What Is The Movie 'Moulin Rouge' About And In Which Year Was The Most Recent Version Released?

The musical comedy, Moulin Rouge, was released in 2001 and was based to a certain extent upon the original film from 1952. One of the more interesting aspects of this movie-musical was the fact that the writer utilized what is called interpolation, which was a frequently used technique in the earliest years of musicals. The term refers to the incorporation of hit songs into a production for which they were not initially written. In Moulin Rouge, this is first seen when Ewan McGregor's character, Christian, is coaxed into standing in for a narcoleptic Argentinian in a small "bohemian" production. He is atop a ladder dressed in lederhosen leaning against a scenic mountain while the other characters are attempting to complete a song for the scene they are currently rehearsing. Christian sings a line from "The Sound of Music" that fits perfectly with the composed piece that is missing lyrics. Throughout the movie there are many other references to other popular films and music of the past.

If you go by the filmmakers, Moulin Rouge is about truth, liberty, freedom and above all, love.  It's about the doomed love between characters played by Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman, set in Paris, in the early 20th Century.

If you ask me, the movie is about director Baz Luhrmann running amok with set design and editing, and slamming the viewer over the head with themes and concepts. I had the same feeling I had with his version of Romeo and Juliet - for every interesting idea (and there are actually quite a few), there are at least two more that either don't work or have the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

That being said, it's kind of cool to hear "Material Girl" interpolated into "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", especially sung by the beautiful Nicole Kidman.