Moulin Rouge.

[emchy]

[Poll #1096141]I have an interesting theory that some movies just evoke strong reactions in people. Positive and negative. I am curious as to your Moulin Rouge opinions. Please also feel free to go off in the comments.

Comments

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Hm. I like it but I do not love it. The story *is* trite, but everyone in it sells it so well. And I love the way it looks, except when it's too much. And I love the singing, except when I don't.

Most importantly, it *tries*. And just as importantly, it takes itself seriously even in its excess. And I admire that, even if I don't *love* it. It's certainly a movies I would recommend to people, and that's saying something right there.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

you know - just for the trying and the committment all of the players made to it - it would be a well loved movie on my shelf.

[imnotandrei.livejournal.com]

Short form: loved the music/staging/etc., can barely remember the plot. A film full of in-jokes and eye-candy.

Also, a film with ambition. Despite its humor, it wasn't undercutting *itself*.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

yes - i love that it doesn't self mock. if it did i might actually hate it.

[borggrrl.livejournal.com]

Hrm... None of the options in the first part really fit the way I think about the film. It's a pretty movie, I love Ewan's version of "Your Song," and it's been known to make me cry.

As for the second half of the quiz, I think my feelings are ultimately "Meh." I like the film, but wouldn't really miss anything beyond "Your Song" if I never saw it again.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

well your song is... perfect

i used to love it when hal from the castro would blast that for rich and i at the castro before the house lights were on. we would lay on the stage with the whole movie palace above us with the music pumping loud through the place - through the dolby speakers. completely in the dark. you could feel it in your blood!

[borggrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that sounds amazing. Even better would be lying on the stage while the movie was being projected. Those eyes... that smile... *swoon*

[nerak-g.livejournal.com]

There are parts of it that were funny and interesting that weren't on the second and third rounds (the whole like a virgin sequence).The Raja thing got to be annoying and distracting from the Ewan-Nicole-ness, and yes, there should have been more Leguizamo.
Mostly, I love it except for that bit.
Eyecandy and jukeboxy, it is what it is.

Now, for movies that really polarize, I'd start out with Fight Club & American Psycho.People really seemed to love or hate those two, critics as well as movie heads---which can be quite unique.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Now, for movies that really polarize, I'd start out with Fight Club & American Psycho.People really seemed to love or hate those two, critics as well as movie heads---which can be quite unique.

I agree.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

true - though actually in my anecdotal research i have seen bigger reactions to moulin than to fight club. it may also be my own personal investment that causes such reactions.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Also, you haven't heard me curse out Fight Club. :) (American Psycho, otoh, I loved.)

[mqoq.livejournal.com]

It grew on me but it certainly can't be compared to Rodgers and Hammerstein. It's sort of like something a little kid would make up and execute if they had millions of dollars to spend. Which would have been fabulous had a little kid actually produced it...

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

i love that an adult director would try something that different or allow himself that little kid freedom.

[mqoq.livejournal.com]

See and I don't think it's very different at all. I think it's rather derivative and unsophisticated (not that everything has to be sophisticated). It's hard for me to think of a modern musical that is able to channel imaginative escapism and childlike joy without seeming self conscious. I think that's why Moulin Rouge relies heavily upon nostalgia for it's soundtrack. I think maybe the original Hairspray was able to achieve an innocent tone and was very original.
I still have fun watching Moulin Rouge when it's on TV though. :)

[crayonbeam.livejournal.com]

I like it - it is fun and cute and I adore the way they present the modern songs in the older setting - it really is so sweet and fantastic.

