Ten Most Influential Films - No.7
No.7
MOULIN ROUGE!
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh
I remember that in sometime in mid 2001, Moulin Rouge was one of the movies that I listed as a "MUST WATCH". It's something like how I've been rambling about how I must watch Sin City this year (I did last Saturday!)... though at the time it was mostly because Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman is in it. McGregor because he impressed me in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (Yes, I like the show) in 2000, and I have since made it a point to catch as many of his movies as possible; Kidman because she has been one of my favorite actresses since the days of Batman Forever. So it was purely based on this star power that I wanted to watch Moulin Rouge.
And my word, did it blow me away.
Now, I don't have anything against musicals. I love the likes of The Sound of Music (which gets due recognition in Moulin Rouge), Mary Poppins bla bla bla. I just don't always watch it for fun, for some reason I am not sure of how to explain. Anyway, Moulin Rouge takes the musical genre in a completely different direction, by fusing contemporary pop music with well known musical pieces from the old days. Credit is due to composer Craig Armstrong, who masterfully weaved all the themes from the many eras and adding his own touch of composition into a brilliant collage of songs.
In Monash, one of the things that I've overheard and overlearnt is the term "intertextuality", which means that a media text (film, ads, storybooks) is an inter-text of something else, whether we realize it or not. Everything is inspired by something else at some level, so on and so forth. I won't indulge in this or it'll sound like nerd talk. Ask me again sometime and maybe I'll bother explaining. Anyway, Moulin Rouge blantantly employs intertextuality in a meteoric fashion to a meteoric effect. Think of Shrek, where we all laugh at the references made to other films. Same goes for Moulin Rouge, musically.
I was wowed not only by the music, but by the romance as well. I know the movie is about prostitution, sexual love and a lot of all that sort of thing. But the underlying theme of an almost unconditional love, of that pure, intense, burning passion to share that love with whoever is it that you're in love with.
Christian (Ewan McGregor) woos Satine (Nicole Kidman) in their first meeting with Toulouse (John Leguizamo) peeking away.
Love is a many splendoured thing! Love lifts us up to where we belong! All you need is love... all you need is love... all you need is love....................................................... I was made for loving you baby you were made for loving me...
Those of you who are more familiar with all sorts of songs will see that the above two or three lines of lyrics already contain songs from two or three different places. Anyway, the performance of "Elephant Love Medley", where Christian (McGregor) woos Satine (Kidman) was just so. Argh.
Then there's "Come What May", which was pretty much my personal theme song for over a year. Mostly because I was a naive little boy idealistically and madly in love at the time, and that song was what I felt represented everything that I was. Bleh.
I was a small boy then ok, though I won't deny that it's one of the factors why it has been influential. After all, histories do not leave us, whether we choose to or not. It's whether we bury it and let is be forgotten, or let it turn to ghosts that haunt us in our sleep, or celebrate it as part and parcel of life, or just let it go by the way most other things do. This, Moulin Rouge, is something I choose to let it just go by. In fact, sometimes I choose to celebrate that. I remember all my friends were irritated at me for repeating the line "Love is a many splendoured thing" over and over again.
And that sort of enthusiasm I sometimes miss.
The level of fanaticism shown towards Moulin Rouge was close to drowning out any remembrance of me and the Force. I was that in love with the movie.
Nicole Kidman sends the men Moulin Rouge into a trance with her entrancing performance "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"
Ok back to the movie itself. Other than the songs, Moulin Rouge was a visual feast! The misc-en-scene of every frame, every set, was so compelling in its static appearance itself the film would have been a good museum of quality art itself, had it not been populated with actors and actresses.
The detail given to every room, every chair, every prop was so delicately busy and jumbled, yet effective. It captured the mood of the Bohemian era, where freedom, truth, something else, and love swept through the land. The busi-ness of each set reminds us so much of a society that went to 5th gear in expressing and experiencing everything there is to experience in life, whether necessary or right. The sets achieve that "everything goes, and it doesn't matter if we need it or not" effect with its China-like population of props, colors, trinklets, curtains, visual effects and so on and so forth.
The movie ends with a final blast of Come What May, performed in the theater of Moulin Rouge
Rightly so, it was awarded for best costume design and art direction/set decoration in the following year's Academy Awards (beating Lord of the Rings, which many already say have the most detailed and amazing sets in recent years).
It's one of those movies that I've watched over and over again since its release up till today, for it reminds me of so much during my pre-university days. Romance, companionship, and a mind blowing cinematic experience helps Moulin Rouge make its mark in my head.
*
Quotes from the movie
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return..."
