Moulon Rogue is a damned good tale, filled with high dudgeon, vivid characters & plenty of laughs. This is odd when compared to the publicity releases & trailers, as I was convinced that it was going to be dreary & dull, being dragged along by my wife who wanted to see it. Quite why the studio publicity machine has chosen not to even so much as suggest that you might well laugh at the antics of the on screen characters is quite beyond me. It's a pleasant surprise to see that Hollywood can still produce something as off the wall as this, which still retains mass market apeal.
McGregor & Kidman are excellent...by the way in Ewan McGregor are we really looking at the next James Bond? Kidman is too thin for my liking & should eat a few Mars Bars (Rene Zellwegger in "Bridget Jone's Diary" gained much admiration for her figure don't forget), but her performance can't be faulted. Jim Broadbent as Zeigler is as mixture of coldhearted ruthlessness & deep down softness, with a screen filling persona that is just right for the film. Jacek Koman as the narcoleptic Argetinian provides a wonderfully odd character that I don't think I've ever seen portrayed before. Richard Roxburgh get's his chance to ham it up completely as the Duke, driven to insane jealousy for Satine (Kidman), providing us with a classic villain whom you can almost see twirling his moustache & tying young heroines to the railway line.
Sit back, enjoy the ride.