Podcast 23: Moulin Rouge

September 2, 2021 Jon S Movies, Podcasting 0 Comments

The 3 Guys Podcast

Recorded on 7/8/2021

In this episode we review the movie Moulin Rouge (2001) starring Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh. WARNING: There will be SPOILERS.

Moulin Rouge

Interested in checking out the movie on Blue-ray? Click on the link below.

Moulin Rouge [Blu-ray]

Notes From The Show

  • Quick Synopsis

  • Released: May 18, 2001

    Director: Baz Luhrmann

    Screenplay: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce

    Stars:  Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh

    Plot:      A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan who was promised to a jealous duke.

    How did this movie do
    Budget: $50 million
    Box office: $179 million

  • Casting

    • Possible Christians included Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ronan Keating.

    • Possible Satines included Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank, Renée Zellweger, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Mendoza, Sharleen Spiteri, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

    • Tim Wheeler, of the rock band Ash, auditioned for the lead role of Christian, which led him to write the track “Orpheus.” Courtney Love auditioned for Satine, and allowed Baz Luhrmann to use Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in the opening sequence, a rare case of allowing her late husband Kurt Cobain’s work to be used in film or TV.

    • Heath Ledger lost the lead role when it was determined he was too young to be a romantic interest for Nicole Kidman. He was so angry at Baz Luhrmann that years later he refused to work with him in Australia (2008).

    • Elijah Wood auditioned by doing a song-and-dance number but he failed to land a part.

    • Rowan Atkinson and Alan Cumming were considered for the part of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. John Leguizamo was originally considered for the role of The Argentinean.

    • Courtney Love has gone on record calling losing the role of Satine to Nicole Kidman one of the biggest disappoints of her career and made no secret of her resentment against Kidman. Director Baz Luhrmann characterized the difference between the two actresses in a Vanity Fair article by saying “Courtney is fire and Nicole is ice.” This prompted Love to remark that Kidman was “a puddle” and dedicate the song “Miss World” (a song about a self-loathing beauty queen) to Kidman on her 1999 tour with her band Hole.

  • Music Info

    • “Come What May” was written by David Baerwald for Romeo + Juliet (1996) but not used. In Moulin Rouge! (2001), it is newly written for the stage show by Christian. It is the only completely original song in the entire film. However, because it was written for another film, it was disqualified for the Oscars’ Best Song award.

    • The Elephant medley contains parts of several famous and not-so-famous love songs. These include “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles, “I Was Made for Loving You” by KISS, “One More Night” by Phil Collins, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2, “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Thelma Houston, “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney, “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, “Heroes” by David Bowie, “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton, and “Your Song” by Elton John.

    • Cat Stevens would not license his song “Father and Son,” which was the first musical number in the original script, because of his current religious beliefs.

    • In the “Like a Virgin” number, Jim Broadbent’s voice is dubbed by opera singer Anthony Weigh, mimicking Broadbent’s own vocal performance. The floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola so the dancers wouldn’t slip. This segment, Richard Roxburgh’s favorite experience from the production, took a week to film.

    • Baz Luhrmann hired Marilyn Manson to sing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which made Courtney Love very angry as she and Manson had a longstanding feud. She evoked the performer approval clause in her contract, forcing production to find an unknown band to re-record the song six days before the movie’s opening.

    • The song “My Way,”made popular by Frank Sinatra, was considered to be performed by The Duke for the film, but this never developed. However, The Duke still repeatedly yells, “My way!” during the finale.

    • The Rolling Stones declined permission to use one of their songs in the film.

  • Trivia

    • Satine’s sickness – though only referred to as “consumption” in the movie – is pulmonary tuberculosis.

    • Filming was halted for two weeks in November 1999 after Nicole Kidman fractured two ribs and injured her knee while rehearsing a dance routine for the film. Many of the scenes where she is seen only from the chest up, including “a real actress,” were shot while she was in a wheelchair.

    • The necklace worn by Nicole Kidman was made of real diamonds and platinum and was the most expensive piece of jewelry ever specifically made for a film. The Stefano Canturi necklace was made with 1,308 diamonds, weighing a total of 134 carats and was worth an estimated U.S. $1 million.

    • Various tricks were used to make John Leguizamo‘s (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) legs appear shorter. Some shots are of his stand-in who was of the correct height, while in others he walked on his knees in special leg braces and wearing blue socks so that his lower legs could be digitally removed. Leguizamo did the entire climactic scene from a squatting position to give him greater mobility in his role. Consequently he had to endure several weeks of physical therapy

    • During Satine’s trapeze entrance, blue light was used due to Nicole Kidman’s pale skin tone, the director found that the blue light made her almost “glow” and therefore stood out during the scene.

