gets better every time you watch it

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2002)

The first time I saw "moulin rouge", I liked it well enough, But with
each subsequent viewing it has grown and grown until it has
become one of my favourite films of all time. This is not a film that
you can be cynical about - you just have to let the emotions and the
visuals wash over you and envelop you in its magical charms. Ewen McGregor and Nicole Kidman are perfect in their roles, and
have such a realistic chemistry between them that you will forget
their real-life personas and simply see them as Satine and
Christian, starcrossed lovers in the most exciting nightclub at the
closing of the nineteenth century. Baz Luhrmann returns to the themes displayed in his previous
works, "Strictly Ballroom" and "Romeo and Juliet". And although all
three are wildly different, they also exist in the same
Luhrmann-esque universe of the wildly hyperkinetic and tragically
baroque. So much so they have been rechristened "the red curtain
trilogy". Lurhmann films are about emotion, and succeed with the viewer if
they let themselves open to it. So enjoy "moulin rouge !" for what it
is - a beautiful and colourful ode to an opulent era seen through
modern eyes.