But I've only seen it a couple times, and it is heterosexual monogamy issues, woman not sticking up for what she wants, etc, so I think I'd rather see it in pieces sometimes.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

interesting
for me i can't really dissect any of the romances i love because what makes me connect to them is just so painfully problematic.

or rather - i can and do dissect them. but then i kinda try to go LALALALALALALALA

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

some of the music really annoys me. i consider myself a fan of most of the players(To Die For and the Others made me a Kidman fan)but the thing that really gets on my nerves about it is the editing, which is way too fast/choppy/MTVesque for me. you have incredible sets and costumes and i just want you to hold the shot for maybe 10 or 20 seconds so i can appreciate them. is that too much to ask?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I'm with Pete on the editing. It's a formula for how to take a potentially ok movie and just ruin it

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

but at least he tried something different so it wasn't an old fashioned costume drama...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I found it utterly unwatchable.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

i am familiar with this reaction.
the style definately seems to grate to an unbearable degree on some folks. did you see his romeo and juliet? i am curious what you thought of that.

i saw it and was intrigued - and enjoyed it - but don't have any real attachment to it.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

i get the frustration with the choppy
i think it lends itself to making things feel more chaotic and claustrophic and like time is moving too fast for the characters in the film. it (for me) adds to the whirlwind of it. but i sense the part of me that loves it is the same part that likes deconstructive math rock.

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

BTW, I may have misinterpreted your prompt. I thought "You don't care" meant, "Cindy wouldn't really care what I think" and "Meh" to me means "Whatever, take it or leave it." So maybe I really should have been "You [that is, I] don't care"? Because I didn't mind watching the movie, and remember it vaguely, but wouldn't bother to watch it again.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

your second interpretation was right. i was tired when i wrote it out. the you in question would be the "i" of who was answering.

[sagahar.livejournal.com]

I'm the biggest fan ever. Ever.


Ever.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

(this is so why we're in a band)

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

so near the end of the day i'll fill you in.
epitome of pure love and cinematic goodness is where i fall in line.
i bought this film hook line and sinker. i agree the story is simple. and it has to be to be able to throw a purity of heart plotline in amongst all of the baroque imagery and still work. at the end i sob every time. because it's always the truest loves that fail so magnificently. they fail because the lovers are trying to hold onto a perfection. some sort of noble honor where they would (and do) give their lives for the other and it still falls short. like a lover running to catch the airplane or the train - but they always depart. it just... oooh right under my skin. and ewan macgregor sings with the most open look on his face. it's like a tunnel into this honest trusting love. a complete lack of cynicism even in the face of so much reason for cynicism. i yearn for that trust and belief in joy and i don't think it's attainable either. but it reminds of gene kellys face when he dances. amazing.

though i do wish there was more leguizamo in it.

[sagahar.livejournal.com]

I agree... while the plot has always rung out cheesily for me, it needed to be a little cheesy in order to make the movie work. There was a well-achieved balance between the simplicity of the storyline, the huge characters, and the vivid sets and costumes. Also, I'm like an excited puppy when it comes to mash-ups, and this movie made my tail wag furiously.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

true - i saw it before i was the mashup addict and in some ways the whole film is in itself a mashup of archetypes, tropes, cliche storylines, and musical theater styles from a wide veriety of film and theater sources.

plus of course the music

[flightyone.livejournal.com]

that's it, I have to watch it (again, for the 100th time) tonight.

[smallstages.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it. I have this weird stubbornness thing about big films.
I've been working on it, though. A little bit.

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

if you watch it with me i can almost promise i'll cry.

[smallstages.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me, monkey -- I'm big on art-to-tears. Crying in response to film is (just about) my favorite cathartic thing, and probably sitting in movie theaters snuffling is the only reason I've made it this far in grad school. I aim to be manipulated to the point of sobbing -- with you!

[cindymonkey.livejournal.com]

honestly? even in a theater. even on the third viewing. big gulping sobs.

[moongirli.livejournal.com]

I was only vaguely interested because of Ewan and Leguizamo; even so, I didn't even watch it until at least a year after it was released, and that was on my free HBO.

I turned it off when the people in fancy dress and can-can clothes were doing something I recall as being like "Thriller" to a Nirvana song. There was something, in my mind, so incredibly wrong about that, and cheesy just didn't even begin to cover it.

I did try and watch it through again... but just wasn't impressed or all that interested.