Moulin Rouge is traditional cabaret on red-light-zone on street Pigalle near Montmartre, Paris, France. It is famous for its big red imitation of windmill on roof. Itself, design of Moulin Rouge is often immitated by other night clubs worldwide.
Moulin Rouge is a film produced in 2001, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, and directed by Baz Luhrmann, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is a colourful musical set in Montmartre, Paris, France.
It has a storyline and structure that is said to be inspired and influenced by Bollywood movies: exuberant music, colourful visuals, elaborate sets and costumes, simple story line with a simple conflict, heroine with melodramatic disease bravely hiding it from hero, two-dimensional characters, and the songs themselves (see commentary). In fact it includes a popular Hindi movie song near the end.
It was nominated for the following 2001 Academy Awards:
- Best Actress in a Leading Role: Nicole Kidman
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Brigitte Broch, Catherine Martin
- Best Cinematography: Donald McAlpine
- Best Costume Design: Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie
- Best Editing: Jill Bilcock
- Best Makeup: Aldo Signoretti, Maurizio Silvi
- Best Picture: Fred Baron, Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann
- Best Sound: Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Roger Savage, Guntis Sics
Commentary
This movie is also interesting because of the so-called intellectual property angle. Some of the singing dialogues in this movie use a technique similar to one sometimes found in Bollywood movies: each line of the song dialogue is an identifiable verse from some popular song. To a lay person, this appears to be an great example of the fair use concept of copyright. However, some people would consider it difficult for a small producer (not associated with the Big Five record labels) to attempt such use in the current litigious climate.