Moulin Rouge! (question mark optional) has been my uncontested favorite Baz Luhrmann film ever since I first saw it. That may not be saying as much as it seems like it's saying, though, because the only other Luhrmann film I'd see at the time was Romeo + Juliet, and none of the four I've seen since then -- including the one that was released before either of those films -- have been quite good enough to surpass it.
However, on this viewing, which is at least my third but probably my fourth, I am likely to be more critical of it than I have been on any previous occasion.
Does any film you've ever seen go on and on about love as much as this one does?
I have no doubt the intention is 100% earnest on Luhrmann's part -- nothing he does strikes me as cynical, and it's obvious in the way he makes movies that he's a romantic. But my my. A person could make a good drinking game out of every time the word "love" is uttered in Moulin Rouge (no question mark this time) and would be pretty toasted by the end of the 128 minutes.
The fact that it is 128 minutes, and yet I don't feel like very much happens in the plot, is another mild criticism I have of its tendency to go and on. I am never bored in any viewing of Moulin Rouge, but this time I noticed all the ways it could have easily been trimmed down more than I have previously.
It gets to that length because of its heavy reliance on its jukebox musical format, and I must say that I still think this format works extraordinarily well. In fact, this may be the first time I had ever seen a jukebox musical, and though some of the luster has worn off that form, it felt fresh and invigorating that first time.
My favorite moment/scene in the whole film is when you first hear Ewan McGregor break into Elton John's "Your Song," belting the familiar phrase "My gift is my song!" at the heavens and taking us aback. (And watch out, the heavens might answer back, since Placido Domingo plays the moon.) McGregor's variations on this song -- the emphasis he places, the notes that are changed -- left me romantically dumbstruck when I first saw this film, and still does today.
And in many movies, the "Your Song" bit would have been enough. But after a pause, McGregor's Christian follows Nicole Kidman's Satine onto the roof of the elephant she lives in (great set), and they continue romancing each other with popular music. In fact, he's got his little run of familiar lyrics, all of which feature the word "love" -- you know, "all you need is love," "love lift us up where we belong," etc.
And then, after a while more of this, they do a duet of "Heroes" by David Bowie. The arrangement is great, and there's a delirious sense of the ecstasy of the filmmaking as the camera swirls around them and colors burst behind them, only they don't notice because they're lost in each other's eyes.
Taken individually, it's all good -- maybe I could do without the cutesy run of familiar lyrics by McGregor -- but by the time I got to the end of it, I realized we'd been at this for 15 minutes, when it could have easily been accomplished in five. And to gild the lily even more, "Your Song" enters Christian's narration after the sequence finally ends. When he's back at his typewriter, he gushes "How wonderful life was, now that Satine was in the world."
Mercy, Baz. Mercy.
Don't get me wrong. The movie still gives me chills and speaks to every little bit of the romantic in me, not to mention the former stage actor in me, not to mention the guy who loves to see somebody really commit, not to mention the cinephile who loves to be bowled over by a spectacle. All this still really works in Moulin Rouge.
But I'm still thinking ... maybe it works better at an hour 40?
I suppose if shaving off 25 minutes would have made us any less invested in the Christian-Satine romance, it wouldn't be worth doing. Perhaps you need that slightly indulgent sequence between their two rooms to really live with the idea of these two falling head over heels for each other. Convincing us that two characters are in love is no small task for a film to try to accomplish, and Moulin Rouge does it better than most. So I guess I wouldn't trade it under any circumstances ... but I won't lie and tell you it didn't bother me just a little bit this time through.
Maybe I'm not the romantic I was in 2001. I've seen Moulin Rouge in approximately ten-year intervals, at obviously different stages in my life. (I also think there was a repeat viewing between 2001 and when I started keeping track of repeat watches in 2006, and even think it was at my friend Justin's house on a visit to Maine. But because I have no written record of it I cannot be entirely sure.)
The first time I saw it, I was heartsick after a relationship I was very hopeful about had ended. (It was a short relationship, but that didn't mean I wasn't hopeful about it.) So I think although I found it beautiful that first time, I also found it a little hard to take -- a little too painful at that time. If I did see it a few years later, by then I think I was in a more promising, longer-term happy relationship, so maybe by then I could finally fully embrace it.
In 2011, it was the first year of my older son's life, so my heart was very full at that time. And the movie found quite a nice home there.
In 2023, I am happy and content, but perhaps being on the verge of turning 50 means that some of the emotions of my youth have dulled a bit. Enough, maybe, to roll my eyes a bit at the number of times the word "love" is used in a film, without a hint of irony.
But again, I say all this still feeling a rush of splendor over the sense of place Luhrmann establishes in that Paris of 1899, in that bohemian quarter of Montmartre where artists pursued earnest ideals and yes, love could blossom under the intoxication of it all. The movie is a master class on production design and setting the scene. If I had to choose a theme for a casino in Las Vegas, I might just choose Moulin Rouge. I don't say that, of course, to undermine or belittle it. If you haven't been to Vegas, I'll just say that you can dream yourself away into a casino that has been designed according to a great theme with all the details gotten just right. The snapshot of this Paris that Luhrmann gave us has that sort of potential.
Okay, in August I will move on to Australia, which I have not seen since I moved to Australia. We'll see if I think more or less of the movie as a result.
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