1. Nicole Kidman climbs atop the elephant as the orchestra swells, and there's a huge climax as she belts out the great chorus of "One Day I'll Fly Away"

2. The orchestra swells again a few minutes later as Ewan McGregor breaks into "Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong".

3. Nicole Kidman walks defiantly into the sunset singing "The Show Must Go On".

What a great film...

The first 2 songs mentioned above had never impressed me much in their original form, but as arranged for their respective scenes, they were the lines that impressed me most.

Peter Rainer on MOULIN ROUGE:

"Luhrmann hauls in everything from Rodgers & Hammerstein to Nature Boy to Roxanne to LaBelle's Lady Marmalade, and the songs tend to segue into one another, medley-style. It's like being trapped inside a fever dream of Oscar-night production numbers."

Baz, you rock!!!!

--Brian

Delightful movie. I love it.

***SPOILER WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE***

For me the first viewing of MR was ONE CONTINOUS wonderfully tingly experience - beginning already with the zany conductor of the 20th Century Fox Fanfare & Overture. I knew immediately that this movie was going to be something TOTALLY different (although I went to see it very reluctantly, not having any expectations towards it). There I was, simply shivering from excitement from the beginning to the end, laughing and crying the same time - and simply getting my own heart "recharged" with all the warm emotion the movie had within.

After NINE times seeing it on the big screen, I still say that MR is an entirely enjoyable movie which simply cannot be "chopped" into favorite pieces -
ALTHOUGH my VERY favorite scenes nevertheless are:

• "Like a Virgin" (pure camp, pure fun, pure stage musical magic - reminding me of the last great Oscar ceremony '91 when Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was nominated for three songs).

• "...the hills are alive with the sound of music..." belted out by Ewan (because a sophisticated musical lover as myself knew exactly that IT WAS COMING, thanks to the clever hints before it..!!)

• "One Day I'll Fly Away" (again, because this song I had previously heard in my childhood as a dreadful performance, and now it had every bit of Hollywood musical pixie dust on it).

• When Ewan gets dumped, gets punched out, and is carried onto his bed (- simply heartbreaking).

• "Hindi Sad Diamonds" Premiere (with breathtaking music and breathtaking variety of colors, sets, and movement - this is simply gorgeous).

• The death scene, especially Nicole saying "You got to go on, Christian" (and Armstrong incorporating a heartmelting snippet of "One Day I'll Fly Away" into the score cue) - and when Ewan bursts into tears, it's "Niagara Falls" also for me.

• And yet, the End Credits "Bolero" gets spirits high every single time after the tears.

(But as I said, the ENTIRE movie is one big enjoyable, touching wholeness, so it should not be broken into these kind of favorite parts).

it's interesting to notice that even though you claim you didn't understand or like MR at all, you have understood some things precisely the way the should be understood.

I would certainly like to know what are the 3 other films you see and maybe like much much more during a week - because that kind of revelation may prove a point right; that MOULIN ROUGE is simply not a film which appeals to the people who like realism, STRONG & CLEAR opinions, and melancholy-directed films.

The most important thing about MR is to understand, that the movie is really PURPOSELY "a farce in the grand tradition of the theater of the absurd". Baz Luhrmann wanted to salute the Bollywood musicals and the "Red Curtain movies" with MR. He purposely used THEATRICAL dramatics to get the movie audience INVOLVED in a movie the same way as a stage theatre audience gets involved with live actors (- NOTICE that many many times the actors talk specificly TO THE CAMERA, straigthly to the audience; and many scenes are created in such a witty way as if the audience would really be IN THE MIDDLE of the actors, or scenes).

True, the comedics of MR are time to time dangerously close of being simply ridiculous, but this is also done purposely: Luhrmann really wants to CHALLENGE the viewer into a duel of reality and absurd, as if he would tell us "I dare you to walk out of the theatre if you don't think life COULD be as zany and wonderful as my movie claims it to be". (Naturally it's just another one of those TASTE matters - some people simply WANT to believe in a beautiful life, while others have the totally opposite opinion.)

- - "In the end, I think the joke is on us." Well, EXACTLY !!! Luhrmann's attempt has been to dare to make one to LAUGH TO ONESELF while watching MR - I have said this before, but I say it once again: MOULIN ROUGE speaks directly to the viewer asking "do you dare to see yourself in these characters; to see yourself in the same situation, with the same feelings, doubts, thoughts - would you be jealous? would you be in love? would you be ready to kill, or just to hurt the one you love?" - So, basically MR's message is very philosophical and "serious" while speaking of the basics of the human nature, but due to the somewhat "schizophrenic photography" and the over-the-top comedics the message may not be as approachable to all viewers as to those viewers who DARE to JUMP INTO the movie with all their own emotion.

With MOULIN ROUGE Luhrmann wanted to make a musical to the modern audience, plus they wanted the narrative to be as UNIVERSALLY approachable as possible, and his and Craig Pearce's approach to this is, at least in my opinion, is pure genious; USING UNIVERSALLY-KNOWN (existing, easy-to-relate-to) POP SONGS. No matter where one lives on this planet or what language one speaks, POP MUSIC is "understandable" and approachable in our modern world. - Again, even though one may have problems with the "music-video-like" hectic editing of MR, it still serves the movie's MODERN NARRATIVE STYLE splendidly - making the action and the emotion understandable in ANY LANGUAGE, a lot in the same way as Chaplin used the art of pantomime with his universally loved silent comedies. (Although loving MR, I myself would love it even more if Luhrmann had given more room and time for the gorgeous choreographies and not torturing the audience with the MTV-editing-speed during the big dance numbers).

"I am not sure what all the fuss is about Kidman since it seemed to me that it is MacGregor that really is forced to carry the film, and he can sing."
- sakman, you couldn't be more right with this !! As I personally was quite surprised of Nicole Kidman's talents, I still say that MR could not have been such great experience without Ewan McGregor's HUGE TALENT. He really is the "binding force" of the movie. (And I'm very angry to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not nominating the best actor of the year).

Hoping to having shed some light upon the matter.

KEN

Thanks for your comments. I've discussed this film with several friends who have "loved it", "hated it" and "didn't care one way or the other." Since we should be talking about "music" I'll keep my comments brief.

I pointed out the number of films I view a week not to "brag" but to simply allude that I am not speaking as someone who sees the "big movies" of the year. When you see 150-200 films a year, well, that's a lot of perspectives and I guess it is that width of viewing that allowed to appreciate some aspects of MR--especially the visual style.

I think my biggest problem with "Moulin Rouge" is that the characters are caricatures that we have seen before and there is nothing new about the interprettion. I do not care for the multiple anachronisms in the film, nor the way historical artists are portrayed. And the dialogue, sung and spoken, is really subpar on every level.

I would have likely felt the same way whether this was popular music, salsa, or opera.

The points we agree on amuse me because it is like the complete opposite of what the Academy and the foreign press folks nominated and/or awarded--like these are the arbiters of taste.

My feeling on this is that "Moulin Rouge" will go on to garner the kind of cult status that films like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" have acquired.

Of course, all operas have a sad ending, but most of the time the energy of the first part of the flm complements this tragic ending. But this shift happens too quickly for us to go along with it.

Musically, the film is good, though I was hoping for more original songs mixed in with the pop standards. Who knew Ewan and Nicole could sing?

- but hey,
NOBODY'S PERFECT