    • Originally, the green fairy was going to be a long-haired muscle man with a giant sitar and Ozzy Osbourne was hired to provide the vocals. Eventually it was changed to the current “Tinker Bell” incarnation, played by Kylie Minogue, but Osbourne still gives voice to the fairy’s guttural scream when it turns evil.

    • In original drafts of the script, Satine had a three-year-old child and the story was told in flashbacks, told by Christian to the child.

    • The wardrobe department created three hundred costumes and, at one point, eighty people were employed for this task.

    • This movie was launched in Australia to an audience of just 250 people in a small country town called Taree, 200 miles north of Sydney. Baz Luhrmann grew up just outside of Taree where his family owned a gas service-station. The 250 tickets were sold at a local pharmacy.

    • The film is dedicated to Baz Luhrmann’s father, Leonard Luhrmann, who died just as filming was about to begin. Before he passed away, he told his son to focus on the film. When Luhrmann thought about giving up during its hectic production, he remembered his father’s words.

    • Nicole Kidman wears a wig throughout the movie.

    • Several images (i.e. clowns, men in tuxedos with tutus) are taken from Henri de Toulouse Lautrec’s paintings of the Moulin Rouge and nearby clubs.

    • The movie’s plot is an amalgam of three operas/operettas. A young writer with Bohemian friends, falling in love with a terminally ill girl, is from La Boheme, based on Henri Murger’s novel “La Vie de la Boheme.” A courtesan learning that love can also be true and idealistic comes from La Traviata, based on Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel La Dame aux Camelias, which also involves terminal illness. Finally, the plot line of the writer who travels to the “underworld” of the Moulin Rouge to find his love and tries to take her back to the “upper-world” comes from Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” based on Greek mythology–a movement from this opera’s overture becomes the “pitch” song for Spectacular Spectacular.

    • The production was over-running in its shooting schedule and had to be out of the Fox Studios in Sydney to make way for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) – which also featured Ewan McGregor. This necessitated some pick-up shots being filmed in Madrid.

    • Nicole Kidman had to be replaced in the film Panic Room (2002) because of injuries she suffered while filming this film.

    • Jim Broadbent took two and a half hours every day to be fitted into his fat suit.

    • Moulin Rouge! (2001) became the first movie musical in ten years to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture since Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991). It was also snubbed for Best Director (Baz Luhrmann) and Best Original Screenplay, which has been cited as one of the most outrageous Oscar snubs of The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002).

    • The hand painted scrolls used in the credits were painted in irregular aspect ratio in order to be filmed correctly.

    • An enormous elephant statue in the garden, bought from a theme park, housed an Arabic nightclub and an opium den.

    • The “placeholder” name of the Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) during the writing of the script was Count Von Groovy.

    • It would often take 20 minutes to lace Nicole Kidman into her corset.

    • Spent 45 weeks in US theaters during its initial release.

    • The Paris landscape was digitally produced and the two longest visual effects shots to date that appear in this film.

    • Shot over a period of 192 days.

    • The word “love” and its variations (loved, loves, loving, lover and lovers) appears in this film 143 times which also alludes to the phrase “I love you” because of how many letters per word; “I” has one letter, “love” has four letters and “you” has three.

    • Frenchman Henri de Toulouse Lautrec is played by Hispanic (Colombian) actor John Leguizamo. In the 1952 film Moulin Rouge (1952), he was played by another Hispanic actor, Puerto Rican born José Ferrer. Cast member David Wenham shares the role of another Frenchman with Ferrer: Cyrano de Bergerac.

    • According to adult film performer Monica Mayhem, some of the wardrobes for this film were borrowed for a production she was on and the production team and performers had to make sure the clothing never got messy.

    • The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year not to be nominated in any of the writing categories.

    • Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent later co-starred in Paddington (2014).

    • It uses the musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France

    • Legendary American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury was not a fan of the film. In an interview for an updated edition of his novel Fahrenheit 451 he criticized the film’s frequent cutting style, saying that it created less of a need to thoughtfully analyze the story because too many images were coming and going all at once. He said that it receiving so much praise and awards was reason for concern.

    • John Leguizamo also appears as Tybalt in Romeo + Juliet (1996).

Released: May 18, 2001

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Screenplay: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce

Stars:  Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh

Plot:  A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan who was promised to a jealous duke.

How did this movie do
Budget: $50 million
Box office: $179 million

  • Possible Christians included Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ronan Keating.

  • Possible Satines included Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank, Renée Zellweger, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Mendoza, Sharleen Spiteri, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

  • Tim Wheeler, of the rock band Ash, auditioned for the lead role of Christian, which led him to write the track “Orpheus.” Courtney Love auditioned for Satine, and allowed Baz Luhrmann to use Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in the opening sequence, a rare case of allowing her late husband Kurt Cobain’s work to be used in film or TV.

