Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I still haven't had a chance to get over to the GCC Avco where MOULIN ROUGE is playing its exclusive dates, but I think I'm gonna take my new sweetie to see it sometime this week. Perfect timing, too. It's summer, I'm having another birthday later this week (something that makes you nostalgic when you're in your early 200s), and I've got a new lovely lass to share it all with. Based on what I've heard about MOULIN ROUGE so far, I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to be one of the ones who falls for it, hook line and sinker.
Here's a spy we first met at the GLADIATOR screening we hosted in San Francisco last year. Good guy. Glad to hear from him again. Here's ENIGMA BOY...
Y’hello Harry,
‘Tis I, your handy-dandy trusty-dusty teenage critic Enigma Boy. I may be a little loopy right now, but that’s because I just got back from MOULIN ROUGE, and from everything you and I have heard about it is pretty much true. Yes, it’s overblown. Yes, it’s formulaic. Yes, it’s insane. And that’s why I truly enjoyed myself tonight!
MOULIN ROUGE tells the story of Christian (Ewan McGregor), a young writer who has “never fallen in love,” but during the course of the movie, he will find love, oh you better believe he will, and he finds it in the dancer/prostitute Satine (Nicole Kidman) who is the star attraction at the titular Parisian nightclub. Of course, there will be obstacles, villains, and crazy comic relief, but this movie has something going for it that is a rarity nowadays: incredible song-and-dance sequences with an energy like no other.
I have been awaiting the return of the movie musical, and I think Baz Luhrmann may have pulled it off. I really do. Of course, he does it in a very very Australian experimental crazy insane over-the-top glamour kind of way, and there are times when I started to doubt his power. This is such a damned loopy movie that I think many people will be turned off. It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: people will either love this movie or hate this movie. But I think that the people who hate the movie will do so with an extreme vengeance. You know what, though? I nearly felt their pain. Sometimes something can be so overblown that, as Peter Travers said, “it blows a fuse,” and there are an inordinate amount of instances this could happen within the first hour of the movie. However, I can take movies like this, ones that attack your senses without a care in the world. I honestly have not been this exhilarated to be metaphorically knocked out by a movie. Crazy, crazy movie. And I know the exact point where many people will turn off (if they hadn’t already, and if that’s the case, they should’ve known what they were getting into). It’s Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh’s rendition of “Like A Virgin,” which approaches absurdity and blasts right through it like papier-mâché. I, however, took the more difficult route, sucked it in, and took it as it was; a musical, a demented whacked-out on absinthe musical (with the singing voice of the absinthe Green Fairy provided by Ozzy Ozbourne, I kid you not).
Like you, Harry, I adore musicals, and this did not fall short. During the course of the movie, I told myself that this was exactly what I wanted in a musical, I just never thought it would come out exactly like this. I can see why this opened Cannes: ‘dem French are nuts, and they always always always go for the original and not merely the good. The music in this film is incredible, and Ewan McGregor, as I’ve always known, is a true talent. Nicole Kidman, unfortunately, cannot live up to his example, but she does not disappoint. Their duet of the “Elephant Love Song Medley,” while generating some snickers from the audience, hit me hard and brought tears. It’s a gorgeous scene among many.
There is one point where Luhrmann truly takes this film and blasts it out of orbit and out of the world, changing it from enjoyable fluff to an actual dramatic piece that has characters to care about, and it is the scene of the “Tango de Roxanne.” This is by far the best scene in the movie, and the way Luhrmann creates new emotion for the song and for the movie and for the characters this way just flattened me, and I was in awe.
People are going to attack this movie for being too much, and I can understand that. I truly do. There are a lot of people who can’t take excess, even when it is done in good dramatic spirit. Saying this movie throws in everything and the kitchen sink is putting it mildly. I think it was Entertainment Weekly who said that Baz Luhrmann seems like he’s trying to be a “Gen-Y Ken Russell.” While I don’t 100% agree with the statement, I do sympathize with its intentions. Luhrmann is giving us something we think we’ve already seen and then pulls the rug out from under us. Many people will be nastily labeling this movie as “cinematic masturbation.” Well what’s wrong with masturbation? (Please don’t answer that.)
