June 1st should be declared "International Day of Singing Moulin Rouge!'s Praises"
Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 6:05PM Come what may. We will love it. Until our dying day.
Moulin Rouge! turned 15 today. Imagine if June 1st were an international holiday? How is it not? How would we celebrate other than drinking absinthe, coughing up blood, and deep cleaning our shrines to Nicole Kidman (we'll assume everyone's already built one, okay?).
Fifteen whole years ago my entire body and soul were quaking at that first screening at NYC's Ziegfeld theater. I saw it five times in the theater which is my record this millenium. (Carol came close last year with 4 in theater screenings. Weirdly The Witch is in third place because somehow I've already seen it three times on screens.) Mostly I'm not big on rewatching because that means I'm not seeing something I've never seen and there's always something new or old to discover because you can't see everything. Generally if I'm rewatching it's at home.
How many times have you seen the greatest movie of the aughts?
Reader Comments (30)
I've seen it in chunks once or twice but never straight through. It's funny. My best friend, who loves musicals, HATES this movie; but I'm not too big on the genre and I... sort of kind of liked parts of it? I mean it has some fun moments - and the art direction is pretty captivating - but it's all over the place pacing-wise and, stylistically, it's a little too much for taste at times.
Well... time to deep clean my Nicole Kidman shrine. Can't believe this masterpiece is 15 years old. It's truly timeless in every way.
Kylie Minogue as the green fairy, a tango sung to the tune of "Roxanne", crazy-ass editing, and "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" with David Bowie singing "Nature Boy". What a great fucking film.
I really need to re-watch this. I've only seen it one time - about 15 years ago.
But to answer your last question, I've seen Lost in Translation 4 times.
Don't kill me, but when I returned to the site just now, I saw the photo before the headline and wondered if it was from a new Amy Adams movie...
And I've watched Moulin Rouge! quite a few times.
I so remember watching this with my best friend. 20 minutes into the movie, he gently whispered in my ear - "Vertigo. Let's leave." Leave we did.
I'm not a musical fan by any means, but this film is one of my all time favourites.
Love it so much, it's a many splendid thing. Makes me feel like a film virgin, watching for the very first time. Come what may, I will defend Nicole Kidman in this and every other film until I cough blood.
I've seen it more times than I can count. Loved it then, love it now.
I'm afraid to know how many times I've seen it.
It truly is a spectacular spectacular.
I saw this 5 times in the theatre (tied only with WALL-E). The first time is easily my all-time favorite in-theatre experience: opening night, dead center in the front row on the last showing of one of the largest screens in town, so hardly ideal conditions. Maybe it's because I was younger but it felt like such a "before" and "after" moviegoing experience.
These days, it's hard to have multiple views of a film because everything is gone so fast. I saw TRAINWRECK three times in the theatre last year but it stuck around for awhile.
Saw this in theaters probably just once but maybe twice. Watched it many times (whole and part) at home.
My all-time re-watches in theaters is I think a tie for 5-times each between Titanic (for good reason: being 10 years old) and Batman Begins (for good reason: about to leave for basic training and not wanting to waste time on garbage).
This year I've seen Zootopia twice in theaters. Want to see Sing Street again but I've probably missed the window.
On another note: I just re-watched Across the Universe at home. What a strange movie that owes a lot to Moulin Rouge in inspiration, if not in execution.
It made me realize how impossible it is to get every element right--costuming, casting, pacing, actors' singing abilities.... ATU is amazing and inspired in some places and astoundingly indulgent and/or flat in others (there's a solid 30 minutes in the middle that are pretty boring and seemingly pointless).
I remember watching MR and thinking that some things seemed random and chaotic, but in re-watches I can't imagine taking anything out--it all feels classic and iconic (unlike ATU, as a whole).
Ziegfeld really was the best place to see this -- I remember seeing it there well. (And now I am sad about losing the Ziegfeld again, sigh.) I have seen MR several times - when it hit DVD I watched it bunches. But I haven't seen it probably in a decade; it's very much overdue a revisit but the BF haaaates it so I can never find the moment.
If we're talking al-time in-theater viewings I saw the first Jurassic Park in the theaters fourteen times; I don't think I'll ever top that one. I really don't go back and see movies more than once anymore -- there just always seems to be too much to see. I've seen The Lobster twice - I think that might be the only movie I've seen more than once in the theater this year.
Out of nowhere I dug this out of my blu-ray collection to watch tonight, then checked your site and saw this post. Wild coincidence, since I haven't put it on in five or so years, but I remember watching it countless times when it was first out on DVD.
I've seen this too many times. Wait, there's no such thing.