  • Heath Ledger lost the lead role when it was determined he was too young to be a romantic interest for Nicole Kidman. He was so angry at Baz Luhrmann that years later he refused to work with him in Australia (2008).

  • Elijah Wood auditioned by doing a song-and-dance number but he failed to land a part.

  • Rowan Atkinson and Alan Cumming were considered for the part of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. John Leguizamo was originally considered for the role of The Argentinean.

  • Courtney Love has gone on record calling losing the role of Satine to Nicole Kidman one of the biggest disappoints of her career and made no secret of her resentment against Kidman. Director Baz Luhrmann characterized the difference between the two actresses in a Vanity Fair article by saying “Courtney is fire and Nicole is ice.” This prompted Love to remark that Kidman was “a puddle” and dedicate the song “Miss World” (a song about a self-loathing beauty queen) to Kidman on her 1999 tour with her band Hole.
  • “Come What May” was written by David Baerwald for Romeo + Juliet (1996) but not used. In Moulin Rouge! (2001), it is newly written for the stage show by Christian. It is the only completely original song in the entire film. However, because it was written for another film, it was disqualified for the Oscars’ Best Song award.

  • The Elephant medley contains parts of several famous and not-so-famous love songs. These include “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles, “I Was Made for Loving You” by KISS, “One More Night” by Phil Collins, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2, “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Thelma Houston, “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney, “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, “Heroes” by David Bowie, “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton, and “Your Song” by Elton John.

  • Cat Stevens would not license his song “Father and Son,” which was the first musical number in the original script, because of his current religious beliefs.

  • In the “Like a Virgin” number, Jim Broadbent’s voice is dubbed by opera singer Anthony Weigh, mimicking Broadbent’s own vocal performance. The floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola so the dancers wouldn’t slip. This segment, Richard Roxburgh’s favorite experience from the production, took a week to film.

  • Baz Luhrmann hired Marilyn Manson to sing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which made Courtney Love very angry as she and Manson had a longstanding feud. She evoked the performer approval clause in her contract, forcing production to find an unknown band to re-record the song six days before the movie’s opening.

  • The song “My Way,”made popular by Frank Sinatra, was considered to be performed by The Duke for the film, but this never developed. However, The Duke still repeatedly yells, “My way!” during the finale.

  • The Rolling Stones declined permission to use one of their songs in the film.

  • Satine’s sickness – though only referred to as “consumption” in the movie – is pulmonary tuberculosis.

  • Filming was halted for two weeks in November 1999 after Nicole Kidman fractured two ribs and injured her knee while rehearsing a dance routine for the film. Many of the scenes where she is seen only from the chest up, including “a real actress,” were shot while she was in a wheelchair.

  • The necklace worn by Nicole Kidman was made of real diamonds and platinum and was the most expensive piece of jewelry ever specifically made for a film. The Stefano Canturi necklace was made with 1,308 diamonds, weighing a total of 134 carats and was worth an estimated U.S. $1 million.

  • Various tricks were used to make John Leguizamo‘s (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa) legs appear shorter. Some shots are of his stand-in who was of the correct height, while in others he walked on his knees in special leg braces and wearing blue socks so that his lower legs could be digitally removed. Leguizamo did the entire climactic scene from a squatting position to give him greater mobility in his role. Consequently he had to endure several weeks of physical therapy

  • During Satine’s trapeze entrance, blue light was used due to Nicole Kidman’s pale skin tone, the director found that the blue light made her almost “glow” and therefore stood out during the scene.

  • Originally, the green fairy was going to be a long-haired muscle man with a giant sitar and Ozzy Osbourne was hired to provide the vocals. Eventually it was changed to the current “Tinker Bell” incarnation, played by Kylie Minogue, but Osbourne still gives voice to the fairy’s guttural scream when it turns evil.

  • In original drafts of the script, Satine had a three-year-old child and the story was told in flashbacks, told by Christian to the child.

  • The wardrobe department created three hundred costumes and, at one point, eighty people were employed for this task.

  • This movie was launched in Australia to an audience of just 250 people in a small country town called Taree, 200 miles north of Sydney. Baz Luhrmann grew up just outside of Taree where his family owned a gas service-station. The 250 tickets were sold at a local pharmacy.

  • The film is dedicated to Baz Luhrmann’s father, Leonard Luhrmann, who died just as filming was about to begin. Before he passed away, he told his son to focus on the film. When Luhrmann thought about giving up during its hectic production, he remembered his father’s words.

  • Nicole Kidman wears a wig throughout the movie.