There is a glory to this movie that you can’t find anywhere else onscreen currently, not even in MUMMY RETURNS, which I consider to be a great fun time at the movies. Buy the soundtrack. Buy the second soundtrack when it comes out. Watch this movie. Think of it how you will, but this is my movie. I have been waiting for it, and I have received it, and I’ll be damned if any of you ruin that for me.
Ready to pass out,
Enigma Boy
Then we've got a report from Harry Potter's big friend HAGRID, who first showed up here last week with a report on AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS. Many of you called him a plant then, but he's back with a look at another studio's film, and he certainly doesn't seem to be playing favorites.
My sister Fiona has been visiting me in Los Angeles, and since this is her last week with me, she suggested we go see a movie she couldn't easily see elsewhere. Seeing as how Baz Luhrmann's MOULIN ROUGE was playing in select cities, and we were actually in a select city for once in our lives, so we drove through the smog to the Avco Cinemas in Westwood off of Wilshire.
Just before we pull up to the inadequate entrance to the parking structure, Kevin Pollak, on his cellular, walks in front of our car, presumably to see the movie as well. Being from Wilmington, North Carolina originally, it still gives us a charge to see famous people, so we were jazzed to be seeing this flick with a cast member from The Usual Suspects. Something to write home about.
Which was before we ran into Goldie Hawn in the theater lobby. Actually, we didn't run into her as much as pointed at her. It took my sister several strong hints and one slap in the shoulder to realize that she was standing two feet away. My sister wanted to ask about costarring with Steve Martin. I wanted to ask about The Sugarland Express (Spielberg's first official theatrical release, and one that's severely underrated in my opinion), but we decided to leave her be, grab our Junior Mints and commerative Mummy Returns soda cup, and enjoy the movie.
Having a little Hollywood glamour in our lives for this movie got us jazzed, so the letdown would've been intense if the movie failed on even the smallest level. Please let me assure you that this movie does not. In fact, this amazingly crafted and passionately performed film succeeds on all levels. And many times, while watching Moulin Rouge on the big screen, you feel as if you are going insane.
siastically, we started laughing immediately. From this image, I was seeing a director at the top of his game. Luhrmann, whose debut feature STRICTLY BALLROOM showed his talent, and with his follow-up, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, he found his style. With MOULIN ROUGE, he merges both into an exciting piece of work that brings to the audience the sense of exhilaration reminiscent of the most accomplished live theater. The evidence of this was in the audience's reaction, who at my count, burst into applause a number of seven times throughout the film.
Think of that for a second. Seven times. At eight reels of celluloid. And I was clapping along with the rest of them. When an audience can get swept up in the moment and, despite the cynicism plaguing most moviegoers nowadays, and allow themselves to be amazed... I love it when that happens.
The movie begins in classic Hollywood style, with curtains opening behind a conductor. The conductor actually conducts the 20th Century Fox theme music, and he does this so enthusiastically that we started laughing immediately. the credits roll across the screen in the style of the old silent reels, and then the camera swoops in, soaring over Paris, France, circa 1899.
Now I want to digress for a moment. I'm a complete sucker for production design. There is something remarkable about seeing a world unlike any other, yet completely believable with its' own sense of logic. I love the likes of movies such as DARK CITY, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, BLADE RUNNER, GLADIATOR, and most every Tim Burton film made. It's the old-fashioned craftmanship I appreciate. In addition, one of the more noble uses of CGI is to expand on the sets and blend it in with a the 'world' beyond it. Several times, the practical sets and CGI sets were blended in so perfectly with the actors, that for once it didn't feel like the effects were vying for your attention (MUMMY RETURNS, cough cough, giant face in flood chasing a dirigible, cough cough).
So with this in mind, MOULIN ROUGE was tailor made for me. Paris never really looked like this... but it should have. The lights, the grand structures, that glorious windmill with the Christmas lights... There is a set built to resemble a giant elephant - I don't know the reason why, I'm not sure if there's a metaphor I'm missing, but I didn't care - in this world, the more insane, the better.
The production design of the Moulin Rouge itself managed to portray sinfulness, decadence, hedonism, and innocence all at once, and without a single ounce of nudity. With its' trashy can-can girls, it's Master of Ceremonies, and populated by the upper-class slumming with the underworld to get their kicks, it was an adult fantasy land.
