Moulin Rouge! was a whirlwind of a film, an extravagant assault on the senses that reinvigorated the musical. The doomed love affair between Satine (Nicole Kidman), a glamorous cabaret star and courtesan, and Christian (Ewan McGregor), an impoverished English poet, in turn-of-the-century Paris plays out in feverish song-and-dance numbers made up of medleys of iconic pop songs.
By the time it was released in 2001, the Australian director Baz Luhrmann had already perfected his signature style with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet – a blend of frantic editing, over-the-top visuals and contemporary music. Moulin Rouge! – the final film in his Red Curtain trilogy – took this up a notch.
Despite mixed reviews, it went on to become a huge box office success and, in 2002, became the first musical to receive a best picture Oscar nomination since Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
Here, the cast and crew talk about their favourite memories of working on the film, and why it has endured as a modern classic.
After adapting Romeo and Juliet in 1996, Luhrmann decided to make a musical dedicated to one of the most famous venues in Paris: the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre.
Baz Luhrmann: In the 70s, when I was growing up, musicals were considered a joke. I loved them … There was a time when I was going to set Moulin Rouge! in Studio 54. I guess Toulouse-Lautrec would have been Andy Warhol. But then I realised that would be too fashionable.
Auditions were held in Sydney, Australia, with Luhrmann holding a series of workshops involving singing, movement exercises and table reads.
BL: The amount of young actors that came in, most of whom are now absolute icons … I remember Heath Ledger coming in, and he was quite wonderful, just too young.
Jim Broadbent (who played Harold Zidler, owner of the Moulin Rouge): When Baz offered me the part, I said I wasn’t a singer. He said: “We can always add somebody else’s voice to the operatic numbers.”
BL: I saw Nicole in a play on Broadway. I sent her some roses and said [in the message]: “She sings, she dances, she dies [referring to Satine]”. She came in and we workshopped. She owned the role. She worked so hard on her vocals and dancing.
Lara Mulcahy (who played Môme Fromage, one of the Diamond Dogs, the dancers at the Moulin Rouge): I was in Strictly Ballroom, so when this came up, I said to my agent: “Please put me up for it.” I did [the audition] via video. We had to learn a couple of dance routines and we had to sing a song as well.
BL: I met Ewan in the workshop process on Romeo + Juliet. He was almost Mercutio, actually, and then I changed Mercutio [to be] an African American drag queen. The thing about Ewan was, right out of the gate, his vocal power. He was a real singer.
Jacek Koman (who played the Unconscious Argentinean, a performer suffering from narcolepsy): It was quite an informal meeting. Baz was running around with a little camera, and I was prancing around.
After everyone was cast, there was a period of intense rehearsal at Iona, a building owned by Luhrmann in Sydney.
JK: It felt a bit like drama school. We felt really supported and inspired. You could always pop in to watch someone else’s dance training or singing. We would meet for lunch together, dozens of us. Every Friday, we had show and tell – we watched dance routines and acting scenes evolve.
JB: The choreographer had a certain amount of anxiety working with me. Then we discovered some sort of jokey jazz dancing that I could do. He said: “I can work with that!”
Filming started at Fox Studios in Sydney in November 1999 and ran until May 2000, with a budget of US$50m.
BL: [My dad, Leonard] died on the first day. I delayed the shoot for 10 days – I’ve never done it before in my life, where I put work second to something else. The last thing Dad said to me, because he was dying from cancer, was just make sure you do your very best. So I went back with that attitude. [The film is dedicated to him.]
JB: I had a lot of padding, a fake beard and a wig put on every day. It was physically uncomfortable.
LM: For our big main entrance, I remember Baz going: “No, more, I want more!” He wanted big performances. I laugh now because I see some shots and my mouth is open wide, swallowing the camera like a tiger.
Catherine Martin (associate producer, production designer, co-costume designer and Luhrmann’s wife): One of our biggest extras days was about 350 people. We made an enormous amount of costumes, in excess of 1,000.
Craig Armstrong (composer): Baz will ask anybody for their advice. Even the assistants making coffee. He’s very democratic.
The cast spent the time between takes getting to know each other.
JK: Jim would offer us his stash of Cuban cigars. Some scenes took a while to reset, so we had a lot of time to muck around – Ewan is a strong force in that department.
JB: I had an air-conditioning unit pumping cold air into my suit to keep me cool, so there wasn’t much running around off set.
LM: I spent a lot of time in the wig room with Nicole. She was lovely – she bought me beautiful perfume on my birthday. She was happy to chat and have a laugh.
CA: As the film went on, Ewan started working on Star Wars [Episode II – Attack of the Clones, filmed at the same studio]. So you’d walk out of the Moulin Rouge! set, and you’d see McGregor with his lightsaber.
CM: We would have parties, and we’d take over the garden and put a dancefloor on the grass – it was great fun.