  • Several images (i.e. clowns, men in tuxedos with tutus) are taken from Henri de Toulouse Lautrec’s paintings of the Moulin Rouge and nearby clubs.

  • The movie’s plot is an amalgam of three operas/operettas. A young writer with Bohemian friends, falling in love with a terminally ill girl, is from La Boheme, based on Henri Murger’s novel “La Vie de la Boheme.” A courtesan learning that love can also be true and idealistic comes from La Traviata, based on Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel La Dame aux Camelias, which also involves terminal illness. Finally, the plot line of the writer who travels to the “underworld” of the Moulin Rouge to find his love and tries to take her back to the “upper-world” comes from Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” based on Greek mythology–a movement from this opera’s overture becomes the “pitch” song for Spectacular Spectacular.

  • The production was over-running in its shooting schedule and had to be out of the Fox Studios in Sydney to make way for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) – which also featured Ewan McGregor. This necessitated some pick-up shots being filmed in Madrid.

  • Nicole Kidman had to be replaced in the film Panic Room (2002) because of injuries she suffered while filming this film.

  • Jim Broadbent took two and a half hours every day to be fitted into his fat suit.

  • Moulin Rouge! (2001) became the first movie musical in ten years to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture since Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991). It was also snubbed for Best Director (Baz Luhrmann) and Best Original Screenplay, which has been cited as one of the most outrageous Oscar snubs of The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002).

  • The hand painted scrolls used in the credits were painted in irregular aspect ratio in order to be filmed correctly.

  • An enormous elephant statue in the garden, bought from a theme park, housed an Arabic nightclub and an opium den.

  • The “placeholder” name of the Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) during the writing of the script was Count Von Groovy.

  • It would often take 20 minutes to lace Nicole Kidman into her corset.

  • Spent 45 weeks in US theaters during its initial release.

  • The Paris landscape was digitally produced and the two longest visual effects shots to date that appear in this film.

  • Shot over a period of 192 days.

  • The word “love” and its variations (loved, loves, loving, lover and lovers) appears in this film 143 times which also alludes to the phrase “I love you” because of how many letters per word; “I” has one letter, “love” has four letters and “you” has three.

  • Frenchman Henri de Toulouse Lautrec is played by Hispanic (Colombian) actor John Leguizamo. In the 1952 film Moulin Rouge (1952), he was played by another Hispanic actor, Puerto Rican born José Ferrer. Cast member David Wenham shares the role of another Frenchman with Ferrer: Cyrano de Bergerac.

  • According to adult film performer Monica Mayhem, some of the wardrobes for this film were borrowed for a production she was on and the production team and performers had to make sure the clothing never got messy.

  • The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year not to be nominated in any of the writing categories.

  • Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent later co-starred in Paddington (2014).

  • It uses the musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France

  • Legendary American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury was not a fan of the film. In an interview for an updated edition of his novel Fahrenheit 451 he criticized the film’s frequent cutting style, saying that it created less of a need to thoughtfully analyze the story because too many images were coming and going all at once. He said that it receiving so much praise and awards was reason for concern.

  • John Leguizamo also appears as Tybalt in Romeo + Juliet (1996).

The 3 Guys Rating

1.67/5

About The Movie From IMDB

Moulin Rouge! Drama, Musical, Romance | 127min | June 1, 2001 (United States) 7.6
Director: Baz LuhrmannWriter: Baz Luhrmann, Craig PearceStars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John LeguizamoSummary: The year is 1899, and Christian, a young English writer, has come to Paris to follow the Bohemian revolution taking hold of the city's drug and prostitute infested underworld. And nowhere is the thrill of the underworld more alive than at the Moulin Rouge, a night club where the rich and poor men alike come to be entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. But her affections are also coveted by the club's patron: the Duke. A dangerous love triangle ensues as Satine and Christian attempt to fight all odds to stay together but a force that not even love can conquer is taking its toll on Satine... —O.G.

Photos


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Videos


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Cast

Nicole Kidman
...
Satine
Ewan McGregor
...
Christian
John Leguizamo
...
Toulouse-Lautrec
Jim Broadbent
...
Harold Zidler
Richard Roxburgh
...
The Duke
Garry McDonald
...
The Doctor
Jacek Koman
...
The Unconscious Argentinean
Matthew Whittet
...
Satie
Kerry Walker
...
Marie
Caroline O'Connor
...
Nini Legs In The Air
Christine Anu
...
Arabia
Natalie Mendoza
...
China Doll
Lara Mulcahy
...
Môme Fromage
David Wenham
...
Audrey
Kylie Minogue
...
The Green Fairy
Ozzy Osbourne
...
The Green Fairy
Deobia Oparei
...
Le Chocolat
Linal Haft
...
Warner

See full cast >>
Countries: Australia, United StatesLanguages: English, French, SpanishBudget: $50,000,000 (estimated)
Source: imdb.com
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Quotes From The Movie

7.6
Moulin Rouge! 127min | Drama, Musical, Romance | June 1, 2001 (United States)
Director: Baz LuhrmannWriter: Baz Luhrmann, Craig PearceStars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo
Summary: A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets.
Countries: Australia, United StatesLanguages: English, French, Spanish
Source: imdb.comDisclaimer: This plugin has been coded to automatically quote data from imdb.com. Not available for any other purpose. All showing data have a link to imdb.com. The user is responsible for any other use or change codes.

