Soundtracking: Moulin Rouge!
Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 9:00AM by Chris Feil
Perhaps it’s easy to forget how revolutionary Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge! was in 2001. The thing about masterpieces is their legacy sometimes overshadows the context that birthed them. But at the time, the musical was a massive gamble and creative leap, helping to relaunch the genre that had died a slow death at the box office and to cultural cinematic tastes. Just as Luhrman’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet had aggressively re-imagined its text for the MTV set, he delivered something even more drug-fevered to the musical, shattering notions of what the genre’s limitations were and how it could exist in the modern era.
Musicals may be more commonplace now, but they have yet to be as audacious since. But as much as Luhrman’s trippy, frenetic stylings play nearly twenty (gasp!) years later as its most obvious innovations, it was Luhrman’s music choices that were the biggest shock to the system for movie musicals.
Jukebox musicals and repurposing of existing music is now so prevalent that this element of the film is easily taken for granted. By throwing the likes of Bowie, Madonna, and Nirvana into the film’s period context, Luhrman was attempting to convey the excess and subversion of the infamous club to a 2001 that was much harder to titillate or shock. In addition to using the music video visual language, he blurred the lines of history by making something where the traditional Can-Can was equally at home with rock and roll, where traditional musical theatre numbers still spark with something completely new.
The film draws a throughline of pop music past and present, which Luhrman packaged even beyond the confines of the film. Its physical soundtrack featured only about half of the actual songs of its musical sequences, instead offering something that was a temporal representation of what it was like to watch the film. The disc was a swath of genres in electronic excess - remember Fatboy Slim? But it was also reflected the film as a piece of pop perfection. The rebirthed “Lady Marmalade” is mashed into the film, but on its own, it was a piece of iconography that both stood apart from the film and cemented the film’s (and the musical genre’s) place in contemporary pop culture.
The musical theatre kids among us might have felt the film’s more traditional elements pushed to the sides of the conversation around the film (even numbers like “Like A Virgin” and “The Show Must Go On” were pushed to the release of the unheralded second soundtrack). However, the film still satisfies the typical musical framework that audiences had long grown weary of. “Your Song” is the ironic “burst into song” moment, “Roxanne” subverts the narrative-pushing act two showstopper, “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” is essentially copy/pasted from its source musical. “Come What May” is the hummable ballad required of every musical, impactfully the film’s sole original tune.
But the key musical moment that both serves traditional screen musicals and uses all of the tools that Luhrman employs to sway the viewers that hate them, is the “Elephant Love Medley”. It’s the most familiar musical moment of the film on many fronts. Here Luhrman uses a slew of pop songs to play tongue-in-cheek with both pop and musical romantic cliches alike, winning over the doubters just as Christian wins over Satine despite her protest. It’s a subversive way of getting a largely hostile audience to cherish the legacy of the musical and everything it stands for, and a formative movie moment for a new generation primed to embrace the genre without hesitation.
Baz made the genre cool again by doing nothing and everything the same as it always was. When Moulin Rouge! finally arrives on the Broadway stage at the end of the month (with a revamped set of tracks), can it have the same effect?
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Reader Comments (20)
I would've given Jill Billcock the Oscar for Film Editing this year for her work on the Tango De Roxanne number.
It's still chilling after all these years!
I love the Lady Marmalade parody from MadTV because is singing by my favorite women of the show.
But talking about the soundtrack (and the movie) i also agree that the most iconic song is Elephant Love Medley because resume to perfection the idea of the movie.
Pity the following movie musical directors weren't creative/bold like Baz Luhrman was with Moulin Rouge.
You're reminding me how much I love this movie. It's so audacious and genius with its soundtrack, and you highlighted some of its very best songs - tho they all still slap. This and Hedwig coming out in the same year is such a beautiful moment in movie musical history. I wonder how close McGregor got to a nomination.
I don’t know how many times I listened to this soundtrack after it came out. It was my favorite album for the longest time. Sooo many interesting arrangements of songs that seem like they wouldn’t work, but my GOD, do they! Ugh, why did they snub Baz for Best Director? He should have won for this film! So unique, so beautiful, and despite its (few) flaws, I still love the film and consider it a perfect 10/10.
And I’m sorry, but even though “Come What May” was originally written for Romeo + Juliet, I would consider it an Original Song because it wasn’t recorded or performed by anyone before being included in Moulin Rouge!, and it should have been nominated and for and WON the Oscar.
Hell, I would have awarded this film at least 8 Oscars alone, even though it was released the same year as several fantastic films. ❤️❤️❤️
It simply is a CRIME that McGregor wasn't nominated! His singing was so powerful, esp. Tango de Roxanne.
I really hope he does another Musical one day!
My favorite musical moment is saved for the end - the closing credits. I sat all the way through multiple times in theaters in the summer of 2001 and remember being so upset the track wasn’t included on the first soundtrack.
Also, I’ve always thought Jim Broadbent got nominated for the wrong film that year. He’s perfect in this - loud, hammy as hell, a cartoon with a pulse. He has to be the connective tissue between the relative gravitas of the romance and the full-on broadness of The Duke, for the plot and the tone, and he threads a very tiny needle’s eye, I’ve always felt.
"'Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend' is essentially copy/pasted from its source musical."
Disagree! That Madonna sample?
I love this soundtrack! I even bought it on vinyl when it was released about a year and a half ago.
I loved this line: "Its physical soundtrack featured only about half of the actual songs of its musical sequences, instead offering something that was a temporal representation of what it was like to watch the film." I think that soundtrack works well on its own and that they made smart choices in terms of what they kept out. As delightful as "Like a Virgin" is in the context of the film, I'd have no desire to listen to it without the visuals.
I was so impressed with McGregor and Kidman's performances in this film but since this is about the music, I'll say that I was also impressed with their singing. He really sells "Your Song" and her voice, while slight, is sweet and has a really appealing tone.
Moulin Rouge is probably still my all-time favorite movie.
I do love the movie and musical though I would rather forget about the "Lady Marmalade" video because Christina Aguilera looks like Dee Snider from Twisted Sister. Whenever I see that video, I scream "Ah, Dee Snider!"
The Elephant Love Medley is one of the great sequences in film history.
David - I totally agree, its editing is deceptively brilliant; but that Roxanne sequence should've won it the Oscar.
To this day it is amazing that Baz Luhrmann wasn't nominated for the directing Oscar.
@Chris Feil
I suggest for that series the soundtrack of 'No One Knows About Persian Cats'
I think could fit perfect
Jukebox musicals and repurposing of existing music is now so prevalent.
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And A Beautiful Mind won best picture. What a forgettable film.
A magnificent film back then and a magnificent film now. I'm almost nervous about seeing the Broadway production lest it ruins my memory, but I don't think anything can do that.
And I was *obsessed* with The Elephant Medley.
@mikey67
And think that also won over Gosford Park, In the Bedroom and The Lord of the Rings makes it worst.
Is the year that first come to my mind when i think in the lowest picture of the nominees winning.
in cases like this i wish the Oscar for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score were still around, because this one would have won it easily
Here I Go Again... re-watch this masterpiece!
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