Moulin Rouge! (2001) Moulin Rouge (2001) is produced by Baz Luhrmann. This film won 2 Oscars and another sixty five wins and eighty three nominations. Stars: Nicole Kidman (Satine) and Ewan McGregor (Christian).
Although it is very difficult to speak about musical, Moulin Rouge was one of the few films that have made great impression on me. Musical is, probably, one of the most interesting genres of theatrical performance. It is the most conditional genre. Musical demands from the actors not only the art to play roles, but talents and skills to dance and sing.
The main idea of this kind of film is to entertain and amuse the audience. All so called classical style musicals, such as West Side Story (1961) or The Phantom of the Opera (1925 and 2004) are calm and, probably somewhat dull and gloomy examples of the musical. It seems that musicals have died as a genre. However, this one, Baz Luhrmanns Moulin Rouge, is the brightest example of reincarnation of this amazingly beautiful and fascinating style. During the first time, when I was watching the film, my first impression was that the performance is amazing, unforgettable, dramatic, impressing, unbelievable, and incredibly beautiful. Yes, it is beautiful and it is very impressive. I’ve never, never saw such amazing and wonderful visual display of emotions.
All my feelings relating to this film can be expressed using a superlative degree. However, even if you read these lines, the only way to understand and discover the magic world of Moulin Rouge is to watch it. No other words are able to express and to describe what was going on. This is really beyond description. This film has made my head turn with dancing the round dance of colors, sounds, images, scenes an incredibly pleasant feeling. Unfortunately, this impression doesn’t last long.
The Essay on History of Musical Films
By 1928, Hollywood was invaded by sound theater. Silent films made an honorable exit. Vaudeville was also being wiped out. It signaled a phenomenon Tinseltown was not quite prepared for. It was the time of sound facilities and infrastructures. Later on Broadway composers were hired to write screen musicals (“History of Musical Film”, 2004). The first picture to make a transition from silent film ...
It lasts only for the first twenty minutes. The tempo and pressure of emotions becomes somewhat slower and not so strong, however, it still captivates you from the very beginning to the very end of the film. Bright and beautiful, like a wing of a hummingbird, world of amazing colors makes way for the plot of the film and dialogues, which are consistently breaking into singing. Paris, year 1899. Young and naive poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) appears at Montmartre to write about love, freedom and other freedom- and ideal-like things. He gets acquainted with Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) and his friends, who are trying to stage a play.
To succeed, they need money and the actress, who will play the leading part. They think they will be able to borrow some money from The Duke (Richard Roxburgh) and decide to ask Satine (Nicole Kidman) to play the leading part. Satine is a courtesan from cabaret Moulin Rouge. The plot is quite simple – the Duke agrees to finance this adventure only in case Satine will be good to him. Christian and Satine fall in love with each other and quite a difficult choice between a poor poet and wealth and nobility should be done. Satine makes her choice and prefers the poet, although not from the very beginning.
However, when Satine dies, the death equalizes their positions. This is a classical sample of a film- music video. What concerns the music and songs, I should mention about them as well. Baz Luhrmann managed to do an interesting and original, and at the same time self-evident thing. Nothing was created especially for this film. No song or no poem were written specially for it.
Everything what one’s heart can desire, was already written and already created before. The director easily takes the most famous and popular songs and uses them to illustrate what is going on. If you are quite attentive, you will easily recognize them. For example, Lady Marmalade, Roxanne, Like a Virgin, The Show Must Go On,- and this is only what you can recognize immediately. Being a fan of music, sometimes I’ll not agree with such a selection of this musical mixture. For example, the director could avoid using one of the most influential songs of the 1990-ies (Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana) into the light and sweet Lady Marmalade.
The Term Paper on Indian Film Industry Bollywood
The entertainment industry in India has outperformed the economy and is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. However, it registered a moderate growth of over 6 per cent in 200.The industry is expected to grow from Rs. 166 billion (U.S. $ 3.45 billion) to Rs. 419 billion(U.S. $ 8.72 billion) by the year 2007. Film entertainment is the most popular form of entertainment and it is this ...
However, this was the directors choice. Stings song, Roxanne, is yet another song in Moulin Rouge, able to throw you off the track. This song impresses and makes the audience mad. Both in original version (by Sting) and when George Michael sings it, it is a low and sad musical composition. However, when you hear it in Moulin Rouge, the actor doesnt sing it in a low voice. Instead, it seems like he wails it in a violent and tragic howl.
It makes an unforgettable impression. It is a brilliant example of how one should demonstrate his feelings by singing a song. By the way, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are also singing, and I should say they sing quite well. In conclusion, I cannot avoid drawing a parallel between Moulin Rouge and another Luhrmanns film Romeo and Juliet. Why do I make it? Really, I was impressed by two main things. The first is that Luhrmann succeeded to provide the audience with completely original and new attempt to produce film on the basis of Shakespeare’s works.
Secondly, in fact it was the first film- musical video in the history of the modern cinema. Taking into consideration this fact, Moulin Rouge is a logical and clear-cut continuation of Luhrmanns strategy in film-making. Despite all the criticism the film may evoke, Moulin Rouge is not the film one can be recommended to watch. It is a “must see for everybody. Welcome to Moulin Rouge!.