Quotes

Christian: The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

Christian, Satine: Come what may, I will love you until my dying day.

Satine: Tell our story Christian, that way I'll-I'll always be with you.

Satine: [singing] Never knew I could feel like this. Like I've never seen the sky before. Want to vanish inside your kiss, every day I'm loving you more and more. Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing? Come back to me- and forgive everything.

[gasp]

Satine: Seasons may change, winter to spring... I love you 'til the end of time.

Argentinean: We have a dance in the brothels of Buenos Aires. It tells the story of the prostitute and a man who falls in love with her. First, there is desire. Then, passion. Then, suspicion. Jealousy. Anger. Betrayal. When love is for the highest bidder, there can be no trust. Without trust, there can be no love. Jealousy, yes, jealousy will drive you mad.

Satine: Besides, I can't fall in love with anyone

Christian: Can't... fall... in love? But, a life without love, that's... terrible...

Satine: No, being on the street, that's terrible.

Christian: No! Love is like oxygen!

Satine: What?

Christian: Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!

Christian: [bursts out into song]

Toulouse-Lautrec: Christian, you may see me only as a drunken, vice-ridden gnome whose friends are just pimps and girls from the brothels. But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.

[last lines]

Christian: [voiceover and typing] Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. And then, one not-so-very special day, I went to my typewriter, I sat down, and I wrote our story. A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But above all things, a story about love. A love that will live forever. The End.

Christian: [voiceover, singing] The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

Satine: I don't need you anymore! All my life you made believe I was only worth what someone would pay for me! But Christian loves me. He loves me! He loves me, Harold. And that is worth everything! We're going away from you, away from the Duke, away from the Moulin Rouge!

Zidler: The show must go on, Satine. We're creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to love.

Satine: I'm sorry, Christian, I'm dying.

Christian: No, you'll be alright

Satine: I'm so sorry, Christian. I'm sorry.

[brief pause]

Satine: I'm cold. Hold me.

[long pause]

Satine: You've got to carry on without me, Christian.

Christian: I can't carry on without you.

Satine: You have so much to give.

Christian: No.

Satine: Ye. Tell our story, Christian.

Christian: I love you.

Satine: [smiles] Tell our story, Christian, that way I'll always be with you.

Christian: Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and then on not-so very special day, I sat down at my type-writer and I wrote down our story. A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But most importantly, a story about love. A love that will live forever. The end.

Argentinean: Never fall in love with a woman who sells herself. It always ends...

Argentinean: [screams] BAD!

Christian: [singing] Why does my heart cry? Feelings I can't fight... you're free to leave me, but just don't deceive me, and please believe me when I say I love you!

Christian: [to the Duke] This woman is yours now. I've paid my whore.

[to Satine]

Christian: I owe you nothing. And you are nothing to me. Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love.

Christian: It's a little bit funny.

Satine: What?

Christian: This feeling inside. I'm not one of those who can easily hide. Is this ok? Is this what you want?

Satine: Ah, poetry. Yes, this it what I want naughty words.

Christian: I don't have much money but boy if I did, I'd buy a big house where we both could live. If I were a sculptor, but then again, no. Or a man who makes potions a traveling show. I know it's not much...

Satine: Oh Naughty, don't stop, don't stop.

Christian: But it's the best I can do.

[sings]

Christian: My gift is my song. And this one's for you. And you can tell everybody that this is your song. It may be quite simple but now that it's done. I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words... how wonderful life is now you're in the world.

The Duke: I don't like this ending...

Zidler: Don't like the ending, my dear Duke?

The Duke: Why should the courtesan chose the penniless sitar player over the maharajah who is offering her a lifetime of security? That's real love. Once the sitar player has satisfied his lust he will leave her with nothing. I suggest that the courtesan chose the maharajah.

Toulouse-Lautrec: But, but tell me, that ending does not uphold the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and...

The Duke: [shouts] I don't care about your ridiculous dogma! Why shouldn't the courtesan chose the maharajah?

Christian: [shouts] Because she doesn't love you!... Him... Hi-him, she doesn't love... she doesn't love him.