Kidman threw herself into the role – and kept getting injured on set.
BL: Nicole would have not a bar of it, not being on that swing [we meet Satine for the first time as she is lowered down on a trapeze in the Moulin Rouge]. She said: “You need to believe that it’s me.” We rigged her up and she had a harness.
CM: We’re not quite sure how the first cracked rib happened. She came back to work. Her doctors, who were there, were saying: “The corset will be great.” When we were lacing her in tightly, we broke her rib again.
BL: Nicole had this moment where she had to come down the stairs. She slipped. There’s a scene where she’s in a wheelchair because she’d really busted her ankle. She was on crutches for a bit. It wasn’t easy but she is the definition of a trouper.
A 60ft elephant was created with the actors filmed on top of it, strapped in to harnesses.
BL: They had to do all that singing in the air. Props to Ewan and Nicole for fearlessly running around out there with this stunt.
CM: Star Wars needed to move in [to the studio]. The great elephant was felled by a bulldozer. It was really emotional.
Filming the song-and-dance number Like a Virgin, where Zidler is trying to convince the Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) of Satine’s charms, was challenging.
BL: I thought I would never get the scene, because the guys would come in – it was a glass floor – and they were just falling everywhere. We put Coca-Cola all over the floor to make it sticky.
JB: Some of my singing was dubbed and some of it wasn’t. A lot of Like a Virgin was me.
The Unconscious Argentinean’s thrilling rendition of El Tango de Roxanne, a mashup of the Police’s Roxanne with Mariano Mores’s Tanguera, took several days to film with four camera crews.
JK: It was not a given that I would be singing. There were other plans, including a few famous vocalists. Just for a joke in one of the songs I used this sort of Mongolian throat singing. Marius De Vries, the music director, said: “Try singing Roxanne.” So I roared: “Ro-o-oxanne.” The rest is history.
John Leguizamo was cast as the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who was left with a short stature as a result of breaking both his legs as a teen.
BL: We made these prosthetic legs, and he could kneel in them. He learned to make it look as if he was walking with sticks.
JB: He was known on set as Johnny Legs. It must have been very hard for him. I never heard him moan about it. He’s a great guy.
The film had a lavish premiere in May 2001, when it opened the Cannes film festival.
BL: We did can-can dancers from the Moulin Rouge on the steps.
CM: The first time I saw the film I remember being absolutely floored by it. I thought: I’m seeing something so new. It felt like this cinematic poetry that was challenging the boundaries of what a movie could be.
CA: At the end of the premiere, there was quite a big silence. Then people did start clapping. I remember thinking: “Why doesn’t everybody totally love this?”
BL: We had a big dinner, and the first reviews were out. We got this one great review and the next review was just so scathing. It was very split in Cannes. Nicole just said: “Listen, we know what we’ve made, soldier on.” We had a screening in London, and I sat next to Prince Charles and he was very complimentary.
Moulin Rouge! went on to gross $179m at the worldwide box office. A cover of Lady Marmalade recorded for the soundtrack, featuring Christina Aguilera, Mýa, Pink and Lil’ Kim, was a No 1 hit in the UK and US. The film was nominated for eight Oscars in 2002 including best picture.
BL: I knew when I chose to pursue my own way of telling stories, you’re not going to be embraced as a director – I have come to peace with that. Was I chuffed that Whoopi [Goldberg, host of the 2002 Oscars] called it the film that “directed itself”? [A pointed reference to Luhrmann not getting a best director nomination.] Yeah, I was really touched.
The film won two Oscars: best art direction (shared by Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch) and best costume design (for Martin and Angus Strathie).
CM: After the ceremony we ended up in the penthouse at the Chateau Marmont, having this party that just descended into a Moulin Rouge-esque party. I remember at 6am sitting with my best friend on the couch – somebody making out beside us, people still dancing like crazy – and having a hot chocolate and toast in my pyjamas. The Oscars were being paraded around – people were doing unspeakable things to them. It was a really joyous evening … Baz was so supportive and excited.
The film remains a much-loved classic and ranked 53rd in a BBC poll of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century in 2016. It was adapted for the stage in 2018 and continues to tour around the world.
JK: People still come up to me on the street occasionally, which shocks me, because I certainly do not look anything like the narcoleptic Argentinian now. They often say: “Roxanne was the best thing in the film.” I love hearing it.
LM: I coach actors. Their parents are like: “Oh, my God, you’re in Moulin Rouge!” It’s such a part of our film history, particularly in Australia. It’s a film that everyone, even if they don’t like it, they all know it and the effect that it had.
JB: It’s an exciting film, and the energy comes across on the screen – the imagination, the music, the performances and the whole design leave a lasting impression.
BL: Twenty-odd years ago, people said the musical will never be popular again. I like our little contribution in smashing the door open.
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