Moulin Rouge [2001]

The story is paper-thin, but that's hardly the point. Nicole Kidman's courtesan Satine falls for poor poet Ewan McGregor while pledged to a psychotic English Duke. The show goes on, of course, and we know it will end in tragedy--because that's the sort of story this is, and the only thing that makes it bearable is the knowledge that it's all just brilliant artifice. The third of Luhrman's "Red Curtain" trilogy (after Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet), Moulin Rouge reinvents musical cinema, acknowledging its debt to past masters like Vincente Minnelli (Gigi) and Michael Powell (The Red Shoes), but taking in the best of rock video along the way. The incessant MTV-style editing might seem like a distraction, but in the end a film insane enough to include Jim Broadbent's cover of "Like a Virgin" defines its own genre rules.

On the DVD: this double-disc package sets new standards of presentation while also having an ideally appropriate light-heartedness. The extra features are as inventive in their use of the format as the film itself. Highlights include not one but two commentaries--one by Luhrmann, his designer and his cinematographer, the other with Lurhmann and his fellow scriptwriter Craig Pearce. We get two videos of "Lady Marmalade" and there are also uncut dance numbers, for example the fabulously dark Tango sequence in all its detail, which come with alternate camera angles so that you can edit your own version. There are whole segments on the glittery costumes, the three-dimensional model of Paris and the transformation of Kylie Minogue into the Green Fairy of absinthe. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (formatted for 16:9 TVs) with a visual aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and has lush, velvety Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound options. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
Cross LA BOHEME with CABARET, throw in a little bit of RENT, and you might almost begin to describe Baz Luhrmann's visually opulent, fast-paced, funny, heartrending MOULIN ROUGE. The film, which premiered as the opener to the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, is a musical set in 1899 Paris at the notorious Montmartre cabaret club, the Moulin Rouge. Directed by Baz Luhrmann (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, STRICTLY BALLROOM), the movie stars Nicole Kidman as the high-kicking courtesan, Satine; Ewan McGregor as the sensitive poet, Christian; and John Leguizamo as the flamboyant artist and matchmaker, Toulouse-Lautrec. Luhrmann's use of eclectic lighting and saturated color, the fast zooms and quick cuts of his camera, and his magnificent costumes and sets perfectly capture the excess and freneticism for which the Moulin Rouge was famous. Beautifully led by McGregor and Kidman, the flawless supporting cast brings to life the culture of belle epoque Paris with magical realism. Above all, the anachronistic, energetic contemporary soundtrack is what drives MOULIN ROUGE, with popular songs by L'il Kim, Christina Aguilera, David Bowie, and Beck--as well as Kidman and McGregor adding their own superb vocals.