movies worth owning
Added 10/8/2009
This is a great biography of a truly gifted artist. It brings Paris to life in both its grand side and its seamy side. It is a pg movie with a lot of information about laTrec and also the times and the reasons for his art and his death. If you like Jose Ferrer, it is one of the two greatest movies in which he ever starred. His other great movie is "Cyrano de Bergerac."
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Hustons Moulin Rouge...a work of art
Added 5/15/2009
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Hustons "Moulin Rouge" is incredibly compelling. It's been years since ive seen this and revisiting it was a wonderful treat. This has got to be one of Hustons great cinematic achievments.
This movie also has one of the truely great Mel Ferrer performances. Huston does an incredible job of literally bringing Toulouse-Latrecs paintings to life. This movie really hooks you in with some stunningly beautiful cinematic eye candy.
The opening shot in Moulin Rouge, the dance number, the two women trading barbs (and kicks) intertwined with the shot of Latrecs hand sketching the entire nights entertainment on a table cloth is incredible. The dance scenes are realistic, passionate, bawdy, and just plain fun.
The love hate relationship between Ferrer and Marchand is poignant, and actually painful to watch at times. Ferrer's scenes with the Suzanne Flon character are equally gut renching. You really want to watch the characters, the sets, the dancing. The films ability to transport you to a place that is gritty and beautiful and real is an amazing feat. Huston does a great job at casting some very real and interesting faces. I have to highly recommend this movie.
Oh, and don't confuse the horrible, garrish Kidman/Luhrmann mess of a movie as a remake. They have nothing in common other than the name.
Unfortunatly, this is not a wide screen version dvd. However, the film is so amazing that, having seen it in both full screen and in wide screen, I can say that it is so good that one just needs to see it in any aspect ratio that they can. It is really a work of art.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A great classic
Added 11/21/2008
One of the great films of one of the most famous artists of all time. Jose Ferrer is fabulous, the scenery is fabulous, the story is perfectly done. A true color classic.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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The Other MOULIN ROUGE
Added 10/25/2008
Mention MOULIN ROUGE and most folks will think of Nicole Kidman and the ground-breaking 2001 musical in which she sang and danced to perfection.
However, back in 1952, there was another (non-musical) MOULIN ROUGE, and most people who remember this John Huston-directed classic consider it to be one of the greatest films of that decade.
It also produced a title song that has become a standard.
Huston's film received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It won for Art Direction and Costuming, but lost the top honor, as did HIGH NOON and THE QUIET MAN, to Cecil B. DeMille's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. [Go figure!]
Visually stunning, MOULIN ROUGE stars Oscar-nominated Jose Ferrer as both famed artist Toulouse-Lautrec and his father.
A dwarf, Lautrec believes that he is too ugly to ever attract a woman, thus he devotes his life to painting and cognac. A fixture at Paris' infamous turn-off-the-century Moulin Rouge nightclub, he meets and falls in love with a streetwalker (Colette Marchand), who breaks his heart. Later, he is unable to recognize true affection from another woman (Suzanne Flon).
Zsa Zsa Gabor co-stars as a singer at the nightclub who also has romantic problems. Future Hammer horror icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee have brief roles.
MGM/UA Home Entertainment has done a commendable job in transferring this color-rich film onto DVD.
© Michael B. Druxman
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Art; Life; the Gutter & the Chateau
Added 10/19/2008
Among the most interesting aspects of this powerful story were the strong, if not subtle, contrasts. To get the niggles out of the way: many features jarred, to an extent: the dubbed singing, the easily detectable fake chin and nose, the completely unconvincing abbreviated legs. However, they didn't actually seem to matter. The story was rather simplistic, but that didn't seem to matter either. Somehow there was a truth to it, which completely escaped the Luhrmann production. Not that that was about Toulouse-Lautrec, anyway. There was an analysis of a spectrum of human reactions to the circumstances into which people happen to be born: as aristocrats who may not work but nevertheless have certain standards of conduct, as cripples who need to compensate, as prudent working women who make a go of it, as stars who can't cope, as alley-cats who sell themselves for their pimps. The performances were all perfectly good, within the constraints of the narrative. It seemed to be sentimental, but it actually wasn't. The dancing was terrific. The atmosphere might have been 50s Hollywood, but it nonetheless felt quite French. Curious final effect: the whole was better than the parts, and it's a definitely a film worth watching more than once.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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movies worth owning
Added 10/8/2009
This is a great biography of a truly gifted artist. It brings Paris to life in both its grand side and its seamy side. It is a pg movie with a lot of information about laTrec and also the times and the reasons for his art and his death. If you like Jose Ferrer, it is one of the two greatest movies in which he ever starred. His other great movie is "Cyrano de Bergerac."
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Hustons Moulin Rouge...a work of art
Added 5/15/2009
Moulin Rouge (1952)
Hustons "Moulin Rouge" is incredibly compelling. It's been years since ive seen this and revisiting it was a wonderful treat. This has got to be one of Hustons great cinematic achievments.
This movie also has one of the truely great Mel Ferrer performances. Huston does an incredible job of literally bringing Toulouse-Latrecs paintings to life. This movie really hooks you in with some stunningly beautiful cinematic eye candy.
The opening shot in Moulin Rouge, the dance number, the two women trading barbs (and kicks) intertwined with the shot of Latrecs hand sketching the entire nights entertainment on a table cloth is incredible. The dance scenes are realistic, passionate, bawdy, and just plain fun.
The love hate relationship between Ferrer and Marchand is poignant, and actually painful to watch at times. Ferrer's scenes with the Suzanne Flon character are equally gut renching. You really want to watch the characters, the sets, the dancing. The films ability to transport you to a place that is gritty and beautiful and real is an amazing feat. Huston does a great job at casting some very real and interesting faces. I have to highly recommend this movie.
Oh, and don't confuse the horrible, garrish Kidman/Luhrmann mess of a movie as a remake. They have nothing in common other than the name.
Unfortunatly, this is not a wide screen version dvd. However, the film is so amazing that, having seen it in both full screen and in wide screen, I can say that it is so good that one just needs to see it in any aspect ratio that they can. It is really a work of art.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
A great classic
Added 11/21/2008
One of the great films of one of the most famous artists of all time. Jose Ferrer is fabulous, the scenery is fabulous, the story is perfectly done. A true color classic.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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