The Duke: Oh, I see... Monsieur Zidler, the play will be rewritten with the courtesan choosing the maharajah and without the lovers' secret song. It will be rehearsed in the morning, ready for the opening tomorrow night...

Zidler: But, my dear Duke, that will be quite impossible.

Satine: Harold, the Duke is being treated appallingly. These silly writers let their imaginations run away with themselves. Why don't you and I have a little supper, and then we can tell Monsieur Zidler how we would like the story to end.

Zidler: Send Christian away.

Satine: He will fight for me.

Zidler: Unless he believes that you don't love him.

Satine: What?

Zidler: You're a great actress, Satine. Make him believe that you don't love him.

Satine: No!

Zidler: Use your talent to save him! Hurt him, Satine. Hurt him to save him. There is no other way. The show must go on. We are creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to love.

Satine: A little supper? Maybe some champagne?

Christian: I'd rather, um, just get it over and done with.

Satine: Hmph. Oh. Very well. Then why don't you come down here and let's get it over and done with.

Christian: I prefer to do it standing.

Satine: Oh.

[starts to stand]

Christian: You don't have to stand, I mean. It's sometimes that... It's quite long and I'd like you to be comfortable. It's quite modern what I do and it may feel a little strange at first, but I think, if you're open, then you might enjoy it.

Zidler: I am the evil maharajah.

Satine: Oh Harold, no one could play him like you could.

Zidler: No one's going to.

Christian: Then I'll write a song and we'll put it in the show and whenever you sing it or hear it. Or whistle or hum it then you'll know. It'll mean that we love one another.

The Duke: It's not that I'm not a jealous man. I just don't like other people touching my things.

Satine: [to herself, singing] When will I begin to live again? One day I'll fly away... leave all this to yesterday. Why live life from dream to dream, and dread the day when dreaming ends.

Christian: Wait. No, please wait. Before, when we were... when you thought I was the Duke, you said that you loved me, a- and I wondered if...

Satine: It was just an act?

Christian: Yes.

Satine: Of course.

Christian: Oh. It just felt real.

Satine: Christian, I'm a courtesan. I'm paid to make men believe what they want to believe.

The Green Fairy: I'm the Green Fairy... The hills are alive, with The Sound Of Music.

The Duke: You expect me to believe that scantily clad, in the arms of another man, in the middle of the night, inside an elephant you were rehearsing?

Christian: Mademaiselle Satine, I haven't quite finished writing that new scene. The "Will The Lovers Be Meeting at the Sitar Player's Humble Abode" scene. And I wondered if I could work on it with you later tonight.

The Duke: But, my dear, I've arranged a magnificent supper for us in the Gothic Tower.

Christian: It's not important. We could work on it tomorrow.

Satine: Oh, how dare you! It cannot wait until tomorrow. The "Lovers Will Be Meeting in the Sitar Player's Humble Abode" scene is the most important in the production. We will work on it tonight until I am completely satisfied.

The Duke: B-But my dear...

Satine: Dear Duke. Excuse me.

Christian: [smiles] I'm sorry.

Christian: India! India! It's set in India! And there's a courtesan, the most beautiful courtesan in all the world.

[Turns to the Duke]

Christian: But her kingdom's invaded by an evil Maharaja! Now, in order to save her kingdom, she has to seduce the evil Maharaja. But on the night of the seduction, she mistakes a penniless po- a penniless- a penniless sitar player for the evil Maharaja and she falls in love with him!

[turns to Satine]

Christian: He wasn't trying to trick her or anything, but he was dressed as a Maharaja because... he's appearing in a play!

Christian: The Moulin Rouge. A night club, a dance hall and a bordello. Ruled over by Harold Zidler. A kingdom of night time pleasures. Where the rich and powerful came to play with the young and beautiful creatures of the underworld. The most beautiful of these was the one I loved. Satine. A courtesan. She sold her love to men. They called her the "Sparkling Diamond", and she was the star... of the Moulin rouge. The woman I loved is... dead.

Satine: I can't believe it. I'm in love. I'm in love with a young, handsome, talented duke.

Christian: Duke?

Satine: Not that the title's important, of course.

Christian: I'm not a duke.

Satine: Not a duke?

Christian: I'm a writer.

Satine: A writer?

Satine: The French are glad to die for love. They delight in fighting duels. But I prefer a man who lives... and gives expensive... jewels.

[the bohemians are rehearsing a play that resembles a certain musical that begins with a nun singing atop a hill]

Toulouse-Lautrec: [singing] The hills are made with the euphonious symphonies of descant...

Doctor: I don't think a nun would say that about a hill.

Toulouse-Lautrec: I got it, I got it. Christian.

