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Moulin Rouge By Stephen Rebello Moulin Rouge - Set to open the Cannes Film Festival. Has Baz Luhrmann, the stylishly edgy director who turned William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet into a surprise box-office hit, reinvented the musical movie with Moulin Rouge? According to Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor certainly made music together. Months and months ago, early-bird culture vultures began describing Australian director Baz Luhrmann's new film, Moulin Rouge, as, variously, The Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Titanic, The Wizard of Oz meets Apocalypse Now and Topsy-Turvy meets Cabaret by way of Brazil. Like Luhrmann's earlier films, Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge promised to be a visceral blast. But no one could quite imagine what sort of blast might include, as Moulin Rouge was known to, singing, dancing, mythical doomed lovers, a lascivious Toulouse-Lautrec, divine decadence, satire and a music score filled with pop songs and show tunes sung by stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, along with assists from pop culture icons ranging from Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera to Placido Domingo and David Bowie. The more people heard and saw of Moulin Rouge, the more it seemed that the Day-Glo fairy-tale fizz of Strictly Ballroom and the urban theatricality of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet were merely opening acts. Luhrmann's sexy, bawdy, hellzapoppin' new opus had raised his game to a whole new level. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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The son of a mother who ran a dress shop and a father who owned a back-country gas station and tried his hand at pig farming before buying the local cinema in the desolate little community of Herons Creek, New South Wales, Luhrmann began his show business career as a costar of Judy Davis in 1981's The Winter of Our Dreams. He then shifted from acting to stage directing with a wildly acclaimed La Bohème for the Australian Opera when he was just 27. These days he operates out of a rambling, two-story, late 1880s mansion in the trendy Darlinghurst area of Sydney. Dubbed the House of Iona, this is where Luhrmann has amassed a close team of about 35 people that includes his wife Catherine Martin ("C.M." to intimates), whom he married on the stage of the Sydney Opera House while the word "L'amour" flashed in neon behind them; screenwriter Craig Pearce (a friend of 20 years who has worked on each of Luhrmann's films); music supervisor Anton Monsted; and choreographer John "Cha-Cha" O'Connell. All play, work, create and argue together constantly. It was at the House of Iona that Luhrmann recorded "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)," the novelty chant that became a gold record. In person, Luhrmann is as groovy-looking, worldly, friendly and out there as you please. Handsome, with graying hair in short pigtails, he seldom speaks at less than supertrain speed. When he brilliantly trip-hops through the entire backlog of pop culture, he emits the air of one who has seen and tried everything and can't wait for more, more, more, and he comes off as equal parts P.T. Barnum, Sid Vicious, Noel Coward, Ken Russell and an unofficial member of the Monty Python troupe. No wonder virtually any actor one talks to will swear he'd give his eyeteeth to get Baz'd. For the interview with Baz Luhrmann pick up the June issue of Movieline. PAGE 1 | 2 |