What is Good About Moulin Rouge?

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:12pm

Saw Gatsby this afternoon and really loved the garishness so I thought I'd make my third or fourth attempt at sitting through Moulin Rouge. God, it's just so stupid. I know it's very polarizing, but I honestly can't see what's to like about it, aside from the costumes.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:39pm

I love many things - Ewan and Jim Broadbent, when the integration of current songs works (El Tango de Roxanne), the campiness.

What I love most about it is how the ending will get me every single time, mostly from the sounds of despair coming out of Ewan. The movie tells you in the beginning that she died. Flashes to future-and-sad Christian when she is just coughing reminds you. The ending is still a punch to the gut, though, at least for me.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:46pm

It's a perfect film! Visually stunning, the performances are flawless, the story is haunting, the music is perfectly woven into the plot and as a whole it's masterfully razzle dazzled.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:56pm

Moulin Rouge is the greatest film and the worst film rolled into one.

There's a lot I hated about the cheesiness and inappropriateness of the music choices, BUT... when Ewan took Nicole up into the clouds for the Astaire/ Rogers sequence I was in total movie musical heaven.

Plus those fantastical zooms through the virtual world of 1895 Montmarte were like a movie on ecstasy. And thank god someone out there is still making movies like that.

I thought Gatsby had a lot of the same pluses and same minuses as Moulin Rouge-- the drug-laden first 45 minutes of the film are worth the price of admission. But I'd tell friends to leave at the end of the first party. For me the balance of the film was a badly acted badly directed mess that made no earthly sense and made me never want to go near the book.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:03am

But at least the songs were arranged not to sound so modern in Moulin Rouge. Gatsby to me would've been one of the most perfect movies ever made if it weren't for its terribly innapropriate score.

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:48am

The songs in Moulin Rouge didn't sound modern ?

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:45am

Weirdly I was EXTREMELY bugged by the contemporaneity of the Moulin songs (Like a Virgin being one of the very worst!), whereas the hiphop-inflected soundtrack on Gatsby somehow felt excusable, even desirable, to inject a drug-addled shot of adrenaline into the partying scenes. (Other scenes were scored with much more respect for the period.) Maybe being forewarned that Jay Z was at work on the soundtrack gave me a heads up so hearing the actual score wasn't such a shock in the theater.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 9:35am

Someone, YES. I felt exactly the same way about Gatsby. Gorgeous and assaulting until we actually have to get into plot.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 9:49am

Hated it! Ewan = awful!

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 9:56am

Some of the Moulin Rouge songs didn't work (Rhythym of the Night, Like a Virgin, all the Sound of Music singing). I personally think the majority of them did. Nature Boy worked perfectly. El Tango de Roxanne was perfect. The Show Must Go On was chilling. The small inclusion of Smells Like Teen Spirit was brilliant, having these leering, hungry patrons sing, "Here we are now! Entertain us!"

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 9:58am

I love every second of Moulin Rouge. The energy, music, costumes, colors, visuals, cast...I thought it was unique, clever and sumptuous. I was so pleasantly surprised by the film on opening night, I went back and saw it again the next day.

I have a friend who hates it with a passion. These things happen. I hate Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Updated On: 5/20/13 at 09:58 AM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:02am

Visually, Moulin Rouge and Gatsby are great. I guess I've got a thing for the grotesque. Luhrmann should direct Nightwood next.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:20am

Anyone who loves Moulin Rouge should see a Ken Russell movie. See how it's SUPPOSED to be done.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:25am

The melodies of the songs remain, but the music itself doesn't feel so modern because of the way it's been arranged. Also unlike Gatsby, Moulin Rouge is a musical so the music is justified. The other one is not a musical, but a period piece so the music was waaaay out of place.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:28am

I liked MOULIN ROUGE a lot -- a big wackadoo extravaganza that managed to be really entertaining and really involving. I can't quite bring myself to work up much interest in GATSBY, largely because I've come to find the novel to be such a sham.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:46am

Anyone who loves Moulin Rouge should see a Ken Russell movie. See how it's SUPPOSED to be done.

I've seen several Ken Russell movies and liked very few. I can think of several Ken Russell films I'm glad Moulin Rouge did not resemble, starting with Tommy.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:54am

To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Luhrmann has yet to have one of his leading ladies bathe orgiastically in baked beans and chocolate sauce as Mr. Russell got Ann-Margret to do in TOMMY.

And Ms. Margret gave it her all, and bathed and writhed and even climbed all over a big old phallic pillow, and you've got to respect her for going full out in the silliness. Respect Ann-Margret, man. She deserves it.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 10:55am

I tried to sit through Moulin Rouge. I tried very hard. I even got up and bought some popcorn, thinking that could keep me in my seat but 20 minutes is all I could muster. What the problem was - I couldn't bear the sound of Ewan McGregor's singing voice, and it was constant. Loud and constant. After a while I decided I didn't have to be subjected to it and left.

Plus- I wasn't a fan of Baz to begin with but I was giving it a chance.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 11:41am

Roscoe, I have mixed feelings about Gatsby (the book.) Yes, it's very good and I respect it, but I just think there isn't much to it.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 11:56am

Moulin Rouge! I love it. All of it. The singing, the dancing, the acting. I can forgive the cliched story because that's what we're told to expect. Its a story about love and lost, told with flair and fancy.

I'm always left with, "Did that happen or not?" I think Ewan is a very good actor and an honorable narrator. Since he's the one telling the story, we believe it 100%.

Just my take.

The same could be said for GATSBY. By using the same convention, its up to us to distinguish fact from fiction. Both stories, and what I mean is plot, are very similar. Love triangles. Baz loves them. The only difference is Gatsby is more Hamlet than Ewan's Christian.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:04pm

Not seeing that there are any "real or not?" gimmicks going on in GATSBY the novel. Is it a feature of the film?

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:14pm

Not really. It's only in the party scenes when Nick is drunk that we see things happening and wonder how much of it is real.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 12:19pm

Its not really a gimmick, but because Nick is telling a story, is it 100% honest? Do we believe, knowing that he's in an institution, that he's telling the truth?

What makes Nick and Christian reliable narrators?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:23pm

Respect Ann-Margret, man. She deserves it.

Yessir! I wholeheartedly agree!!

Now back to...what were you guys talkin' 'bout?

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 1:29pm

"Do we believe, knowing that he's in an institution, that he's telling the truth?"

Nick's in an institution? I don't remember that. Of course, there's always the issue of a first-person narrator coloring the narrative, but I don't think Fitzgerald is playing any M. Night Shyamalan games.