"Love is like oxygen, love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love!"
MOULIN ROUGE!
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh
I remember that in sometime in mid 2001, Moulin Rouge was one of the movies that I listed as a "MUST WATCH". It's something like how I've been rambling about how I must watch Sin City this year (I did last Saturday!)... though at the time it was mostly because Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman is in it. McGregor because he impressed me in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (Yes, I like the show) in 2000, and I have since made it a point to catch as many of his movies as possible; Kidman because she has been one of my favorite actresses since the days of Batman Forever. So it was purely based on this star power that I wanted to watch Moulin Rouge.
And my word, did it blow me away.
Now, I don't have anything against musicals. I love the likes of The Sound of Music (which gets due recognition in Moulin Rouge), Mary Poppins bla bla bla. I just don't always watch it for fun, for some reason I am not sure of how to explain. Anyway, Moulin Rouge takes the musical genre in a completely different direction, by fusing contemporary pop music with well known musical pieces from the old days. Credit is due to composer Craig Armstrong, who masterfully weaved all the themes from the many eras and adding his own touch of composition into a brilliant collage of songs.
In Monash, one of the things that I've overheard and overlearnt is the term "intertextuality", which means that a media text (film, ads, storybooks) is an inter-text of something else, whether we realize it or not. Everything is inspired by something else at some level, so on and so forth. I won't indulge in this or it'll sound like nerd talk. Ask me again sometime and maybe I'll bother explaining. Anyway, Moulin Rouge blantantly employs intertextuality in a meteoric fashion to a meteoric effect. Think of Shrek, where we all laugh at the references made to other films. Same goes for Moulin Rouge, musically.
I was wowed not only by the music, but by the romance as well. I know the movie is about prostitution, sexual love and a lot of all that sort of thing. But the underlying theme of an almost unconditional love, of that pure, intense, burning passion to share that love with whoever is it that you're in love with.
Christian (Ewan McGregor) woos Satine (Nicole Kidman) in their first meeting with Toulouse (John Leguizamo) peeking away.
Love is a many splendoured thing! Love lifts us up to where we belong! All you need is love... all you need is love... all you need is love....................................................... I was made for loving you baby you were made for loving me...
Those of you who are more familiar with all sorts of songs will see that the above two or three lines of lyrics already contain songs from two or three different places. Anyway, the performance of "Elephant Love Medley", where Christian (McGregor) woos Satine (Kidman) was just so. Argh.
Then there's "Come What May", which was pretty much my personal theme song for over a year. Mostly because I was a naive little boy idealistically and madly in love at the time, and that song was what I felt represented everything that I was. Bleh.
I was a small boy then ok, though I won't deny that it's one of the factors why it has been influential. After all, histories do not leave us, whether we choose to or not. It's whether we bury it and let is be forgotten, or let it turn to ghosts that haunt us in our sleep, or celebrate it as part and parcel of life, or just let it go by the way most other things do. This, Moulin Rouge, is something I choose to let it just go by. In fact, sometimes I choose to celebrate that. I remember all my friends were irritated at me for repeating the line "Love is a many splendoured thing" over and over again.
And that sort of enthusiasm I sometimes miss.
The level of fanaticism shown towards Moulin Rouge was close to drowning out any remembrance of me and the Force. I was that in love with the movie.
Nicole Kidman sends the men Moulin Rouge into a trance with her entrancing performance "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"
Ok back to the movie itself. Other than the songs, Moulin Rouge was a visual feast! The misc-en-scene of every frame, every set, was so compelling in its static appearance itself the film would have been a good museum of quality art itself, had it not been populated with actors and actresses.
The detail given to every room, every chair, every prop was so delicately busy and jumbled, yet effective. It captured the mood of the Bohemian era, where freedom, truth, something else, and love swept through the land. The busi-ness of each set reminds us so much of a society that went to 5th gear in expressing and experiencing everything there is to experience in life, whether necessary or right. The sets achieve that "everything goes, and it doesn't matter if we need it or not" effect with its China-like population of props, colors, trinklets, curtains, visual effects and so on and so forth.
The movie ends with a final blast of Come What May, performed in the theater of Moulin Rouge
Rightly so, it was awarded for best costume design and art direction/set decoration in the following year's Academy Awards (beating Lord of the Rings, which many already say have the most detailed and amazing sets in recent years).
It's one of those movies that I've watched over and over again since its release up till today, for it reminds me of so much during my pre-university days. Romance, companionship, and a mind blowing cinematic experience helps Moulin Rouge make its mark in my head.
*
Quotes from the movie
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return..."
"Love is like oxygen, love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love!"
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