A remarkable experience

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2005)

Moulin Rouge is the most visually unique thing I've seen since I don't know when. I watch an awful lot of movies, and I pay attention to things like color and camera work. A lot of people don't. In Moulin Rouge, you can't help it. These aspects grab you by the collar and shake you around for 2 hours. From the bright, vibrant, almost neon nighttime colors when the Bohemian ideals (love, truth, beauty) of Montmarte are celebrated, to the brownish, daytime hues when harsher realities set in, this movie sustains our attention. The images run the range from beautiful (Satine, bathed in blue light) to garish (the owner's appearance, and his tendency to shout loudly and closely in people's faces) to bleak (the entire setting when the plot grows more grim).
I am not even a fan of musicals per se. There have been occasional musicals that I have enjoyed, but I am not one to sit down and relish the choreographed movements of the Sharks and Jets. Yet if any non-musical lover has a chance of crossing over, this is it. Moulin Rouge is a musical on speed, a post-modern musical for the new millennium. If anyone can remain unaffected by the Roxanne "number" near the end, I would confess astonishment. Its sheer power and fast-paced rhythm carries us along. It's one of the most incredible examples of virtuoso editing I can think of.
The movie is thoroughly saturated with song. When no music is being sung, it becomes part of the dialog. Someone should count how many different songs are sung or partially quoted. From Elton John to Rogers and Hammerstein, the movie is a like a collage of music.
It ends as quietly as its middle was loud. When the credits began to roll, the movie theater was silent. No one talked or made much noise; it was a response approaching reverence or at least respect.
Perhaps Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times said it best. His comment takes into account that Moulin Rouge may have its detractors. But it underscores the film's uniqueness, its coherence as something entirely different:
"You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options."