I've lost count. I have NO CLUE. But I celebrate the day that this movie entered my life and changed it. It's my all time favorite and got me really interested in movies in the first place. I still remember the MASSIVE headache I got after meeting Baz, telling him how much the movie meant to me and having him sign my DVD. I was just that stoked.
I kinda hope I don't meet Nic or Ewan because I'll make a complete ass of myself. guaranteed.
Come what may, y'all.
I have so many "favorite" films, but Moulin Rouge is always my go-to choice if someone wants a simple answer because it really encapsulates every genre within one film. The same reason why I love Buffy so much. You can't go wrong. But it's also such a burst of energy.
I was too young to have seen it in the theatre...I mean, I guess not. But if I saw movies in the theatre at that age they were whatever my family saw, so like, family films. Disney stuff. Not quirky artsy stuff lol. I was only 8 when it came out. I think I saw it when I was...15. Yeah. And I was changed.
I think my record for seeing movies in the theatre is only twice, and it had more to do with multiple friends going at different times and me liking the film enough to pay to watch it twice lol. Black Swan and Toy Story 3.
How many times? I don't know... probably not as much as the most, but I think at least 10 times.
Sounds low, I know... Maybe it is actually more and I just didn't count. *lol*
Anyway, it's flawless. The songs, the costumes, the actors. Not a weak link. Kidman's so great, I really wished she had won the Oscar for it (or The Others) a year sooner than she did....
Though I'm also VERY impressed by Ewan McGergor. I'd never guessed he had powerful voice inside him. Roxanne give me chills everytime. Good god...
I can't believe he wasn't even nominated!
The ending is hard, really devistating and although we even know it from the very beginning, it's such a tearjerker.
It only won two (very deserving!) Oscars.... should have definitely been more.
(is anyone going to celebrate TDWP which turns 10 this year, too? )
All I can say is that I love this movie and this actress and this soundtrack. And the actor who makes pair with her and musicals. And this blog.
Twice at the cinema. I was completely blown away by it back then. I just couldn't understand why it didn't win all of the Oscars.
It was also when I finally 'got' the Ewan McGregor attraction, which stands to this day.
Then for a phase, I watched my favourite sections of it over and over on youtube.
However, sat down recently to watch it all the way through, which I hadn't done since it was released, but found it unbearable. Had to turn it off because I was finding it so excrutiating.
:'(
I really don't "get" this movie at all. Here are my 'unpopular opinions' -
1) I think that both Australia and The Great Gatsby are a hundred times more interesting, accomplished and entertaining
2) Ewan McGregor outside Trainspotting always seems to bore me a little
3) This is Nicole Kidman's weakest performance and it's a travesty that it's one of her meagre three nominations
4) Jim Broadbent is terrible and was far better in Iris
I'm ashamed of the above feelings but I think them all...
It's such an awesome film; it changed me in a way.
I've seen it in its entirety only or 3 times (1 in theater & 2 on DVD); but I've listened to the soundtrack countless times.
I will never forgive myself for not seeing this in the theater. At the time I was very anti- seeing movies alone, and I couldn't get ANYONE to go with me. I even went to the theater and probably stood there for a good ten minutes and just couldn't bring myself to buy a ticket.
After finally seeing Moulin Rouge on DVD, I vowed to myself that NEVER AGAIN would I miss something in theaters just because I would have to see it alone. And so it has been.
Record for seeing something in theaters is The Fellowship of the Ring - three times. The list of things I've seen twice is actually longer than I expected and VERY strange.
Well, I just did a drunken duet of Come What May on stage to an audience of 3 friends the other week.
This film exceeded my very high expectations. I remember reading the reviews and all of them we're trying to describe its hybrid nature -- but failed. What kind of a movie is this? I remember asking myself. Then I saw, and it made perfect sense.
"But to answer your last question, I've seen Lost in Translation 4 times."
Mike in Canada, I love this response!
I think I may have seen Lost in Translation 4 times in theaters. As others have said, it is difficult to see something repeatedly now unless it's a huge hit... I was thinking I'd like to see A Bigger Splash a second time, but theaters are already cutting back on screening times, so if I don't go again this weekend, it may be gone.
So much YES to this post. I remember seeing this in theaters...what an experience! I honestly don't know how some people hate this movie...I judge them heavily.
I had a pretty similar experience as Derreck even though I was pretty young when the movie came out. I was 10 year-old at the time but was instantly amazed - both by the film itself and by the potential for powerful film making that it represented. My enthusiasm for the film kick-started a lifelong interest in the Oscars and in Nicole Kidman as well, so it will always have an extremely special place in my heart.
Although I performed in musicals and love them...especially the 50's and 60's
I have tried 3times to get through Moulin Rouge and just can't.