Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4045 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-05-03
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Danish, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Finnish, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Watching Baz Luhrmann's award-winning Moulin Rouge is a lot like falling in love. It is total immersion cinema and while you're experiencing it ("watching" is too passive a word) you can't imagine that cinema could be for anything else. In the harsh, objective post-viewing daylight Lurhmann's gaudy spectacular might seem like a triumph of glossy style over any genuine substance, but as the film unfolds Lurhmann subjects his audience to a such a barrage of overtly stylised music, dance, colour, design and human passion that the senses are overwhelmed and critical faculties put on hold for the duration.

The story is paper-thin, but that's hardly the point. Nicole Kidman's courtesan Satine falls for poor poet Ewan McGregor while pledged to a psychotic English Duke. The show goes on, of course, and we know it will end in tragedy--because that's the sort of story this is, and the only thing that makes it bearable is the knowledge that it's all just brilliant artifice. The third of Luhrman's "Red Curtain" trilogy (after Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet), Moulin Rouge reinvents musical cinema, acknowledging its debt to past masters like Vincente Minnelli (Gigi) and Michael Powell (The Red Shoes), but taking in the best of rock video along the way. The incessant MTV-style editing might seem like a distraction, but in the end a film insane enough to include Jim Broadbent's cover of "Like a Virgin" defines its own genre rules.

On the DVD: this double-disc package sets new standards of presentation while also having an ideally appropriate light-heartedness. The extra features are as inventive in their use of the format as the film itself. Highlights include not one but two commentaries--one by Luhrmann, his designer and his cinematographer, the other with Lurhmann and his fellow scriptwriter Craig Pearce. We get two videos of "Lady Marmalade" and there are also uncut dance numbers, for example the fabulously dark Tango sequence in all its detail, which come with alternate camera angles so that you can edit your own version. There are whole segments on the glittery costumes, the three-dimensional model of Paris and the transformation of Kylie Minogue into the Green Fairy of absinthe. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (formatted for 16:9 TVs) with a visual aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and has lush, velvety Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound options. --Roz Kaveney

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Disc 1:
Production commentary with Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin and Don McAlpine
Writers' commentary with Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
Behind the Red Velvet Curtain Version: interactive feature that lets you glimpse an historical, technical and artistic view of Moulin Rouge!

Disc 2:
Uncut dance sequence: see the full extent of the choreography on your favourite dance numbers
Behind the scenes featurettes:
The making of Moulin Rouge
The Stars -- interviews with Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and more
The Story is About -- interview with Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce
The Cutting Room -- six abandoned scenes
The Dance -- multi-angled dance sequences: select camera angles for Tango, the Can-Can and Coup D'Etat
The Music -- three music videos and interviews
The Design Gallery including visual effects
Marketing -- music promo and trailers

Picture format: 2.35:1 widescreen version 16:9
Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1; English DTS 5.1; Audio description 2.0
Subtitles: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
Cross LA BOHEME with CABARET, throw in a little bit of RENT, and you might almost begin to describe Baz Luhrmann's visually opulent, fast-paced, funny, heartrending MOULIN ROUGE. The film, which premiered as the opener to the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, is a musical set in 1899 Paris at the notorious Montmartre cabaret club, the Moulin Rouge. Directed by Baz Luhrmann (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, STRICTLY BALLROOM), the movie stars Nicole Kidman as the high-kicking courtesan, Satine; Ewan McGregor as the sensitive poet, Christian; and John Leguizamo as the flamboyant artist and matchmaker, Toulouse-Lautrec. Luhrmann's use of eclectic lighting and saturated color, the fast zooms and quick cuts of his camera, and his magnificent costumes and sets perfectly capture the excess and freneticism for which the Moulin Rouge was famous. Beautifully led by McGregor and Kidman, the flawless supporting cast brings to life the culture of belle epoque Paris with magical realism. Above all, the anachronistic, energetic contemporary soundtrack is what drives MOULIN ROUGE, with popular songs by L'il Kim, Christina Aguilera, David Bowie, and Beck--as well as Kidman and McGregor adding their own superb vocals.

