For my wife and I, our rating of movie quality is now:
We have the DVD. If you liked the beginning, you’ll like the whole crazy thing. For all the great reasons posted above, and more.
I definitely thought Moulin Rouge was fun, although I hate Elton John’s “Your Song” in general (“these things that I do - I’ve forgotten if they’re green or they’re blue”? WTF?), and “Like a Virgin” should never, ever be sung by a male voice (a determination I came to after seeing Moulin Rouge, not a pre-conceived notion).
I did enjoy both it and Chicago, but I think I lean slightly more toward Chicago. Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger were AMAZING in that one, while in Moulin Rouge, Satine’s dying at the end never really sat well with me. Sure, we knew from the beginning of the movie that it was going to happen, but it feels wrong to go through a whole movie’s worth of romantic plot and have it end with no payoff.
He’s talking about the color of his loves eyes:
Since “Your Song” is my favorite Elton ballad, I’m sure I won’t dislike it in this movie.
Thanks everybody! You’ve got me bouncing with anticipation here. 
I’m with Eve: largeish fan of MR, not a big fan of Chicago.
I enjoyed Chicago. Not one of my favorite movies, but watching Richard Gere (who I normally dislike) was such a treat.
I’m a huge fan of both, although I lean a little on the side of Chicago.
And I’m mystified that Eve, of all people, would not adore any movie set in the 20s with fabulous production values in an atmosphere of sleaze and glamor (or glamorous sleaze).
It wasn’t that fictionalized: I mean, Zsa Zsa Gabor really did know Toulouse Lautrec back in the 1890s . . .
As for Chicago, it rolled off my knife. It was too campy, aren’t-we-too-cute-for-words 1920s, rather than real 1920s. The hair, the makeup, the costumes—all wrong. The musical numbers (and choreography) didn’t impress me, and I thought the only performer who came off well was Queen Latifah, who was laughably miscast (a black prison matron in the 1920s?). Plus, they killed the stark unhappy ending of the 1928 version and tacked on that stupid-ass “tie it all together” ending.
I have to come to the defense of my favorite singer/musician here. Remember that Elton isn’t the one who writes the lyrics…it’s Bernie Taupin. There are lots of lyrical glitches in Elton John’s songs but they aren’t his fault. (And from what little I know about show biz in general, it’s quite an insult to ask a songwriter to change a lyric or even to ask what it means…musician to musician, that is.) Elton gets a piece of paper with words on it. Everything else you hear: melody, vocal inflection, range, difficult piano work (Ryan Adams said working with him was like going to chord boot camp)…is all Elton.
I don’t know… it all makes perfect sense to me. It’s a guy singing about this song that he’s writing for/about his lover. He’s really unsure if it’s worth anything, he talks about how composing it gave him some problems, but, well, here it is.
The structure is a little convoluted, yes, but that’s the point: as far as pop music is concerned, Bernie Taupin is far more interesting than your average lyricist and he and Elton collaborated wonderfully for almost a decade.
Anyway, I’m going to set a bad example for my employees and duck out early. Their jaws will drop with shock, certainly, but dammit: I want this movie. 
Great!
(You *will * let us know what you think, right?)
Starving Artist:
I was not blaming the very talented Mr. John for the lyrics, merely identifying the song as “his” because I associate it with him.
JohnT:
Well, that certainly makes some sense out of the line, but darned if that interpretation ever would have occurred to me without your telling me it.
One thing’s for certain: From your various comments in this thread, I can tell that you’re going to love this movie.
Chaim Mattis Keller
But of course.
Thank you. I thought QL was great in the role but the miscasting bugged me as well. I mentioned it to some people and somehow the idea that I would know that the chance of a black prison matron in the 20s was unlikely to the point of impossibility somehow made me racist.
Pretty please tell me what he says! I own the DVD and have watched that scene probably ten times and have no clue. :o
I love Moulin Rouge. You will be hooked by the Elephant scene, I promise.
Here are the full lyrics if you’re interested.
The reactions to this movie are always interesting. People who dislike are alweays saying something to the effect of: “Well, they fell in love, and then she got sick and died, what’s the big deal.” The thing is, any movie can be summed up in ‘25 words or less’ and rightfully so: “A robot comes from the future to kill the boy who will be leader of the resistence” or “A young starry-eyed, naïve hero sets out with his father’s old friend for the adventure of rescuing a princess and ends up saving the galaxy.”
The plot is almost never the reason to see a movie, I mean, there are only so many basic themes - revenge (just about every movie w/Mel Gibson), a bumpy road before the couple finds true love (any rom-com), overcoming your inabilities / achilles heel (like greek drama and Die Hard) or the good old good vs evil. The reason to see a movie is to be entertained / thrilled / frightened / enlightened / saddened / amused / whatever. If MR doesn’t do this for you, fine, but don’t come dragging out the old “There wasn’t any plot”-mantra, since that can be said about just any movie. You want plot and depth? Read a book.
The other reason some people spew vitriol on that movie is Nicole Kidman. I don’t know what the woman has done wrong to be able to raise such animosity, but it must be something. I find her to be a very good actress, possibly one of the top three in her generation.
And MR is wonderful, a feverish fantasy about the craziness that is falling in love. At the point where you’re so deeply in love, that you are unable to resist, hold back, and you say ‘fuck you’ to all the consequences of your actions, then the feeling is not to far away from the feeling Luhrman projects with Moulin Rouge!
Also, the cinematography is possibly the best since Bob Fosse. The camera becomes an invisible actor, constantly moving in time with the music, underlining the action flowing with the rythm of the movie, the action and the music. Luhrman is also just about the only one since Fosse died, who makes choreography for the camera and not for the stage. If you check Cabaret or All that Jazz, you’ll realize that almost none of the dance numbers would’ve worked for a live audience on stage. It’s the same with MR and that’s why so many other musicals are boring. They film a stage number and try to spice it up with lots of editing, but it still doesn’t work. MR does.
I don’t know if there is a single disc of it out, but get the one with the extra disc - lots of interesting background, interviews and easter eggs.
Love Moulin Rouge.
It’s a risky, zany ride, but I thought it paid off. Anyone who has the opportunity to buy/rent the two-disc version, I recommend it highly. There’s a lot of interesting conversation about the filmmakers’ intent and logic, which I found deepend my appreciation for the flick.
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the full experience, JohnT.
So if they’d hired a white actress, you would’ve missed out on (your and the previous poster’s opinion) one of the best performances of the entire film, and from an actress you might not expect it from.
Which, then, is the bigger crime?
Moulin Rouge was the first DVD I ever bought (actually, it’s the only one I’ve gone out to buy, but they were having a “buy one get the second very cheap” deal so I picked up Crouching Tiger too). The plot is not terribly interesting – even Traviata and Boheme get tedious in the second acts – but the manipulation of music is amazing.
Add me to the list of those who loathe Your Song and many of Taupin’s other lyrics; it is a great tribute to Elton’s compositional skills that he can take such dreck and make it wonderful. But then I’ve heard him sing excerpts from someone’s new oven brochure, so it’s not that surprising.