Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Leofwine_draca MOULIN ROUGE is an engaging and well-realised biopic of the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, directed by John Huston with skill and panache. It's a somewhat slow-moving mood piece that aims to depict a slice of life at tail of the 19th century in vivid and vibrant Paris, and it does that in spades.Tall actor Jose Ferrer plays the main role. Toulouse-Lautrec was a short guy in real life, so special effects are called into play to make Ferrer seem short. Sometimes he's doubled, sometimes he walks on his knees. It's a physical transformation worthy of the great Lon Chaney and Ferrer shines in the part, bringing the tortured artist soul to life in a believable way.The rest of the film can be slow in paces but there's always something visually interesting taking place to keep it moving. The cast is full of larger than life figures, none more so than Zsa Zsa Gabor as a flamboyant dancer. The scenes at the Moulin Rouge are particularly well-staged aside from the guy with the distracting fake nose and chin, but then he's used to tie in to the artist's famous silhouette. A regular run of familiar faces including Eric Pohlmann, Michael Balfour, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee helps to retain the interest, and the ending is suitably sombre.

Nazi_Fighter_David This romanticized treatment of the life of artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is literally one of the most colorful films ever made…All the hues and colors in the palette go whizzing by in the Parisian streets, country homes, and cabarets of the late 19th century… Can-Can girls in reds and blues, against a misty brown-gold backdrop, flourish their silks and feathers in the face and soul of dwarfed painter who could recreate their essence on canvas, yet never possess them physically… It is the tragedy of Lautrec's (Jose Ferrer) life which bounces around the rainbow framework… The cruel prostitute (Colette Marchand) to whom he gave his love and the young woman (Suzanne Flon) who befriended the artist motivate the narrative, from the crippling-fall in the home of his father to the death-fall in the dirty-looking saloon… Brilliant work by Ferrer, fine support by Marchand and Flon, and the gaiety of Zsa Zsa Gabor cap the film

bobkurtz-1 I can't believe a director as talented as John Huston, following up "African Queen" and other successes, would pick such an inexperienced, untested, untrained actress(?) as Zsa Zsa Gabor for this major role. Zsa Zsa through out her career, was just an interesting character, popular more for her accent then her acting ability.Others have stated that Huston was unkind, if not abusive to her on the set, so why didn't he just replace her?Zsa Zsa has no other film credit of any note before or since. She could have gone on "What's My Line" before 1952 with a not blindfolded panel and no one would dare guess what her line was, because the word couldn't be mentioned on the air. What a stupid way to say I think she was a prostitute before she was an actress or in other words, Huston hired a prostitute, to play a prostitute.I do give her credit, she made more out of a sexy voice, etc., than almost anyone in Hollywood.Jose Ferrer received an Oscar nomination for literally stumbling thru his role as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Not unlike George Clooney's nomination for his uneven performance this past year (2007) for "Michael Clayton".I loved "Moulin Rouge when I was 12 and it first came out in 1952. I can't stand it now. I agree with most of the other comments, especially that the costume and set decorations (both received Oscars) still give you the feeling of a bawdy Paris nightclub at the turn of the century. The dance sequences are excellent on every levelThe filming and technical accomplishments (camera angles) and the hazed look to the nightclub, show Huston at his best, and in some respects, this is a break thru for the film industry for 1952. I would guess that Huston rushed this film to completion and release on Dec 23, 1952 so that it would qualify for Oscar nominations that year. There can be almost no other excuse for the horrible lip sync problems especially with Zsa Zsa. You might think they were trying to sync her up saying her lines in Hungarian, with the English equivalents. Its sad that several other Hollywood films have fallen victim to this rush to release and terrible dubbing.Like so many movies that must draw you into the film, this one does not translate well to the small screen.Still haunting to listen too after all these years is the title song performed by Felicia Sanders with the Percy Faith orchestra, which is not in the movie.I hope I can post this without assigning a value, because at some times in my life and at some points of this uneven film its a "10" while at others its a "2"The above are just my opinions, that I know no one will agree with, however that's the only reason I write on IMDb, to be disagreeable.You have to realize I am a split personality, one crazy, the other just rude and insensitive. Why else would I see both Michael Clayton (theatre) and later Moulin Rouge (TV) on the same day and feel the need to comment on both.It is 1/26/09 and I am aware of Zsa Zsa loses at the hands of Bernard Madoff, which I find truly tragic and unfair to her. Since my opinions above maybe also viewed as unfair, unkind and untrue, I withdrawn them, but I'm not going to erase them. If I erase them no one will know "I'm Still Crazy After All These Years"

Steffi_P With the proficiency of filmmakers with Technicolor getting ever greater, there was a series of features in the 1950s about painting which mimicked a painterly look through their cinematography and composition. This biopic of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec achieves some of the best results to that end, not surprisingly as it is the result of a collaboration between director John Huston, himself a painter, and noted "specialist" cinematographer Oswald Morris, who went on to win an Oscar for his work here.The opening twenty minutes of Moulin Rouge is absolutely stunning. We open with a lengthy dance sequence at the eponymous club, a highly stylised and rhythmic scene almost like something out of a musical. Huston and Morris' aim here was to create something that looked like a Lautrec painting come to life. The light is misty, the backgrounds an indistinct blur while the foreground is dominated by bold splashes of colour. The result is absolutely captivating, embodying the atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Paris and Lautrec's world with dreamy nostalgia.Sadly, the film never gets back to these dizzy heights. The image and tone – that painting-come-to-life factor – is often good but never quite so great as at the beginning. Later on there is a very choppy montage of Lautrec's paintings, which doesn't really show his work off to the best effect. Another big problems I think is that, while Huston could compose a great shot, he was not the best director of actors. Jose Ferrer had a lot of talent but he often seems wooden here. Some of the smaller performances are just a little too melodramatic, and others are too dull. I also think it was a mistake casting Ferrer as his father as well. In the scene where Lautrec senior confronts his son in Paris, I can imagine that Huston would have wanted to keep them in separate shots anyway to emphasise the lack of warmth between them, but as it is it looks too obvious and artificial.Story-wise, this is a pretty good attempt at showing a three-dimensional view of a life story. Behind the vivid, dynamic paintings Moulin Rouge reveals an insecure, self-deprecating artist, utterly assured of his own talent but thinking himself worthless in every other respect. It's a wholly miserable tale which is really quite suited to John Huston, who spent most of this period making film-noirs. It's also perhaps Huston's most personal film, as apparently at one point he planned to make a documentary on French painters.Comparisons are inevitable between Moulin Rouge and Lust for Life, Vincente Minnelli's 1956 biopic of Vincent van Gogh. Both recreate the style of their subject through cinematography and colour composition, and both were made by directors who were also painters. It's interesting though that while both Lautrec and Van Gogh were depressive individuals who lead pretty tragic lives, Moulin Rouge is overall pessimistic in tone, whereas Lust for Life leaves you feeling uplifted and positive. The difference is that Huston was perhaps one of the most cynical directors ever, while Minnelli was much more the romantic.Huston was a master at showing us grimness and despair, but not so great at poignancy, which is why Moulin Rouge will leave you feeling down but is unlikely to bring on tears. However, visually this is Huston's most beautiful picture and strangely it is this which gives Moulin Rouge a bittersweet tinge. This is one case where style over substance really pays off. Moulin Rouge has lots of little flaws but as a whole it is often enthralling and certainly memorable.