Customer Reviews

Unmissable
If you dismiss the premise behind Moulin Rouge (a love story set in Bohemian Paris, told largely through song with scant regard for the restraints of reality) as improbable and almost absurd, you may miss one of the best films of recent years. Only in the skilled hands of Baz Luhrman could such a feat be pulled off: it IS pulled off, and spectacularly so. The film flickers from the hilarious to the dark and tragic, and despite the unashamed flamboyance and craziness of the world of the Moulin Rouge, no character (except possibly the naïve Christian - Ewan McGregor) is at all simplified. Behind the scenes and beyond the façade of garish physical pleasure that makes up the Moulin Rouge, we see the human face of the buffoon-like Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the secret hopes and dreams of Satine (Nicole Kidman), the giggling courtesan, and the dark and dangerous core of jealousy behind the apparently absurd and utterly ridiculous Duke (Richard Roxburgh.)

The story itself is extremely powerful, and the use of some of the most famous songs of the last thirty years simply gives it wings. The hilarious take on Madonna's Like a Virgin provides one of the funniest moments of the film, and the declaration of love through Elton John's Song, and the following famous love medley (set in and on a giant jewel encrusted elephant, no less, in which the two lovers dance around a miniature Paris to the crooning of a singing moon) must be one of the most romantic declarations of love in any film, ever. This most powerful scene, however, must go to the 'Roxanne' tango number: the kind of stuff that gives you goosebumps up the back of your neck. McGregor and Kidman actually singing always threatened to be a weak link, but they get away with it, and their acting is solid throughout. While Broadbent gives an excellent comic performance two of the best showings are from Caroline O'Connor, as Nini, and John Leguizamo, as Henri Toulouse-Latrec. The fact that neither of these two are in starring roles demonstrates the depth and consistency of talent that make up the fabric of the film.

Most of all, Moulin Rouge is special because of its cinematography: totally lavish colours and lights make up a surreal kaleidoscope of wealth and depravity. At its heart, yes: it's a story about love, overcoming all obstacles. But it's the storytelling itself that makes this among the most memorable films of recent years.

magical
I was dragged to the cinema by my son to see this film and thank heavens I was. This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The style of this film is quirky in the extreme and the camera work can leave you dizzy but nevertheless this film has you gripped from the first frame to the last. It is a basic love story centring on a courtesan, Satine, who falls for penniless writer, Christian. Meanwhile, a rich English Duke is determined to possess Satine whatever the cost.
Moulin Rouge is a vibrant kaleidoscope of colour and movement set to music that just shouldn't work but thanks to some really clever arranging it does. The scene where Zidler and the Duke perform their version of Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' is hilarious. There are many well-known songs throughout the film, but all are given a new slant and performed in a unique way.
The main stars are Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman and there is an on screen chemistry between them that makes their characters relationship believable. What's more they can sing...not something either was known for prior to this. The ever-talented Jim Broadbent stars as Zidler, owner of the Moulin Rouge and Richard Roxburgh is the Duke.
This DVD set has a wealth of extras, enough to keep anyone occupied for hours and there are many, many hidden extras for those who like hunting. The sound and picture quality are superb. This is a movie that seems to arouse strong emotions, people either love it or hate it but no one seems indifferent to it.

Fantasy, fiction, fabulously breathtaking!
I would have to recommend this film to all the cynics out there who haven't yet fallen under the spell of the Moulin Rouge. I watched in utter bewliderment at first at the madness that stunned my fellow cinema goers! I was then swept away in the fairytale like world that Moulin Rouge creates. Both Nicole and Ewan were every bit the entertainers they portrayed, Nicoles voice was strong and etheral, Ewan shocked me in so much as I never knew he could even sing! I was crying like a baby by the end of the film and praying it would not take long for the release of the Dvd! Thankfully I will not have to wait long as America has already released it! If you haven't already seen it go enrich your life!