You were joking about Celine Dion, right?

Why is the idea of casting a french canadian singer into a musical set in France so bizarre? Casting an Australian actress in a musical set in France I find a bit bizarre.

Celine Dion toured Australia a few years ago. My wife and I saw her in Concert and everyone was saying 'What a voice...!' afterwards. She is awesome in concert.
http://www.celineonline.com/

My sister (who has worked in Canada) and my French-Canadian born French teacher have both told me that Canadians don't much like Celine Dion. That is probably due to the fact that they have been familiar with her since she was a teenager whereas her talents are new to Australians. Familiarity breeds contempt.

Had she been in Moulin Rouge the box office takings would have been even bigger in Australia. I rather think that songs such as 'Falling into you', 'If that's what it takes' and 'Treat her like a lady' would have worked well.

Putting great singers into Musicals seems logical to me.

Who can forget Barbara Streisand singing 'As time goes by' in What's Up Doc (One of my favourite films). Actually it strictly wasn't a musical but Barbara Streisand's musical number definently added some magic to the film.

Leave drama to the actors and musicals to the singers in my opinion.

cheers Peter

All the actors in Moulin Rouge sing their own parts, and very well in my humble opinion.

I wish 'Like A Virgin' was on the CD though...also, the instrumental in the credits is very good but sadly missing from the CD. Too bad...I still laugh myself silly everytime 'Like A Virgin' comes on.

Still doing very good business here. Click Here for Aussie Box Office Figures Finally, a movie which will make it to its minimum (8 weeks) and then go beyond that...

...unlike Pearl Harbor which will be flat out making it (albeit very unhealthily) to 7 weeks from a supposed 10 week minimum.

------------------
"If you think THIS is fantastic...wait until you see the full effect with the HIMP!"
- Chief Inspector Clouseau.

You think that they're overdoing the emotions in the beginning of the movie, but then you watch the rest of it & realize that those emotions have never been overdone so well.
As a music fan, I was personally entertained by all of the different songs that were transformed into one song. The "your song" montage & the entire first club segment are perfect examples (I never saw "Smells like Teen Spirit" coming up!)

My final impression of the film was that it was really original, it didn't fit into many Hollywood cliches, and it didn't sell out (except to the record companies...).
I might get this one on DVD, if not rent it for sure.

Also... the end credits have some really energetic music in them, I always enjoy listening to them through the monitor speaker!

Moulin Rouge has now overtaken Strictly Ballroom as the fourth highest money earning Australian film released in Australia. What Strictly took 41 weeks to do, Moulin has topped in only about 8 weeks.

Still going strong here...if only it had mirrored this result in the USA.

There are a lot of folks missing out on a fantastic piece of entertainment. If you haven't seen it...get out there and catch it before its gone.

Kismet actually has a better plot line, but suffered badly from slow pacing and some songs that were horrendous. Moulin had some songs that weren't great, but the pacing and constant references and visual texture kept nearly every second of the show entertaining. A never fail indicator for me of a good show is how full my bladder gets before I move out of my seat. This one was a bladder-buster, while with Pearl Harbor I was sucking down the Coke in hopes of having to get up.

During the frenetic sequences, I kept thinking of the Monty Python image animation (the spaceship animation in Life of Brian comes to mind) and thinking that this was the effect that the Python troup had been unsuccessfully trying to achieve. The support characters seemed like they just stepped out of Baron Munchausen or a warp drive theatre of the absurd.

The other effect beyond the freneticism that was notable for me was the Victorian thickness of the sets. So many movies pare the sets down to simple visual cliches that to see a background so lush as this was like walking into a garden after the desert of other film sets.

The use of all these elements successfully within a single film would be impressive enough, but to make it into a musical and make it work takes a vision and a willingness to innovate beyond the standard limits of the genre.

Peter had a comment that I found amazing..."Worst of all - there was no happy ending! Musicals are meant to be upbeat and in my humble opinion the best musicals have happy ending."

Cover your ears Peter. <rant mode>
I am SO sick of predictable happy endings and completely resolved plots that I could puke. I don't know when the studio executives set down a hard and fast rule that every film had to end happily, but such thinking has ruined more films, plots, and scripts than I can count.

I'm trying to imagine how the happy ending to the film would be accomplished. <satire> Instead of dying of consumption, she could have coughed up a huge booger and done a little dance, or Pastuer could have appeared in the last act with a huge syringe of penicillin aimed for her butt. While he was racing around he could give a shot to Carmen as well and fix yet another musical.</satire>

Film can work well and make money with a sad ending. Peter is too young to remember the hoards of sobbing customers exiting "Love Story." I only hope that more directors will use non-standard endings so that I go to the theatre once again with that heady suspense of not knowing how things will end. </rant mode>

My view is that if a person can watch the movie.. and say that he/she likes it after seeing the "Green Fairy" scene... then they will like the rest of the movie.

One cinematic effect that I liked, was the use of very small clips from later in the movie to add to the drama of the current scene. I would have to agree with one person's post on the minute speeding up, or deletion of frames during the beginning Diamond Dog's song was an amazing touch.

I couldn't catch any consistency errors either; but with any film.. I'm sure there were some. Anyone see any? And no... the scene were Lilly states, "This ending is silly, why would the courtesan choose the penniless writer..." The cut after that, where they finish the song is a later rehearsal.. the chairs are removed from the back.. and Lilly and the other courtesans are up on the stage.

But then again.. why criticize perfection =)

PS: This is my first post... good to meet you all.

I haven't heard any reviews that have said it was just ok. People either love it or hate it.

cheers Peter

Fast editing. Just say No!

~GLB