I'm not sure

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2002)

What to think of it ? Moulin Rouge mixes times and cultures with no respect of anything, and it's fun. Seeing the mythic Zidler, Moulin Rouge's owner, singing Madonna's "like a virgin" song to fool a jealous duke, yes, it's fun. Some visual effects are brilliant, really, and Kylie Minogue, in her twenty seconds cameo as a "absynth spirit" is great too. The whole decoration is great too. Now the bad thing : the storyline is simple, but at no moment I wanted to believe in it, I never felt concerned with the love story, Nicole Kidman plays like a fish : wet big eyes but a few expressivity (maybe not her fault : the role is not very well written). The camera does too much slow motions, it makes go sea sick. Sometimes, the camera can't stay showing a still thing more than one second and that is not very enjoyable too. I'm sure this mvie could have been much much better with a real director : Luhrmann has strong visions, good ideas (too much ideas maybe), but he is not a great director for me, I felt exactly the same with Romeo+Juliette. This movie can go in the same box as "le pacte des loups" (brotherhood of the wolves) : funny, better than a waste but far from the masterpiece some calls it.