User:Wildroot/Moulin Rouge!

Set at the turn of the 19th century in the Montmartre district of Paris, the film is a romantic tale about Christian, a poetry-spouting naïf (Mr. McGregor), who falls for a dazzling but thoroughly calculating dance hall courtesan named Satine (Ms. Kidman). Marius De Vries was the musical director. He helped produce the soundtrack and train Nicole Kidman.

Baz Luhrmann was inspired to write a musical following a 1993 visit to India. After being impressed with a Bollywood film, he wondered if he could tell a love story to same way Bollywood filmmakers do within a "Western vernacular. It's high comedy, high tragedy, then they break into song. You know? Moulin Rouge! is deeply influenced by that." While writing, he cited the myth of Orpheus in the underworld, as well as elements from The Factory clashing with contemporary celebrity culture. Luhrmann saw Moulin Rouge! as an opportunity to revive the musical film genre in Hollywood.

“In short, our plan was to borrow the game plan from classical rules of the Hollywood musical and reinterpret those rules in contemporary cinematic terms,” says Luhrmann. Certain rules of the genre could be adapted easily: like its musical film forebears, the movie sticks to a simple love story. The fun is in the telling, and it is here that “Moulin” departs from the golden age studio musicals.

Even before he could hire a choreographer for his newly constructed troupe, though, he had to secure the song rights to several modern classics. Making the process of obtaining music even more complicated was that “much of the music we used was written by people who are now dead and their songs are owned by very powerful music publishing companies.” After months of negotiations, which included personal visits to Elton John and Dolly Parton, the soundtrack was finally confirmed. Had to assemble a dance chorus. But that’s exactly what Luhrmann set out to do in his native Australia. With the infrastructure in place for filming, Luhrmann found new challenges, especially when star Nicole Kidman broke ribs and injured her knee during a dance number. The film ran slightly over its $45 million budget and missed its initial Christmas delivery date.

It was a decade ago and an ocean away when the two first worked together at a photo shoot for the Australian edition of Vogue. As guest editor, Mr. Luhrmann talked Ms. Kidman into posing for a series of black-and-white photographs in which she was costumed as legendary screen queens like Jean Harlow, Lillian Gish and Marlene Dietrich. All of the lushly produced portraits were shot over two days for almost no money at all. Moulin Rouge'' was made for a reported $50 million. Shot almost entirely at Fox Studios Australia. twice the production was shut down, when Mr. Luhrmann's father died of cancer on the first day of filming and when Ms. Kidman, 33, cracked a rib while rehearsing a particularly athletic dance routine. After the opening date was pushed six months forward from its original Christmas Day 2000 release, the move set off a flood of rumors that Mr. Luhrmann had a disaster on his hands. And now the female lead is in the midst of potentially messy proceedings in the divorce of her husband of 10 years, Tom Cruise.

McGregor had previously auditioned for Romeo and Juliet. McGregor remembered the training the most.

November 1999: Nicole Kidman suffered a broken rib filming a dance in 20th’s “Moulin Rouge” feature in Sydney. After a two week rest, she returned to work — only to suffer extreme pain. It was believed her condition was aggravated by the pic’s period corset costume. Although director Baz Luhrmann had been able to shoot around her, now the company has shut down awaiting her recovery and safe return. Meanwhile, the company has been put on force majeure.

"I realised then that it was going to be a journey. Nicole smashed her knee up and she had to go into another film which she then had to pull out of. Plus, we had to keep it quiet because of the insurance. "Every day the problems got worse. We built a 60ft elephant [a replica of the one in front of the Moulin Rouge at the turn of the century] but we were three weeks late and George Lucas was due to come in and shoot the Star Wars film. So he had to get a movie made and crush our elephant!"

A musical has not been nominated for an Academy Award in 20 years. “Moulin,” the most unconventional of the three, is proving the most broadly successful, ringing up $169 million at the box office worldwide and a steadily increasing number of awards. It also has demonstrated that life can be breathed back into the musical — a genre that was once a Hollywood staple but since relegated to the cinematic deep freeze. For example, “Moulin” uses hip-hop’s sampling technique, with Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and others making many of their musical points by reciting and singing singing snippets of many of the most familiar and timeless pop songs. “Audiences now can completely understand the idea of a sampled song,” says Luhrmann. “The entire film is made up both visually and musically of sampled ideas.” “Moulin” also trades the slow, seductive editing normally found in the opening of a classic musical for the quick cuts and breakneck pace more frequently found in pop videos and commercials. But once Kidman’s showgirl Satine enters, the film adopts many of the classical patterns of romantic comedy as it depicts the love affair at the center of the story, says Luhrmann.

Was the opening film at Cannes Film Festival 2001.


 * http://variety.com/2002/film/awards/versatile-martin-trips-the-light-fantastic-1117861199/