[shouts]

Toulouse-Lautrec: The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

Cast of Spectacular, Spectacular: [singing] So exciting, we'll make them laugh, we'll make them cry. So delighting...

The Duke: And in the end, should someone die?

Zidler: A magnificent, opulent, tremendous, stupendous, gargantuan, bedazzlement, a sensual ravishment. It will be: Spectacular Spectacular.

Nini Legs-In-The-Air: This ending's silly. Why would the courtesan go for the penniless writer? Whoops. I mean sitar player.

Satine: The difference between you and I is that you can leave anytime you choose. But this is my home.

Argentinean: The boy has talent.

[Grabs Christian's crotch]

Argentinean: [Christian gasps]

Argentinean: Nothing funny, I just like talent.

Christian: Where were you last night?

Satine: I told you... I was sick.

Christian: You don't have to lie to me.

Satine: We have to end it. Everybody knows. Harold knows. Sooner or later the Duke will find out.

Zidler: The Duke holds the deeds to the Moulin Rouge, he's spending a fortune on you, he's giving you a beautiful new dressing room, he wants to make you a star, and YOU'RE DALLYING WITH THE WRITER!

Satine: Harold, that's ridic...

Zidler: I SAW YOU TOGETHER.

Satine: It's nothing. It's just an infatuation... it's nothing.

Zidler: The infatuation will end. Go to the boy; tell him it's over, and the Duke is expecting you in the tower at eight.

Christian: Tell me the truth.

Satine: The truth? The truth is that I am the Hindu courtesan... and I choose the maharajah.

Zidler: She said you make her feel "like a virgin."

The Duke: Virgin?

Zidler: You know, touched for the very first time.

[Before kissing Christian]

Satine: You're going to be bad for business. I can tell.

Satine: [enters Christian's loft in hysterics] Oh, thank goodness!

[she hugs Christian and begins crying]

Satine: I couldn't! I couldn't go through with it! I saw you there and I felt differently! I couldn't pretend!

[sobbing]

Satine: And the Duke he saw! He saw and he-Christian, I love you.

[continues to hug him]

Christian: [quietly] It's okay.

Satine: [sobbing] I couldn't deal with it! I don't want to pretend anymore! I didn't want to lie! I don't -

[takes a breath and calms down]

Satine: And he knows! He knows and he saw you!

Christian: That's all right. You don't have to pretend anymore. We'll leave. We'll leave tonight.

Satine: Leave? Wh-the show wh-?

Christian: I don't care. I don't care about the show. We have each other. That's all that matters.

Satine: Yes. As long as we have each other. We have each other.

[they kiss]

Christian: [turns to Chocolat] Chocolat. Take Miss Satine to her dressing room and get the things she needs. No one must see you. Do you understand?

Le Chocolat: I understand.

Christian: [to Satine] Now darling you go and pack, and I'll be waiting.

[he wraps his coat around Satine and gives her a final kiss]

Nini Legs-In-The-Air: Don't worry Shakespeare, you'll get your ending. Once the Duke gets his end-in.

Zidler: You know it is. The show must go on. And now my bride it is time to raise your voice to the heavens and say your wedding vows.

Zidler: Outside things may be tragic, but in here we feel its magic.

Christian: [v.o] Luckily, right at that moment, an unconscious Argentinean fell through my roof.

[With a loud crash, the Narcoleptic Argentinean falls through the ceiling]

Christian: [v.o] He was quickly joined by a dwarf dressed as a nun.

The Duke: Why shouldn't the courtesan go for the maharajah?

Christian: Because she doesn't love you. Him... hi... him... sh... she doesn't love... him...

Zidler: [singing] If life's an awful bore, and living's just a chore that we do caus' death's not much fun. I just have the antidote, and though I mustn't gloat at the Moulin Rouge. You'll have fun... Scratch that little niggle, have a little wiggle, you know that you can... Because we can can can.

Satine: Please tell me you're not one of Toulouse's oh so talented, charmingly bohemian, tragically impoverished writers?

Satine: Come and get me boys!

Christian: I've come to pay my bill.

Christian: [singing] Sat on the roof/ and I kicked off the moss/ and some of these verses, well they/ they've got me quite cross/ but the sun's been kind/ while I wrote this song/ It's for people like you that/ keep it turned on/ so excuse me forgetting/ but these things I do/ you see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue/ the whole thing is/ what I really mean/ your's are the sweetest eyes/ I've ever seen .

Christian: I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom, and that which I believed in above all things: love.

Satine: What's his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?

Zidler: I'd say... smoldering temptress.

Zidler: You're dying, Satine.

Satine: [long pause] Another trick, Harold?

Zidler: The doctor told us.

Satine: Marie?

Marie: [silence]

Satine: [singing to self] I was a fool to believe, a fool to believe. It all ends today, yes it all ends today.

