Amazon.com: It was one of the top 10 grossing films of 1952 and garnered seven Oscar nominations, but Moulin Rouge is neglected today. Not to be confused with the Baz Luhrmann-Nicole Kidman extravaganza, this is a color-soaked tale of Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer), based on a romanticized novel about the artist's life. Director John Huston explores the discrepancy between the creation of exquisite art and the messy business of living--especially messy for the growth-stunted, alcoholic painter, whose affairs revolve around prostitutes. The soap-opera aspects of the storyline limit the picture (as does the distracting fact of Ferrer walking on his knees), but it has some gorgeous things in it. The experiments in color photography (which horrified the Technicolor people) are spectacularly successful, and the movie won Oscars for set decoration and costumes. George Auric's haunting melody became a standard, so lovely even the dubbed performance of Zsa Zsa Gabor couldn't hurt it. --Robert Horton
Product Description: Nominated* for seven Academy Awards® (including Best Picture) and winner of two this visually stunning biography of master artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a painting come to life (Time)! Flawlessly directed (The Hollywood Reporter) by John Huston (The African Queen) from a script by Anthony Veiller and Huston Moulin Rouge is simply irresistible (Newsweek)!As a dwarf Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) believes he s too ugly to ever fall in love. So he loses himself in painting and cognac. A fixture at Paris infamous turn-of-the-century Moulin Rouge nightclub Lautrec meets a girl from the street who then breaks his heart. Luckily newfound artistic success copious amounts of drink and friendship with a new woman keep him alive. Will he be able to mend his broken heart in time to recognize the true love now staring him in the face?System Requirements: Running Time 119 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSIC DVD/DOCUMENTARY Rating: NR UPC: 027616906892 Manufacturer No: M102302
Tulouse LaTrec It's a 50's movie and I get a kick out of the special effects and some of the make up jobs. However, Jose Frerre did the entire movie on his knees to appear small in stature the same as Tulouse so I give him kudos for suffering through all that. Miss Gabor even looked good way back then!
Vivid Portrait of An Artist Even in an age when the studios placed restrictions on what would appear on screen director John Huston was a highly individual and uncomprosing auteur. Despite the film's ostensible setting in the gaiety of Paris' Moulin Rouge the film is front-and-center a portrait of a brooding cognac besotted artist Henri de Latrouse-Lautrec(Jose Ferrer). Born of French nobility, Latrouse-Lautrec was left crippled and deformed at an early age by a freak household accident. Embittered, Latrouse-Lautrec felt incapable or unworthy of being loved by a woman. Instead, he channels his passion into his painting with the Paris streets and primarily the notorious Moulin Rouge being his main subject matters. And what a thing of beauty his visions are! Despite salving his pain in alcohol Latrouse-Lautrec was still able to channel his passion into his indelible works of art. Including "Lust for Life", "Moulin Rouge" is probably the best biography of a painter I've ever seen on screen. Jose Ferrer, a lead actor who had the misfortune of being typecast in supporting roles for most of his career, is nothing less than wondrous as Latrouse-Lautrec. He embodies all the conflicts and contradictions of the man with few histrionics. "Moulin Rouge" is a work for the ages.
GHOSTS APPEAR AND FADE AWAY One of the best movies of its time is little more now than a "period piece". Indeed, the movie's terrific theme song has stood the test of time much better than the movie. Paris in 1890 is not exactly a "big draw" to today's movie goers.Ferrer, on the other hand, does a masterful job in playing Toulouse-Lautrec, brilliantly portraying the handicapped artist whose sketchings and posters hang today in the Louvre. But, the overall production seems prolonged and repetitious, and the fast paced banter of the actors seems difficult to follow.Since its release in 1952, many other films including "Rainman" and "Forrest Gump" seem also to have pushed director Huston's "masterpiece" aside. Now, however, if Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio would care to try an updated version...
Who is Zsa Zsa Gabor? On a souligné la performance de José Ferrer, mais son ton sentencieux m'agace un peu...La faute aux dialogues, quelquefois académiques. Etant français, je retiendrai surtout l'apparition de Suzanne Flon, car la prestation de la maîtresse de Lautrec, dans la première partie du film, est tout simplement exaspérante. Mais au fait, who is Zsa Zsa Gabor???
Moulin Rouge A box-office smash in 1952, John Huston's engrossing biopic about the discordant life and loves of famed 19th-century painter Toulouse-Lautrec is drenched in colors taken from the artist's own palette. Shot mostly from the waist up, but acting on his knees, José Ferrer does a remarkable job of conveying the gloomy Toulouse-Lautrec, whose infirmity crippled his self-esteem but instigated his flagrant art. Zsa Zsa Gabor, as entertainer Jane Avril, is captivating, while composer Georges Auric's now-classic score gives "Rouge" a melancholy cast. The flamboyant opening sequence is one of Huston's finest set pieces.
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