DVD Movie Rating for: Moulin Rouge

5 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Moulin Rouge

Christian, a young wannabe Bohemian poet living in 1899 Paris, defies his father by joining the colorfully diverse clique inhabiting the dark, fantastical underworld of Paris' now legendary Moulin Rouge. In this seedy but glamorous haven of sex, drugs and newly-discovered electricity, the poet-innocent finds himself plunged into a passionate but ultimately tragic love affair with Satine, the club's highest paid star and the city's most famous courtesan. Their romance is played out against the infamous club - a meeting place of high life and low, where slumming aristocrats and the fashionably rich mingled with workers, artists, Bohemians, actresses and courtesans.

DVD Production Details of: Moulin Rouge

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox

DVD Release Date: December 18, 2001
DVD Features:
Theatrical trailer(s)

Disc One:

Production commentary by director Baz Luhrmann, production designer Catherine Martin, and cinematographer Don McAlpine

Writing commentary by writers Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce

8 behind-the-scenes branches

Audio track for the visually impaired

Disc Two:

"The Making of Moulin Rouge" HBO special

5 "Star" featurettes: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh

The Story Is About...: interview with writers Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce; Craig Pearce reads early treatment; old storyline and script comparisons

The Cutting Room: interview with Baz Luhrmann and editor Jill Bilcock; unseen footage of abandoned edits (Come What May, Twice Across the Sky, Eidler's Rap, Outside It May Be Raining, Green Fairy Previsualisation); director's mock previsualisations

The Dance: A Word with Baz, Tango (extended & multicam), Hindi (extended), Can Can (extended & multicam), Coup d'Etat (extended & multicam)

The Music: The Musical Journey, interview with Fatboy Slim, The Lady Marmalade Phenomenon, Come What May

The Design: Interview with production designer and co-costume designer Catherine Martin, set design, interview with co-costume designer Angus Strathe, costume design, graphic design, smoke and mirrors

Marketing: International sizzle reel, photo gallery, the little red book, poster gallery, trailers, music promo spot, extended scenes & 4 re-cut dance sequences

