Moulin Rouge!
Believe it or not, last Tuesday was the first time I saw Moulin Rouge! (2001).Wow.
This brought back my days in High School shows - particularly the heightened, stagey experience that you just didn't want to end.
For me, Moulin Rouge! is up there with Citizen Kane, The Third Man and The Wiz - films that took me to a different world, and eventually made me want to make films like them.
Interestingly, I don't include sci-fi films in this category, even though Star Wars and the Star Trek series certainly took me to other worlds - but they were still very naturalistic. Films like Moulin Rouge actually take you further.
The DVD edition of this was just fantastic in terms of special features. Director/writer Baz Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce talk about the origins of the story (though perhaps not in as much detail as I'd like) and throughout the docos and commentaries talk about their struggle to put spectacle in its place - beneath Story.
The only downer about Moulin Rouge was its down ending. For such a spectacular (Spectacular!) performance, you kind of want to go out with a bang. But in terms of the story - which I understand was based on the opera La Boheme - the sad ending fitted.
Just an amazing film; I hope I get to meet Baz Luhrmann one day to say thanks.
posted by Simon @ 12:06 pm
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