I realized from the get-go that this film was a derivative, a mix of other earlier films and songs, and I appreciated it in that way. Looking more closely, I wonder if the subtitle shouldn't be "Shakespere in Love meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show"

Consider the similarities of ML and SIL:

The lead is a young writer.
There is a play within the movie.
The setting is a major European city.
The love of the lead characters is thwarted at the end.
The female lead is "betrothed" to a noble.
The noble is cuckolded and made to appear foolish and vain.
The bulk of the active women are portrayed as whores.
The owner of the stage is portrayed as an overextended impressario.
There is a character used mainly to expose the lovers.
At the last moment, the integrity of the opening night performance is thrown into doubt.
The similarities go on, but you can see my point with the above examples.

Now imagine:
Frankenfurter as the Impressario.
Janet in Nicole Kidman's role.
Brad becomes the young writer
The Tango becomes the Time Warp
The Castle becomes the Moulin Rouge

All this, and the film still works as a straight romantic story.

Three Golden Globes says it all..!!!

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Moulin Rouge is one of those weird films that many people (myself included, just check the first page of this thread) absolutely HATED. Yet upon a second viewing, and moreso with a third, the magic starts to come out.

I am therefore changing my review of this movie to a big thumbs up. While I still feel the first reel is too spastic, this is one of those weird films that really does require a second viewing. I am apparently not the only person out there who required a second viewing to enjoy this film. I now know of a half dozen other people who like the film after my insistence of them watching it again.

The check's in the mail.

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"It's not the years honey, it's the amount of time it takes people to realize that Moulin Rouge is the best movie to come out in absolutely years."

- Indiana (Tango) Jones.

I truly believe that in 20 years, this will be the film that is remembered as the truly influential film from whatever we are going to call this decade (the zeros?, the nothings?, the naughts?...sure a lot harder that the eighties or nineties!).

I love the way Baz slams the viewer around. There is a promo piece on AMC I stumbled across this week, and he points out the jarring cut in LIKE A VIRGIN where it cuts to Satine being injected. That was deliberately placed there to make the audience aware of just how ill Satine is.

I have another theory about why I liked the film more the second time...I call it the SISKEL-EBERT effect, and it was most noticeable in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Many years ago, back in the PBS days, Gene and Roger posed that the true mark of a good film was that the audience truly cares about the characters. In the original LITTLE SHOP musical, both Audrey and Seymour are so likeable, and the audience cares so much about the relationship, that we are let down at the end when they die (original version). Test audiences hated the ending so much that a new, happier ending was shot.

I so liked the relationship between Satine and Christian that I was very let down at the end. I didn't want her to die. I cared about them. I later viewings, I know she is going to die, I accept that, and just let the beauty of the film flow.

My favorite parts of the film are the DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND number (love a good big band!), and the amazing LIKE A VIRGIN. Mixing Madonna with Hello Dolly was almost more than I could take...best laugh I've had in a LONG time.

One side note...there are reports on many of the DVD boards of the DTS track being slightly out of sync. I just got a new DVD player with DTS, and I notice a very slight lag through much of the film. Anyone else notice this?

I agree that "Moulin Rouge" would have been a good candidate for making a few dozen 70mm prints. The image quality is superb!

Oscar nominations.......

Best Picture:
Actress:
Art Direction:
Cinematography:
Sound:
Costume:
Film Editing:
Makeup:

That makes 8.

Last night on Ally McBeal the baby sitter got fired, because she didn't like Moulin Rouge.

Had a good laugh about the babysitter thing. It's spooky you know...I've thought about doing that myself. Of course it's hard though as I can't seem to find a babysitter who doesn't like Moulin Rouge!

Best Picture at the Producer's Guild awards...

From BBC News
>>Hit musical Moulin Rouge has received a boost for its Oscar hopes with the award of a prize from the Producers Guild of America.
The Baz Luhrmann-directed film, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, was named the best film of the year.

In the last 12 years nine movies honoured by the Producers' Guild have gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards - including Gladiator in 2001 and American Beauty in 2000.

The PGA predicted Gladiator's Oscar success

The boost for the musical may have come at a good time, as Baz Luhrmann was not nominated for an Academy Award for direction.

Many observers have started to see the Oscars as a race between top-nominated The Lord of the Rings and A Beautiful Mind - which received eight nominations, as did Moulin Rouge.

Oscar share

But the antics of A Beautiful Mind's star Russell Crowe after the UK's Baftas - when he berated a TV producer for editing out a poem he read out on accepting an award - may have damaged his Oscar prospects.

If Moulin Rouge is named best picture at the Oscars on 24 March, Luhrmann will still take a share in an Oscar as one of the movies' three producers, despite the lack of a director's nomination.

The film's other producers were Fred Baron and Martin Brown.

Kidman was the only Moulin Rouge actor to receive an Oscar nomination, following her January Golden Globe for her lead role in the film. <<

That is all..

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Come what may...

Great date movie.

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Is it getting another run anywhere leading up to this weekend's festivities?