Widescreen anamorphic format

DVD Easter Eggs

Easter Egg: 15 Eggs! Disc 2: On the first menu, highlight "The Cutting Room" and press Enter. Press the down arrow three times to highlight "Main Menu." Then press the left arrow button, and a red windmill will appear. Press Enter to see what appears to be an outtake of the scene where Ewan McGregor sings "Your Song" to Nicole Kidman. On the first menu, highlight "More" and press Enter. Press the down arrow four times to highlight "Back," then press the right arrow. A red fairy will appear. Press Enter to see Jim Broadbent in character as Zidler in what appears to be an outtake of him prancing around to the tune of "Cancan." On the first menu, highlight "More" and press Enter, leading to the second page of the main menu, where "The Dance" is highlighted. Press Enter, leading to another menu where "The Dance" is again highlighted, this time in red letters. Again press Enter, leading to a menu where "A Word from Baz" is highlighted in the upper left of the screen. Press the right arrow and a green fairy will appear. Then press Enter to see Baz Luhrmann, presumably at a rehearsal, apparently describing to some performers their motivation for the tango sequence. On the first menu, highlight "The Stars," press Enter and wait for the montage of shots of Kidman and McGregor to run to its end. You will be at a menu that has "Satine" on the left of the screen and "Christian" on the right. Press the button on the remote labeled 9, then press Enter. Next, you need to enter 17 on the remote. On some remotes, you can simply press the button on the remote labeled 1, followed by the button labeled 7. On other remotes, you may need to press some other key to indicate that you're entering a two-digit number. In any event, once you've entered 17 on the remote, press Enter (although some systems may not require Enter to be pressed here). You will see Luhrmann presiding over a farewell to McGregor, presumably when he has finished principal shooting. On the first menu, select "More," then on the second page of the main menu choose "The Design." Press the down arrow once to highlight "Set Design" and press Enter. Press the down arrow three times to highlight "Spectacular Spectacular" and press Enter. You'll see some instructions on the screen about pressing special buttons on the remote to navigate through the frames. Press twice the button recommended there to step forward and you will arrive at a screen containing the words "Spectacular Spectacular" set against a blue sky. Press the up arrow, and when a green fairy appears, press Enter. You will see Luhrmann claiming that he is about to reveal the magic of ADR. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Design." Press the down arrow three times to highlight "Costume Design" and press Enter. "A Courtesan's Wardrobe" will be highlighted." Press Enter. Press the button recommended to step forward four times. Then press the up arrow and when the green fairy appears, press Enter. You will see Kidman and McGregor in what appears to be an outtake where McGregor has a microphone problem. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Design." While looking at the screen that has "The Design!" in big red letters at the top, punch in the two-digit number 18 on the remote, then press Enter. Then enter the two-digit number 99 on the remote, then press Enter. You will see some bare nipples being dusted with something, presumably some sort of makeup. (But don't get your hopes up that you'll see something sexually provocative.) From the second page of the main menu, choose "Marketing." Press the down arrow to highlight "Photo Gallery," then press Enter. Press the down arrow to highlight "Mary Ellen Mark" and press the right arrow button. When the red windmill appears, press Enter to see John Leguizamo in some sort of a test. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Design." Then press the down arrow once and choose "Set Design." Again press the down arrow once and choose "The Gothic Tower." Press the button recommended to step forward five times. Press the up arrow, and when the red windmill appears, press Enter. You'll see Kidman in street clothes and wearing eyeglasses, apparently rehearsing for a scene. From the first page of the main menu, choose "The Story Is About ...." Highlight "3. Old Storylines & script comparisons" and press Enter. Then press the down arrow four times to highlight the word "return." Press the right arrow and when the green fairy appears, press Enter. You'll see Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce kidding around. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Design." Then press the down arrow three times and choose "Costume Design." Again press the down arrow twice and choose "The Bohemians." Press the button recommended to step forward five times. Press the up arrow, and when the red windmill appears, press Enter. You'll see McGregor, Leguizamo, and others in a kick line as "Cancan" plays in the background. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Design." Then press the down arrow five times and choose "Smoke and Mirrors." A screen will appear where "The Evolution of the Intro" is highlighted. Press the button on the remote labeled 5, then press Enter. Then punch in the two-digit number 18 on the remote, followed by Enter. You will seen how the scene in the movie when the formally attired men in the Moulin Rouge throw their top hats into the air is done. From the first page of the main menu, choose "The Stars." Wait for the montage of shots of Kidman and McGregor to run to its end, then highlight "More" and press Enter. You will be taken to a screen where "John Leguizamo as Toulouse Lautrec" is highlighted. Press the up arrow, and when the green fairy appears, press Enter. You will see what is presumably a costume test of Leguizamo dressed as a sitar. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Dance." From the next menu, choose "Choreography," which will take you to a menu that offers the choices "Interview," "Rehearsals," and "Main Menu." Press the down arrow twice to highlight "Main Menu." Then press the right arrow and when the red windmill appears, press Enter. You will see Luhrmann prancing around on the set, probably attempting to give some guidance as to how he would like certain movements to look. From the second page of the main menu, choose "The Music." From the next menu, choose "The Lady Marmalade Phenomenon." Then press the down arrow twice to highlight "Main Menu." Press the right arrow, and when the red windmill appears, press Enter to see Luhrmann and another man riding in an automobile.

Cast of the movie: Moulin Rouge

• Nicole Kidman .... Satine
• Ewan McGregor .... Christian
• John Leguizamo .... Toulouse Lautrec
• Jim Broadbent .... Harold Zidler
• Richard Roxburgh .... The Duke
• Garry McDonald .... The Doctor
• Jacek Koman .... The Unconscious Argentinean
• Matthew Whittet .... Satie
• Kerry Walker .... Marie
• Caroline O'Connor .... Nini Legs-in-the-Air
• Christine Anu .... Arabia
• Natalie Jackson Mendoza .... China Doll (as Natalie Mendoza)
• Lara Mulcahy .... Môme Fromage
• David Wenham .... Audrey
• Kylie Minogue .... The Green Fairy

Photo Gallery of the movie: Moulin Rouge

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Nicole Kidman Moulin Rouge Wallpapers

Nicole Kidman Moulin Rouge Photo Gallery

Reviews of the movie: Moulin Rouge

A dazzling and yet frequently maddening bid to bring the movie musical kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge bears no relation to the many previous films set in the famous Parisian nightclub. This may appear to be Paris in the 1890s, with can-can dancers, bohemian denizens like Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), and ribaldry at every turn, but it's really Luhrmann's pop-cultural wonderland. Everyone and everything is encouraged to shatter boundaries of time and texture, colliding and careening in a fast-cutting frenzy that thinks nothing of casting Elton John's "Your Song" 80 years before its time. Nothing is original in this kaleidoscopic, absinthe-inspired love tragedy--the words, the music, it's all been heard before. But when filtered through Luhrmann's love for pop songs and timeless showmanship, you're reminded of the cinema's power to renew itself while paying homage to its past.

