Moulin Rouge at 20

Moulin Rouge is a strange one. Usually I'm all over weird and wonderful musicals, the stranger the better. Some of my all time favourite films are musicals that redefine what it means to be "odd" like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and The Angry Inch. These films are transgressive and always push the barrier of what cinema can do, regardless of budget.

Despite Moulin Rouge being one of the most iconic movie musicals of all time, the concept has never really appealed to me mostly due to its lack of original songs. Surprisingly, the first time I was exposed to the film's show stopping ballad was through another musical with no original songs, the TV show Glee.

20 years since it's original release, Moulin Rouge has developed a cult following not unlike the previously mentioned musicals I enjoy so much. Based on a strange mix of three operas and directed by Baz Luhrmann (Best known for Romeo + Juliet) the film is all set out to be a tragic, romantic epic... I was not expecting it to be so weird!

Set in a postmodern, steampunk French nightclub, Moulin Rouge follows the story of Christian, a love obsessed writer desperate to join the bohemian art movement. When a mixup puts him in contact with a beautiful courtesan, Christian is spellbound. Him and Satine embark on an epic and doomed romance under the noses of the morally ambiguous nightclub owner and a jealous Duke that Satine also coverts.

While this all sounds very dramatic the first half of the film feels more like a zainey comedy with frantic editing, Tom and Jerry-like setups and sped up sequences which I half expected the Benny Hill theme to start playing over (They used "Like a Virgin" I don't see how that's much more of a stretch).

While I didn't go into the film expecting to love it, I was surprised at how much I disliked the first hour of the film. I've been wracking my brain to try and figure out why a film like Hedwig can be as weird as it wants but I find it off-putting in Moulin Rouge and I think the answer is budget.

Moulin Rouge looks expensive. From the glitzy costumes to the incredible set pieces, it is a brilliant spectacle. Because of this the wild editing and strange shot choices seemed overboard and garish to me. I wanted to marvel at the opulence not be rushed into an SNL sketch. I enjoyed myself a lot more during the second half when the film slows down and takes its time lingering on characters and the environment. "Come what may" is a great musical showstopper but the songs I enjoyed the most were "Roxanne" and Queen's "The Show Must Go On" because here things seemed to fall more solidly into place. I felt the drama, the jealousy and was intrigued to see where it would lead.

I think another reason I didn't vibe with this film as much as others is the style of the time. There is a distinctive change in filmmaking style from the 90's to the early 2000's and I don't think any film encapsulates that quite like Moulin Rouge. From the very first scene the CG tracking shots through Paris tells you this is an early 2000's film and it continues to assault you with it's 00's-ness from beginning to end from its use of shock humour and framing of female characters to whatever they put on Ewan McGregor's voice. I think I have finally discovered my camp limit. It's Moulin Rouge, Moulin Rouge is my camp limit.

So is there anything here that I liked?

Yes, in isolation there is a lot here that I thought worked well. The set design and props for example are incredible. I love the steampunk aesthetic it has and the attention to detail is wonderful when the camera rests long enough for you to enjoy it. An advantage to the film's budget is it's sense of scale. This feels like a huge, epic film in line with the operas it's based off.

I also enjoyed the performances of the two leads. There's a reason why this film is iconic and I think most of it is what Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman do with the material they're given. I believed the romance and enjoyed their chemistry. I'm not usually one for soppy romances, especially not ones we know from the very beginning are doomed to fail but I felt like it was well handled here. The over the top-ness of the film does help to sell the slightly insane plot, although I can't tell if the films abundance of Madonna helps or hinders this.

I don't think I like Moulin Rouge but I don't hate it either. In many ways it fascinates me since its choices seem so odd. I understand why it has reached the level of cult status that it has but it feels like it's trying too hard to achieve cult status if you catch my drift.

The weirdness of other cult films and musicals is usually more down to necessity, to cover gaps in the budget with strange visuals or to tell an unusual story. Moulin Rouge seems like a film desperately trying to be weird with a plot that's incredibly pedestrian. It doesn't feel like organic weirdness and the film is at its best when it embraces what it actually is.

It's a film I can see myself returning to but not with the fondness I return to others with, more a morbid curiosity.