Studio executives summary / pitch
| | Baz
Luhrmann 1899 Moulin Rouge based love story, using mid-late 20th century music
to fill in the dialogue gaps.
You seen Romeo and Juliet? Easy money... |
Short plot
summary | |
Boy meets girl.
Girl is a prostitute. Girl and boy fall in love. Girl told to dump boy or he will
be killed by her 'owner' boss. Girl dies in petals. |
What our
panel of critics thought |
"The use
of Your Song will keep Elton John in flowers for another three months.""A
movie of delicious sound bites, but not one to be eaten whole in one sitting.""Not
a mainstream movie, an art house movie with lots of hype.""All
it needs is love.""Terribly
disappointing movie - I expected so much more after Romeo and Juliet. The music
used is familiar, and good, and this undoubtedly makes the film bearable. However,
in the 'Like a virgin' scene I wanted to run away, it is so embarrassing. In all
honesty this movie is just too much for this poor l'il country girl.""Woody
Allen's 'Everyone says I love you' was much better.""A
veritable cornucopia of hot new young talent trying too hard. A joy, always, to
hear Your Song, a trademark love song since it was written, however I objected
to the use of other people's songs to rescue an otherwise run of the mill plot.
And you can stick that pun up yer ass...""A
workmanlike movie with no heart.""Full
of youthful exuberance." |
Please
tell me the ending or whole plot if necessary
| | Ewan
McGregor plays Christian, a young man who falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman),
a performer in Moulin Rouge, Paris. In
highly stylized directing (a bit like a 1960's Batman meets expensive art house
flicks of the time) the story is told in song - hits such as Elton John's Your
Song and a couple of Madonna singles. The
Duke, who owns Moulin Rouge, wants to 'own' Satine a prostitute, but she has fallen
for Christian, our hero. They scheme to have time together but then the Duke decides
he wants exclusivity, threatening to kill Christian if the relationship continues. Ending:
Satine is shot dead during a performance after she kisses Christian. |
Quotable quotes (real) | |
"I will
always love you, ooooooo, I will always love you." "It's
a little bit funny, this feeling inside. I'm not one of those who can easily hide." |
If
a character from this film were to be asked on Oprah what would the heading of
the show be? |
Let's
talk to the stars of the show Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Starts: "Babes,
you both look great, and you can sing!" |
Does this
film stand up to rigorous reality testing? |
The
movie is very stylized. It is a musical without any of the warmth of, say, 'Everyone
says I love you', Woody Allen's musical out at the same time (set in modern day
Paris/New York) which also reuses other songs but is genuinely warm and funny. |
Other comments
| | A
truly disappointing movie. We loved Romeo and Juliet for its challenging adaptation,
however Moulin Rouge offers little new originality on top of this style (and,
of course, in Moulin Rouge, the story is not as strong). The
way it uses golden pop oldie popular songs undoubtedly is why this movie was not
avoided by the masses at the time of its release - this makes parts of it bearable.
However, the Like a virgin song is truly, wincingly, awful. The
DVD has lots of extras. Beware. A documentary on the movie looks good, the problem
is the movie itself just is too much (too challenging?). A pity. Perhaps we should
have been in art house mode for this movie, when, in fact, we were in mainstream
popcorn mode, a mistake. We
had a lot of goodwill towards Luhrmann after R and J, and he seems like a nice
bloke - get a better story next time, mate. | | | |