Zidler: She is mine.

The Duke: She is mine.

[singing]

Zidler: 'Cause we can cancan. Yes we can cancan.

Toulouse-Lautrec: Unbewievable. Stwaight to the ewephant.

Argentinean: The Hills are alive with the sound of music? I love it.

Satine: [singing] Today's the day...

Satine, Zidler: [singing] When dreaming ends

Toulouse-Lautrec: How do you do? My name is Henri Marie Raymond Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa.

Christian: What?

Toulouse-Lautrec: I'm terribly sorry about all this. We're just upstairs rehearsing a play.

Christian: What?

Christian: We were off to the Moulin Rouge and I was to perform my poetry for Satine.

Satine: [to Christian] On opening night I have to sleep with the Duke, and the jealousy will drive you mad.

Bohemians: [singing towards the Duke] No matter what you say the show is ending our way. You've gotta stand your ground for freedom, beauty, truth, and love.

[first lines]

Toulouse-Lautrec: [singing] There was a boy, a very strange enchanted boy...

Christian: [singing] His eyes upon your face. His hand upon your hand. His lips caress your skin. It's more than I can stand!

Toulouse-Lautrec: He's got a huge... talent .

Nini Legs-In-The-Air: [to Christian] Don't worry Shakespeare, you'll get your ending. Once the Duke gets his... "end" in.

Christian: [singing] The courtesan and sitar man are pulled apart by an evil plan...

Satine: [singing] but in the end she hears his song...

Christian: [singing] and their love is just too strong.

The Duke: [singing] It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside.

The Duke: ...a little frog

Zidler: Everything's going so well.

Zidler: Remember, a real show, in a real theater, with a real audience. And you'll be...

Satine: A real actress.

The Duke: Generally I like it.

Argentinean: It's like; one is a Duke, and the other...

[Argentinean falls asleep and falls down stairs]

Satine: We're going away, away from you, away from the Duke, away from the Moulin Rouge. Goodbye Harold!

Christian: How could I know... in those last fatal days... that a force darker than jealousy... and stronger than love; had began to take hold of Satine...

Zidler: Where is she?

Satine: [singing] I'll top the bill/ I'll earn the kill/ I have to find the will to carry on with the, on with the, on with the show.

Zidler: [after the Argentinian collapses asleep in mid-rehearsal] Honestly amigo, this is impossible!

Cast of Spectacular, Spectacular: [singing] Spectacular, Spectacular! No words in the vernacular can describe this great event, you'll be dumb with wonderment!

Satine: [sings] A kiss on the hand may be, quite continental, but diamonds are a girls best friend! A kiss may be grand but it, won't pay the rental on your humble flat, or help you feed your mmhm pussycat! Men grow cold as girls grow old, and we all loose our charms in the end... But square-cut or pear-shaped, these rocks don't loose their shape; Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

Zidler: Send Christian away. Only you can save him.

Satine: I'm sure I will...

Toulouse-Lautrec: Things aren't always as they seem.

Christian: Things are exactly the way they seem.

Argentinean: [arriving on stage after falling unconscious for a time] S'okay. Everybody go back to work.

Satine: Harold, the cat's out of the bag!

The Duke: Conversion of the Moulin Rouge into a theatre will cost a fantastic sum of money, Zidler. So, in return, I would require a contract that, um... binds Satine to me, exclusively.

[Zidler raises his eyebrows]

The Duke: Naturally, I shall require some security. I shall require the deeds to the Moulin Rouge.

Zidler: My dear Duke, I...

The Duke: Please! Don't think that I'm naive, Zidler. I shall hold the deeds to the Moulin Rouge. And if there are any shenanigans...

Zidler: I...

The Duke: My manservant, Warner, will deal with it in the only language that you underworld showfolk understand. Satine will be mine. It's not that I'm a jealous man...

[suddenly irate]

The Duke: I JUST DON'T... LIKE OTHER PEOPLE TOUCHING MY THINGS!

[calms down]

Zidler: I... understand completely... Duke.

Argentinean: You're a beautiful woman.

[whispers]

Argentinean: I love sex.

Toulouse-Lautrec: Oh no, I forgot my line.

Zidler: Outside it may be raining, but in here it's entertaining.

Satine: Harold, the poor Duke is being treated appallingly. These silly writers let their imaginations run away with them.

[to the Duke]

Satine: Now why don't you and I have a little supper. And then afterwards, we can let Monsieur Zidler know how we would prefer the story to end.

Zidler: ...And you're dallying with the writer.

Satine: Oh, Harold, don't be ridicul...

Zidler: I saw you together.

Satine: It's nothing. It's just an infatuation. It's... it's nothing.

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