MUBI

Moulin Rouge è un film particolare.
Dopo l’inizio apparentemente demenziale/kitsch (impressione dovuta al metodo di ripresa, a come si susseguono le scene e all’utilizzo di alcune canzoni note moderne), e la parte centrale che non brilla di originalità, però, scopriamo un mondo romantico dove gli ideali dell’amore e la giustizia devono affrontare la malvagità, la gelosia, l’egoismo. Non è di difficile lettura, e ciò è un pregio.
Notevole la performance della Kidman, che si cala alla perfezione nei panni della prostituta alla ricerca del successo, disposta a tutto per ottenerlo, che cambia improvvisamente, innamorandosi di uno scrittore squattrinato (Ewan McGregor).
Particolare, è la parola in cui si racchiude tutto il film. E’ un musical, quindi potrebbe non piacere ad alcuni, e partire svantaggiato… ma vale la pena di vederlo, anche solo per constatare quanto le opinioni varino da persona a persona.

While he may not be the next Kubrick, its hard to deny that director Baz Luhrmann is an exceedingly capable showman. He throws as many striking images on the screen as an audience can handle; sometimes at expense of story and character. Here, Luhrmann achieves what some may have thought impossible: constant cinematic exhilaration. While he has many weaknesses as a director, (namely his penchant toward melodrama and bombast) all of his cinematic traits meld together here to form a masterpiece that is essentially a glorious mish-mash of all aspects of 20-th century culture. Here you have the elements of classical opera, early stage melodrama, swooning love songs and the incessantly moving camera that seems to guide the MTV-generation through life put into a blender. While every inclination I have would regard this premise with hesitation, the result is positively intoxicating. A miracle of a movie!

Even as a fan of Rocky Horror, I just could not enjoy this film. Luhrmann certainly has a ‘unique’ flair, but is it a good one? He is obviously trying to be different, and compared to mainstream films, Its true, but his quirkiness just makes the movie seem really shallow compared to truly unique films. I don’t want to use the term pretentious, because by now its has truly lost its meaning and throwing it around makes me seem like a snob, but I could just see Luhrmann thinking he is so ‘unique’ and ‘ingenious’ whenever he added some unnecessary effect. At its core, I did enjoy the love story, and some of the songs were fun, but again, I just could not get past the films aesthetics and the sometimes forced quirkiness.