There is a line from Moulin Rouge!, both the 2001 movie and its 2019 Broadway musical adaptation, that has stuck with me: “The Moulin Rouge is my home.” When Nicole Kidman’s Satine says it in the movie, it is a stone-cold declaration that this is the way things are, and running away with her love is impossible. When Satine says it in the musical, it is an affirmation of her identity as part of the outcast collective who inhabit the nightclub.
The stage version is much more concerned with the relative safe haven of the Moulin Rouge, but the star-crossed love story of the movie still thrives off the location’s essence. And really, despite all the obvious reasons we wouldn’t want to live in France in the year 1900, being immersed in the atmosphere of a Baz Luhrmann movie like Romeo + Juliet or Moulin Rouge! for a few hours would likely be revelatory.
2026 marks the 25th anniversary of Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (prompting Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor to present Best Picture at this past Academy Awards), the jukebox musical about a romance-obsessed writer who moves to Paris and falls in love with the headliner of the iconic nightclub. Today, it’s still a mind-blowing masterclass in psychedelic vibes and capturing the euphoria of being in love.
Moulin Rouge! Is A Dream You Don’t Want To Wake Up From
Moulin Rouge is straightforward in concept, but you can’t deny that the team ran wild once they had the framework. It’s fun to watch, fun to sing along to, and fun to imagine being a part of, with the backbone of a classic love story and surprising depths to uncover every time you rewatch it. The fast roulette wheel that takes us from “The Hills Are Alive” to “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” to “El tango de Roxanne” is absolutely exhilarating.
In Luhrmann’s signature style, the editing is working overtime to create the chaotic haze of the world, with rapid-fire cuts starting before Christian (McGregor) initially goes to the Moulin Rouge and the “Diamond Dogs” take the floor to the sounds of “Lady Marmalade.” The flashy production design, with grandiose staging and occasional segues into theatrical cutouts, highlights every musical number in turn while being continuously essential to this atmospheric experience.
There are admittedly some uncomfortably outdated elements, like the overtly orientalist setting of Christian’s play (which was replaced with a generic French backdrop for Broadway). Meanwhile, McGregor and Kidman are more than pulling their weight as the lovers, while Richard Roxburgh is funny and pathetic yet terrifying as the evil Duke, and Jim Broadbent steals the show as the club’s Master of Ceremonies, Harold Zidler.
While the bohemians tout their ideals of freedom, beauty, truth, and love, the movie indulgently expresses the same sentiments through its set pieces and groundbreaking, once-radical lyrics. However, Moulin Rouge is a tragedy and framed that way from the start, meaning its protagonists will never have to reckon with the real world or the fact that their love may be fleeting. It is less a story about love winning than the belief in love winning.
Moulin Rouge! IS A Love Song, And A More Complex One Than You Think
Moulin Rouge‘s developing plot, parallel to the fictional story Christian is writing for a play Satine is set to star in, has a tongue-in-cheek quality that even the characters think is obvious. Yet, more fascinatingly, the play-within-a-play structure means they are literally scripting the scenario that will test their own convictions. Satine has dreamed of freedom for most of her life, which could be achieved through the Duke’s patronage of her legitimate acting career.
Her yearning for independence gets its own rapturous moments that strengthen the conflict: “Someday I’ll Fly Away” is as grandly presented as the love songs. Additionally, the script rhapsodizes how Satine’s business is the performance of love, and while the Duke is a monster, he can internally justify his rage because Satine made him believe her love.
But naive, idealistic Christian shakes the foundations of Satine’s worldview with genuine displays of affection, cutting straight through the scene’s tone (and her attempt at seducing him) with the first words of “Your Song.” The song selections naturally fit the story, but their original covers enhance it further, the bombastic rendition of “Your Song” being a perfect, gorgeous example.
Some other high points: The “Elephant Love Melody” has several moments where feelings are literally bursting with belted vocals, while “El tango de Roxanne” is magnetizing with its dark crescendo, intense staccato, and shadowy setting. As pressure mounts due to the Duke’s jealousy and Satine’s illness, “The Show Must Go On,” bitter and epic, reflects the need for the courtesan performances and the literal show to hold together just a while longer.
Using some of the greatest lyrics from the 20th century and dazzling aesthetics, we get a story about the wild joy of falling in love, and the ultimate victory is that the characters choose love despite legitimate reasons not to. Importantly, more cynical and grounded rom-coms still only work because their characters also, in the end, believe in love.
Moulin Rouge! is available to rent or purchase on VOD platforms.
- Release Date
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May 18, 2001
- Runtime
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128 minutes
- Writers
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Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce