Still waiting for a Teppy report on Moulin Rouge. Double spaced in APA format, please.

Just watched it. So. There were some good things, and some bad things.

The good:

Ewan! The man was just incandescent. He knocked my socks off, and, in fact, was the only thing that kept me from disliking the film more than I like it.

[This is a sub-category of the Ewan factor]: I'm a sucker for a love story, but for reasons I mention below, the other aspects of the movie almost ruined the love story between Christian and Satine for me. However, due to Ewan lighting up the screen every freaking time he looked at Nicole Kidman, he managed to keep me invested in the love story all the way to the end.

The movie is, I'm pretty sure, the most visually stunning film I've ever seen. God, it was gorgeous all the way around -- the sets, the costumes, the makeup -- everything.

The bad:

Well, I can sum up most of my negative impressions about the film by saying -- I liked it better when it was the opera La Boheme, with a dash of Shakespeare in Love (the whole play-within-a-movie thing, which enables one character to declare love for another character, while the audience of the play thinks it's actually part of the play).

I don't know how other people felt about the music, but the contemporary music damn near ruined the movie for me. Hearing people in the year 1900 sing U2, Elton John, and the Beatles to each other (we will not even speak of Whitney Houston) absolutely yanked me out of the story. Every. Single. Time.

[Though, I will note, I liked the score a lot, as well as the non-contemporary music, particularly the can-can scene where they're pitching the play to the duke.]

Is it considered a musical? I can forgive a lot of outlandish things in a musical, and god knows they all burst into song a lot. But honestly, it felt to me like it wanted to be at least 4 different genres (musical, love story, fantasy, and farce). And I had a lot of trouble buying into the love story because of the farcical aspects of it. Was I supposed to be laughing? Crying? Sighing? Buying the soundtrack? For me, the mishmash of genres didn't work, and it almost made me turn off the VCR.

Overall:

I'm glad I rented it, and it was stunning to watch, and I have new Ewan-love. And I'm thankful that we have medicine for consumption these days.

I am Teppy re: "Moulin Rouge". I hated the modern songs, and "La Boheme" has better music.

Re: updated operas--I pissed some friends off very badly when I pointed out that "Rent" was "La Boheme." They'd been waxing rhapsodic over how original and hard-hitting and modern the play was.

I hated the modern songs

This was me the first time I saw the movie. The second time I saw it, I really loved the music and now I have it on my iPod.

Steph, you put into words very neatly what I didn't like about Moulin Rouge. It kept yanking my emotions from one place to another, til I didn't know how I was supposed to be feeling about it. I can handle combining musical, love story, and fantasy, but throwing farce and slapstick humor into any story that's meant to be taken seriously - like a love story - takes me too far out of the serious. It's like a guy proposing to you wearing a clown suit, down on one knee with the big shoes and all.

You're all wrong.

hugs Moulin Rouge tightly

I love Moulin Rouge. For me, it comes down to "awesome songs! Pretty costumes! EWAN!!!!SQUEE!!!!!!!" I liked the use of the modern music, but that's because I like rock opera and I liked the songs they used -- I wasn't looking for, like, a realistic portrait of 1899. It might have also helped that I knew about the modern music going in to it; I'm not sure how I would have felt if I had seen it without that expectation.

And Teppy, I don't know about official genres or whatever, but yes, I would consider it a musical.

I had no problem with the genre of music, but re-using known songs struck me as lazy. "I want to direct a musical! Oh, wait, that involves finding composers. Nah, I'll just ask a bunch of artists if I can use some of their songs instead. That'll be easier." I suppose he was making an artistic point of some sort, but I missed it.

I suppose he was making an artistic point of some sort, but I missed it.

Love songs are universal and timeless.

I suppose he was making an artistic point of some sort, but I missed it.

Love songs are universal and timeless.

I thought it was old and hackneyed plots never die.

Love songs are universal and timeless.

Yeah, pretty much, IIRC. I think I've had this discussion with either Hec or Paul, but it was a few years ago. Sort of an exploration into the sincerity of schlock.