Starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, this 2001 Oscar-winning fantasy musical is a riot of costume and pageant. Proof that musical films are not a dead art, it's saturated in colour and underpinned by an extraordinary, booming soundtrack that mixes traditional and contemporary songs.
Set in 1899, McGregor plays Christian, a young English writer inspired by the French Bohemian movement. Moving to Paris, he starts mixing with the demimonde, including Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), and they persuade him to write a show for the legendary Moulin Rouge.
On approaching its owner, Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), Christian is mistaken for the Duke (Richard Roxburgh), to whom Zidler has promised the courtesan Satine (Kidman) in return for funding. When the pair meet, it is love at first sight and despite the Duke's dastardly attempts to woo her, they remain lovers. But she cannot escape marriage to the nobleman, unless fate intervenes...
Directed by Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge! loosely completes his trilogy - which started with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet. Luhrmann borrows the plot of La Boheme freely, but not to the detriment of the film. Kidman gives her role everything and was particularly deserving of her Oscar nomination. Both she and McGregor sang their own roles, and the film also offers Broadbent and Leguizamo a chance to show their talents.
Highly recommended.
Did you know? The diamond and platinum necklace that Kidman sports at one point is real. At $1m, it was made with 1,308 diamonds, weighing a total of 134 carats, and it's probably the most expensive piece of jewellery ever made for a film.