I confess to knowing nothing about the story this film is based on, and it may seem familiar to the educated filmgoer. A writer in Paris named Christian (Ewan MacGregor) falls for a courtesan singer named Satine (Nicole Kidman) in the very un-Christianlike Moulin Rouge. In the process of turning the Moulin Rouge into the ultimate theater with the ultimate play - the spectacular Spectacular, as they call it - they fall in love. The play they create mirrors their relationship, which inculdes the jealous investor, the Duke (played by a really good actor, whose name I unfortunately forgot), who's agreed to finance the renovations and the production under the condition that he be allowed to have his way with Satine.
As Harry has already pointed out previously, though the movie is set in 1899, the songs are ones we're all familiar with, and lest there be any doubt, this movie is absolutely one hundred percent a musical. This is not THE GRINCH, where Cindy Lou Who sings a silly, innapproriate song, or that moment in HOOK where Peter's daughter makes the pirates weep with her homesick ditty for the sake of an Oscar nomination. This is a musical with dozens of pop songs energetically reinterpreted for the musical form. And man alive, it works well. Even though they're songs you've heard before, you haven't heard them like this.
There will be laughing. No doubt about it. But hopefully, it will be the kind of chuckling we heard tonight. They'd hear a familiar lyric, and laugh with recognition, not contempt. Then they'd forget it was a song they'd heard a million times before. They'd hear the actors sing it with honesty and passion, and it was like you've never heard the song before. After watching this, I dare you to hear the songs Roxanne or Like a Virgin, and not think of these versions.
Anachronisms aside, production design be damned, if the actors didn't fully believe in this world, we may have had a complete debacle on our hands. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. And even though the ensemble was uniformally pitch perfect (John Leguizamo as the midget Toulose-Lautrec was a standout for his performance and for making me believe he was four feet tall), the two leads were, in our minds, flawless.
First, Nicole Kidman. She's been scandalized a lot lately, what with her divorce from Tom Cruise (John Woo, what were you thinking?) and all. I've long said that she was one of the best actresses of our time. Simply rent To Die For and see how deftly she handles the balance between comedy, drama, and manipulation in that film. An overlooked performance to be sure, and maybe you'll go check it out after seeing MOULIN ROUGE, because she is flatout breathtaking. Many actresses who happen to be gorgeous often get a bad rap, with the cynics saying she's only cast in movies because she can wear a belly shirt. But Nicole handles this role - which calls for singing, dancing, outrageous comedy, tremendous sadness - with poise, grace, and most importantly, honesty. You never see her as Nicole Kidman... only Satine. I still haven't stopped thinking about her.
Which is COMPLETELY CRUCIAL to the film, because if you don't believe Christian's love for her, the film would fail (this movie, if you haven't guessed, walks the highwire from beginning to end and never loses its' balance once). Which brings me to the best part: Ewan MacGregor.
You've seen him in TRAINSPOTTING. You've seen him in PHANTOM MENACE. Now please for the love of God, see him in MOULIN ROUGE. It was stunning to watch him. You can see it in his eyes how much he loves her. You can hear it in his voice when he sings to her. You can feel it with every ounce of his ability. There's no question that Christian and Satine are in love. Of course, any man would love a beauty like Satine, but to see Satine wooed by Christian is even more powerful. I was stunned to hear his voice - there's rawness to it, and every lyric is filled with emotion. It's kind of ironic to think that PHANTOM MENACE should've made him a superstar, but that when people see MOULIN ROUGE, it will actually happen. It was a true joy to watch him.
This film takes chances. It is never dull to watch, and it is filled with so much, that I find it impossible to not see it more than once. Most big budget films (of which I'm a tremendous fan - JURASSIC PARK III anyone?) stick to the tried and true for the almighty grosses. What I like most about MOULIN ROUGE is that I've never seen anything quite like it in my life. And I don't say that lightly. Please check it out and decide for yourself, but I'd bet money that a true film freak would not be disappointed.
One final note: my sister Fiona had a hunch walking into this movie that, if this film develops a following, it could be similar to the Rocky Horror Picture show where people dress in the costumes, sing the songs, and dance in the aisles in midnight showings. I could see it happening... but for now, lets leave it at that.
Hagrid
