The story of Moulin Rouge! is a simple story about love. Specially, the story revolves around one young man’s dream to break out as an artist through his secretive relationship with a high ranking ‘entertainer’ named Satine. The only problem with this relationship is that Satine is torn between falling in love with Christian and needing to help the Moulin Rouge by exclusively seeing ‘The Duke’ (he’s not ‘A’ number one).
Moulin Rouge! is a spectacular film. Luhrmann put his heart and soul into this feature and what came out of it was a great love story. The movie works because of two methods: A. Music and B. Costumes and sets. Don’t get me wrong I think that Luhrmann’s choice of acting was top-notch, though a little unusual in places (I didn’t know that 300‘s David Wenham was in the film as jilted artist Audrey). The music makes the actors, in my opinion, as the film featured one of Britain’s top tunes, “Come What May, sung by Nicole Kidman and leading man Ewan McGregor. Both did a fantastic job with the music and the music sold really well because of this (but mainly the music made the moment).
Second to that, and a very close second, were the sets and costumes. What makes this movie really pleasurable to the eyes is how particularly well lit the sets were and how the depicted the turn of the century beautifully. The costumes also helped to reinforce this by showing the variety of colorful dance outfits and sensual sexiness of the Moulin Rouge. Working together, both elements really were that extra layer on the Moulin Rouge cake.
With all this said, the movie can be a bit too much at times, especially the first ten minutes. When I first watched the film it was really quite visually jarring. For example, you get a quick introduction to Christian and the rest of the crew in the span of five minutes. You see some ridiculous moments, which climax when the Moulin Rouge is introduced for the first time. Different types of shooting mixed with vividly colorful costumes play havoc on the senses. I knew that Luhrmann’s style was more of an ‘in your face’ introduction, as seen in his version of Romeo & Juliet. I still wasn’t use to such a method, but after a few minutes it all calmed down and the visual ride became a lot smoother. I can certainly see how this can turn someone off from the film, and possibly turned off the academy, but ultimately it fit the bill.
By the end of the film you’ll be weeping and wanting more from Luhrmann’s vision of turn-of-the-century Paris. Speaking of wanting more….
The Blu-ray portion of this is stunning. One thing you’ll find with Baz Luhrmann’s musical wonder is how incredibly well lit and colorful it is in HD. When I was watching this with my wife I was giddier at the visual possibilities of the film in high definition than the film itself. Originally it was packed beautifully with a colorful array of spectacular-spectacular moments, but it is amplified by the upscale to the Blu-ray format. For example, the opening scene where Satine is singing “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” will dazzle your visual senses, as they did the first go around. The sparkling dress and the blue tinted lighting will make you smile secretly, as it all shines perfectly on Blu-ray.
This type of film was made for Blu-ray.
Rivaling that is the audio, which is the main body of the film. You get a beautiful soundtrack mastered in DTS-HD. When you hear it booming through your receiver you’ll appreciate the fact that it’s on Blu-ray. The music is a big deal and 20th Century Fox shows you why in DTS-HD.
Finally, as for the features you’re going to see some things you’ve already seen. You get some good commentary, including PiP stuff. You get a great intro by Luhrmann and you get several things that you may or may not have seen. Some good stuff about Kidman’s vocal test, an alternate opening and some things that were cut from the film originally.
It’s overall a solid set of features, but mostly things you’ve seen before (which isn’t necessarily bad).