There's times when I think MR is my favorite movie... Talk to me in two years, maybe it will be.

I haven't seen it in a long time. I should watch it again sometime.

I love it as well, though.

It gets even better with repeated viewings.


I have it at 75 on an all time list, I fear its to low. Its just so superbly constructed.

I really enjoyed the first 20 minutes or so. The scene where Christian meets the bohemians, gets suckered into writing their play (as well as my surprise to hear the Sound of Music ), the introduction to the Moulin Rouge, the poetry reading scene, and "the pitch" were all really fantastic. After that the movie takes a drastic turn in tone. I suppose it fits the thematics of the movie better, but they should have stuck with one or the other. The "Like a Virgin" number wasn't necessary at all and really pulled me out of the whole experience.

Overall I think the movie showed incredible style but it wasn't consistent. I thought the approach for the music was unique and enjoyable, and mostly seamless and engaging. Aside form "Come What May", though, none of the songs really captured me. I think it's a nice movie - a bit predictable, but pleasent - but it misses the mark. B+

Let some time pass and see it again Sommie. It definitely keeps improving with further viewings.

I can vouch for that.

Moulin Rouge! holds my personal record for the most times I have seen a movie in it's original theatrical release, at seventeen times. Each and every one of those viewings yielded greater layers of sophistication in it's craft and amplified the intensity of my enjoyment of this extraordinary film...

Moulin Rouge is probably the movie I regret the most not seeing it in theatres

clearly there's been some heavy inflation since 2006. what's this worth now, bradford?

You don't want to know.





(Back away from the thread quietly, and go call for a tranquillizer gun, I'll keep him occupied till you get back...)

spectacular, spectacular.

A

I absolutely hated it. I couldn't believe in, care about, or empathise with any of the characters. All I could see were 2D archetypes going through the motions, falling in love because it's That Kind of Film, and talking to each other in lyrics pulled together by a smirking scriptwriter. Ewan McGregor's earnest performance and phenomenal voice are wasted here.

The main problems are, I just don't think the film has anything to say about "truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, love". It can't even simulate them. The film foreshadows Baz Luhrman's dreadful advert for Chanel (another example of a Nicole Kidman love story told entirely through the medium of soundbite and cliché).

In terms of actual emotion, I think the best moments in Moulin Rouge are available just as easily (but with far more authenticity) to anyone who is prepared to pour a glass of wine and thumb through a good record collection. The joke of having a pop song appear as a can can or burlesque in turn-of-the-century Montmarte gets very old very quickly and isn't that clever to begin with. I think this film is visually stunning and cinematically exciting but artistically reprehensible. There were moments when I couldn't help but be stirred by the music and spectacle - e.g., during the finale - but on those occasions, I was simply cross with myself for being sucked in by something so superficial and trite.

Funnily enough, this horrible film contains my favourite scene in any film ever. It's Roxanne reinvented as a venomous tango, and contains more passion and emotion than anything else in the film. It proves that borrowing from diverse sources, when done properly and sincerely, can serve to highlight something timeless, that was as true in the Nashville Club of the late Seventies as it was in the brothels of Buenos Aires. It proves that the postmodern concept can work, but only when the ingredients amplify rather than annihilate one another.

Anyway, I can see that you guys loved this film, but I thought it sucked

Anyone here really like the film because of the love story?

Not me. I know it's superficial, and that's the fun of it. It's the music and the visuals and the inventiveness of it all that gets me. I mean, after the first five minutes you know it's not meant to be taken seriously as a "real" story. I can see how if you watched it thinking it was about the underlying story, you wouldn't like it -- but that's not what it's about (in my opinion).

I'm sure the film wasn't trying to tell a proper story, but that's no consolation if my cinematic tastes were crying out for one

It's like if someone sets out to cook me chocolate chilli chicken with mushrooms instead of chicken. However closely the end result matches the chef's original vision, I think it's a stupid combination and won't like it, regardless of whether it happened on accident or on purpose.

Of course, there's no accounting for taste and I can certainly see why someone else would enjoy (even adore) such a clever and original tour de force of visuals and choreography. But it depends what you want from a film. For me, the visuals and choreography are like the gravy on a Sunday roast. I do love good gravy, but Moulin Rouge was like drinking a mug of it with no actual meal to go with it.

By way of example, I hate James Joyce's Ulysses... not because I think the author failed to write what he was trying to write, but because I think he succeeded very well in writing something that I don't want to read.

Just watched this in the theater, very glad I was able to! Still brilliant. Ewan McGregor man, he's gonna be gorgeous forever.