Fresh and Exciting

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This is a gorgeous Technicolor film which tells the tale of Tolouse Lautrec, admirably portrayed by Jose Ferrar. The atmosphere is perfectly drawn by director John Houston, who recreates the Paris of the late nineteenth-century to a T. Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was quite young and beautiful here does fine in a rather flashy part. The theme song was quite the hit when it charted over here. Special mention must be made of the fine use of Technicolor, which was used in a manner mindful of Lautrec's paintings. The colors are warm and vivid, and everything has a kind-of look as if you just stepped out of a time machine. The beautiful hues aside, this is a film which will entertain by virtue of it's fascinating story alone, and to me, is a far better film than the 2001 feature of the same name. It's not really fair to compare the two, though, as the two films are quite different in story, sharing only the title. A one-of-a-kind film and a rewarding one.

I'm giving John Huston's MOULIN ROUGE a full ten stars even though this "biopic" of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec plays fast and loose with some of the facts of the painter's life and about the people around him. What little it lacks in accuracy it more than makes up for in artistic quality.This movie may have the most exciting opening sequence of any film in history. Paris, 1890. The film begins with a shot of the exterior of the famed Moulin Rouge, and in a long tracking shot, makes its way inside as if it were one of the patrons. It follows them up the stairs to where the orchestra is playing, across to where some rowdy young men are having a grand time getting loaded, and after keeping us on pins and needles, finally focuses its attention on the club dance floor, where four legendary dancers are performing a form of Can-can style dance featuring lots of dexterity and the ability to do high kicks and splits.The four dancers are La Goulue (Katherine Kath), the Algerian Aicha (Muriel Smith), Valentin Dessosse (Walter Cresham) partnered with La Goulue, and Tutte Lemkow as Aicha's partner, unnamed in the film.La Goulue is clearly the star of this number, in her own mind at least, and she and Aicha detest one another to the point that when Aicha accidentally steps on La Goulue's foot, the two women almost erupt into a full-out brawl but Valentin manages to get between them and the number continues. I can't really describe the number very well, but it is exciting and full of energy.During all this we've seen a few shots of a man seated at one of the tables closest to the floor; at first we see him only from the back, and then we see his hands as he sketches what he is seeing. Finally we get a look at him: Toulouse-Lautrec himself (Jose Ferrer looking almost eerily like the man). As he rapidly sketches the action on the floor, he takes frequent gulps from a glass of cognac despite the admonition of one of the waitresses not to "drink so fast; it burns your stomach." With the first number concluded, some of the patrons go out on the dance floor. Then Chocolat (Rupert John), a short Black man, does a brief soft-shoe, stopping at Lautrec's table and receiving a tip. La Goulue approaches Lautrec and asks if he saw Aicha step on her foot, to which he replies "I saw you kick her in the derriere." And as La Goulue tells him what she will do to Aicha one day, the Algerian sneaks up behind her and returns the kick. Enjoying the spectacle immensely, Lautrec pours each woman a cognac, which naturally they throw in each other's faces, and the catfight is finally on, as Lautrec watches with an expression of unadulterated glee. The fighting stops when Jane Avril (Zsa Zsa Gabor) appears at the top of the stairs to sing the title song. Muriel Smith did double-duty here, supplying Gabor's singing voice. I notice a lot of people criticizing Gabor's lip-synching, but since the usual method is to film the song first and lay the vocal over it later on, if there are slips in the lip-synching they are not Gabor's, but Smith's.Finally the chorus comes out to do the classic Can Can number we all know so well, and the evening is over. Lautrec remains seated until the club is empty, and when he finally stands up we see his deformity: his legs are no longer than a child's.Walking home, he recalls in flashback the injuries that caused his infirmity, and in the midst of his reverie is accosted by a street girl named Marie Charlet (Colette Marchand) who is running from the police and asks Lautrec to vouch for her, which he does.The segment that follows is possibly the film's weak point. Marie Charlet was a fictional character loosely based on several women in Lautrec's life, and as Marchand plays her she is shrill, annoying, and quite unbearable. But she does not appear to be repulsed by Lautrec's deformity, and he falls in love with her for this. Hard to fathom since the character is so annoying. And equally hard to fathom is that Marchand got an Oscar nomination for what was basically a one-note character. I won't reveal more details except to say that eventually he learns she never loved him and was using him as a sugar daddy, a revelation which makes him completely distrustful of love and of women, so that when a woman truly falls for him (the lovely Suzanne Flon), he cannot allow himself to be that vulnerable again.Needless to say the ending is not a happy one, but the film is beautifully shot, the acting superb except for Marchand (Even Zsa Zsa does a better job as the rather silly Jane Avril), and the story, with all its holes, still a compelling one. If it misses greatness, it doesn't miss it by much. In fact the opening sequence alone is worth the price of the ticket.

There were moments when I was watching this in which I felt intensely interested, and moved. But there were too many "blah" moments for me to see it as a really good picture. It's a very loose biopic of the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer), crippled in early life by an accident, shown as brilliant artist but a tragic, lonely drunk. Director John Huston and photographer Oswald Morris capture the atmosphere of 19th century Paris very well, with often gorgeous compositions. It also surprisingly captures the vulgarity of this life, with Colette Marchand's desperate, animal-like prostitute a standout. But Jose Ferrer's performance is so average that it ruins the picture. He just stands and delivers his lines in a monotone scene after scene. The relationship between Marchand and Ferrer, who so desperately wants love that it's killing him, is interesting but you can't help thinking that Ferrer is just a dumb sap, which kills the picture. And when a decent woman comes into his life later in the picture, he's too blind to see it! His obsession with Marchand just gets really irritating after a while, because her character is just not worth the trouble.

The film opens with a bang - the 20 minute dancehall sequence at the Moulin Rouge, a riotous whirl of color and energy. In the dreariness and shortages of the post WWII world, this 1952 film must have evoked a powerful nostalgia for the days when Paris was the magical scandalous PAREE, where one could eat, drink and dance the night away. In the same way that "The Red Shoes" was a sumptous Technicolor feast recreating the French Riviera and days of the Ballet Rousse. In 1950's Britain there were still dance halls which looked like the Moulin Rouge in the film - grand stair cases, mezzanines, wrought iron and mirrors, places where you could escape life's dreariness for a while. I found the film to be as close to visual perfection as any I have seen and am very glad that it is now on DVD. Jose Ferrer gave a wonderful performance as the cynical painter.