^ Fair enough, but it gives me the felling of eating too many Reese’s pieces. Sick and not at all satisfied.
Right. I mean again, I’m not really defending his work as anything except for not easily dismissed. There’s lots of people who don’t like it, to be sure, but he’s not necessarily doing what he’s trying to be doing incorrectly.
And one way of looking at it is to compare Moulin Rouge to Cabaret, the latter of which I feel was aiming for something more serious than it is (particularly because it’s based off of a really shitty play that I’ve never liked) but has that same artifice and craziness… without that, well, absynthe tinge that shows that Moulin Rouge is willing to stick it in the absolute batty.
—PolarisDiB
Moulin Rouge would have made a fine Disneyland ride, but while the specticle may have been impressive, there was no sense of danger in the excess that made Cabaret so haunting.
The Great Gatsby needs that danger as well. It’s not just about wild parties and romance, which I fear is all Luhrmann is interested in about the adaptation (the 3D is a worrisome hint).
HOLY SHIT HUGE MISTAKE!
I meant CHICAGO not Cabaret! Cabaret is a damn fine piece of cinema with an even better stage show (especially as, over time, productions seem to be making it darker and darker).
—PolarisDiB
Yeah, now that’s a comparison is can get on board with. :)
Cabaret is really the only musical I like.
^ No, exactly, the three stageshow movies are perfect comparison. Cabaret is meaningful, dangerous, and haunting. Moulin Rouge taps into that type of show and cinema and revels in its excess and battiness, though it’s not particularly meaningful — it’s post-modern. Even in its use of pop music it’s sort of pointing out that that’s what composed musicals of the past but now the usage is particularly surreal. It’s more about the show itself than anything else. Chicago is a movie trying, like Moulin Rouge, to update the Cabaret style of excess and artifice into a new generation, but both lacks the haunting and dangerous qualities of Cabaret as well as a truly spontaneous adoration of the design elements of Moulin Rouge.
—PolarisDiB
Never really been a fan of Fosse’s film of CABARET, despite some fine elements and performances. I’ve never seen the connection between the ever-so-decadent sexual games between Sally and Brian etc. and the Rise Of The Nazis that the film seems so desperate to be making. A brilliant score and Fosse’s brilliant way with a musical number (Rob Marshall should be tied to a chair and forced to watch the opening number until he realizes the stupidity of his ways, burns every print of that misbegotten horror CHICAGO and swears off filmmaking forever) make it an entertaining enough movie, but I’ve always felt there’s a lot less than meets the eye.
Well I have to admit that Fosse’s movie is the worst ‘performance’ of Cabaret I’ve yet seen, though I think it’s a fine movie. The first performance I saw was pretty good at pointing out how the Nazis in some sense were the solution to some of the dysfunction and decadence shown in the movie, that Germany was in a self-destructive path that made the authoritarian Nazis seem beneficial, but that also at the same time that same decadence is what distracted that type of world from noticing the really bad stuff that was happening until they were beyond being victims of it. I did not feel that translated exactly to the movie as well, as the movie is somewhat more glamourous and nice to its characters. Then a later performance of Cabaret I saw decided to make more like Moulin Rouge in a sense that it just delighted in the ‘show’ more than anything, and in a way it worked better than the movie simply because it exaggerated so far as to the point of being surreal, at which point the Nazis’ entrance has a very sobering effect and you feel like you’ve been ambushed.
But still, I think the movie is quite good.
—PolarisDiB
Cabaret is really the only musical I like.
I think I might have to start disassociating myself from you.
^Unless I said my favorite musical was an REM musical!
Baz is one of the biggest hacks in the entire industry. I just can’t stand his films. They are just terrible, all of them!!
Does anyone here rate him? apart from Polaris?
I like Baz Luhrmann. I think the ’68 version is far superior to Romeo + Juliet, but I still enjoy it. And I think Moulin Rouge is beautiful, romantic, and fully accomplishes what it sets out to do. And I must admit to even liking Australia.
I’m not his biggest fan, but I do like him.
So, is this movie being pushed back until next summer?? Wasn’t too excited about it, but wouldn’t mind as much seeing it in summer for some reason.
Yeah it’s now coming out in Summer 2013
Glad it was this film and not Django…..
yes it is one of many WB releases pushed back:
Pic is the sixth that WB moved off the 2012 calendar, following “Gravity,” “Man of Steel,” “Jack the Giant Killer,” “Bullet to the Head” and, most recently, “Gangster Squad,” for which Variety first reported the studio was seeking distance from the Aurora, Colo., shootings. Meanwhile, Par moved “World War Z,” “Hansel and Gretel” and, just weeks before its release, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” into next year.
wonder what is going on over there.
PolarisDiB
Nah. Moulin Rouge has this hypersaturation Fantasia lacks. But tastes…
As for artifice, that’s another thing I think Luhrmann genuinely wants to portray, so I don’t hold it against him.
—PolarisDiB