Ooh-La-La

Moulin Rouge!, Baz Luhrmann's everything-and-the-kitchen-sink musical, sadly didn't revitalize the musical machinery of Hollywood, but it sure did re-imagine the genre. Borrowing freely from grand opera, Bollywood and rock music for his story, Luhrmann braids these elements together with a little star power from Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor and ends up with a soaring piece of musical fantasy. Satine (Kidman), the star courtesan at Montmartre's famed nightclub, and Christian (McGregor), an English writer searching for meaning, find each other, lose each other and then find each other one final time, while trying to avoid the depredations of the sinister Duke of Monroth. The big production numbers are splashy and kaleidoscopic, the more intimate moments are touching and tender, and there's an anarchic glee in watching two nineteenth-century gentlemen sing "Like A Virgin." Moulin Rouge! closes out the Webster Film Series "I (Heart) Musicals" program tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Moore Auditorium on Webster University's campus (470 East Lockwood Avenue; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/filmseries). Tickets are $5 to $6.
Tue., July 28, 2009