Luhrmann's overall success with his third "red-curtain" extravaganza (following Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet) is wildly debatable: the scenario is simple to the point of silliness, and how can you appreciate choreography when it's been diced into hash by attention-deficit editing? Still, there's something genuine brewing between costars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (as, respectively, a poor writer and his unobtainable object of desire), and their vocal talents are impressive enough to match Luhrmann's orgy of extraordinary sets, costumes, and digital wizardry. The movie's novelty may wear thin, along with its shallow indulgence of a marketable soundtrack, but Luhrmann's inventiveness yields moments that border on ecstasy, when sound and vision point the way to a moribund genre's joyously welcomed revival.

Moulin Rouge is a shockingly creative and fascinating film about an original love story.
A film like this could VERY easily have been great, or at least much greater than it was. Consider what would have happened had they put in the time to come up with an original score that fit with the astronomical level of creativity and imagination that saturates every other element of the film - it may very well have been something as memorable as The Wizard of Oz or some of the truly great scores from film history, such as the Indiana Jones music or the Star Wars theme or any number of other great film soundtracks. But unfortunately, they decided instead to punctuate this incredible and beautiful film with covers of modern popular songs which have no business being in the movie in the first place.

First of all, before I begin to complain, I should mention that it is a testament to the quality of the film when something like this is unfortunately thrown in, yet the film as a whole manages to remain a wonderful cinematic experience, it's just too bad that there was so little effort put into such a pivotal thing as the score (especially in a musical romance like this), which could have put the movie over the threshold into the realm of the truly great films. Again, I would like to point out that the performances of the songs were beautiful and wonderfully entertaining, as well as brilliantly choreographed, but even this amazing presentation does not make up for the almost complete lack of any original musical content. There are a few original songs in the movie, but it's the modern ones that are not only unoriginal, but completely disruptive to the rest of the movie.

The story deals with an out of work writer in the year 1900 who goes to Paris to write his masterpiece and find true love. Once there, he finds himself stalled by writer's block, but soon finds himself whirled through a dizzying sequence of events that inadvertently send him on the way to accomplish the very goal that he set out for, although not in exactly the way that he had anticipated. This is where the originality comes in, as we are presented with a fascinating although initially superficial romantic plot which is enormously exaggerated but not beyond belief even for a moment. The Parisian night life that we are presented with is huge and glittery and rich and loud, and we are so enraptured by it that we don't doubt for a minute that this is exactly what the night life was like at the Moulin Rouge in 1900.

However, this brilliant story is also exactly where the movie begins to falter. True, this is almost surely a vastly exaggerated account of what nights were really like at the Moulin Rouge during this time, but it's so well presented that it is remarkably easy to believe. Unfortunately, we are periodically confused by performances of popular modern songs. Now, I can't say that I was altogether disappointed with all of these performances. Indeed, many of them were genuinely entertaining and well done (although I almost had to leave the room when The Police's `Roxanne' was belligerently performed), but they feel like speed bumps in the film. This is such an enjoyable and convincing film that it's horribly disappointing that they decided to throw songs like `Smells Like Teen Spirit' and that Whitney Houston song into the mix, almost mocking the audience for trying to enjoy the turn-of-the-century world that's presented.

Moulin Rouge is something of a strange phenomenon, then, because it is a truly great film that was brought down by the childish addition of modern music. There is no fathomable reason that a film that takes place in 1900 should contain these songs, even though they were quite often well done. It was interesting to learn that both Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor have wonderful singing voices, but the presentation of modern music does nothing but remove the audience from the world that we have been drawn into and remind us that we are watching a movie, and a movie that's trying to make a bad joke, at that.

There is no mystery as to why Moulin Rouge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture of 2001, but there is also no mystery as to why it didn't win that Oscar (and there is even LESS mystery on that subject when you've seen the other nominees, particularly A Beautiful Mind, the earth-quakingly good winner). Moulin Rouge in inarguably one of the best films released in 2001, but it was sadly held down by its soundtrack.

It should be noted, however, that the music in the film was beautifully done and that the performances were for the most part nearly as good as the rest of the film, but they are so incongruous with the content of the film that they can only count against it. A musical romance is so centered on the music in the film that if the music doesn't work for it, the film as a whole suffers, and it's too bad because Moulin Rouge could easily have fit in as one of cinematic history's truly groundbreaking and memorable films.