A Visionary Masterpiece... And the Best Picture of 2001

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2002)

Not a question in my mind that Moulin Rouge should have won the 2001 Best Picture Oscar. This film took guts to make. To mix the Dumas "Camille" story into the La Boheme Paris of Lautrec and Puccini, then to toss in pop hits spanning the past several decades is, well, a stroke of interpretive (if anachronistic) genius. As for Kidman's performance -- WOW! Couldn't take my eyes off of her. Think of the great actresses and singers coming before her in prior tellings of that story: Bernhardt, Duse, Garbo, Callas, Stratas. Kidman stands and delivers in the midst of a thumping phantasmagoria that somehow does recall the excitement, danger and romance of a long-gone era -- and, like the story requires, does it like a diva. All the men are excellent, of course, Ewan MacGregor, Jim Broadbent. Brilliant cinematography, rightfully quoting the great paintings of the era. Baz Lurhman resurrects an old chesnut of a story with the eye of an impressionist master and the ear of a rock and roller -- how'd he do that? Yes, indeed -- Moulin Rouge is a great film.