Moulin Rouge! is the story of an English writer that falls in love with one of the performers at Moulin Rouge, a cabaret in Paris, France, known as the birthplace of modern can-can dance. The building is easily recognizable with its red windmill on its roof. The film is known for its over the top spectacles. The filmmakers wanted to express the same thrill and excitement that people in 1899 felt when at Moulin Rouge. Though the film is set in 1899, the movie has a very modern feel and it uses popular songs from the 20th century. This was done to appeal to a modern audience and to make the main character, Christian, appear ahead of his time as a writer and musician. Since the film uses modern music, it took nearly two years to secure all the rights to the songs.
The entire movie incorporates ideas of music, dance, theater, sex and modern thinking. The costumes in the film emphasize the sheer shock value and sensationalism of Moulin Rouge. The outfits were seductive, shocking, and considered scandalous at the time. The film introduces outfits that depict erotic stereotypes of french maids, schoolgirls, dominatrixes, cross dressers, baby dolls, and most notably, can-can girls. Nicole Kidman, who played Satine in the film, was fitted into a corset that was tightened so tight that she broke a rib trying to achieve an 18 inch waist. She also tore her knee cartilage and injured her ribs twice during the filming of the dance numbers.
During dance numbers within the film, the camera movement makes the audience dizzy. The camera is spun around at a fast pace in multiple parts of the movie, but it is mostly found in the dance numbers. As far as the lighting is concerned, they are extremely bright and a bit over the top. The idea here was to express the awe that people must have felt at the time when they saw these lights, since it was a fairly new thing at the time. Powerful green and blue lights are seen throughout the film. All of the film’s Paris was mostly computer generated. The digital creation was influenced by collages of Paris that were made before filming. Special effects in the film included the scene Christian is seen drinking absinthe. He hallucinates a green fairy that zooms across the scene and writes out words in green lettering.
Overall, most of the film seems over the top with its bright lights, fast camera movements and costumes, but that’s what makes it a great film to watch. It’s visually appealing and the story is engaging. Most of the information regarding the film was found in the site below: http://cinema.com/articles/407/moulin-rouge-production-notes.phtml
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