Acting and Cynicism: Layers Over Layers
Jun. 2nd, 2001 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleLike so many other fannish types, I went to see Moulin Rouge on its opening night. The comedy in the movie is wonderful. It's extremely funny and full of sexual innuendo, just my kind of thing. The drama is not so wonderful.
Christian and Satine are a cliche, and a boring one at that. We know the story by now, and Baz Luhrman hasn't done anything new to the dramatic elements, other than throw song lyrics into every conversation.
In fact, crediting the movie entirely to Baz Luhrman is misleading. The plot is painfully unoriginal. He uses song lyrics as dialogue. He steals from everywhere. Satine says of Christian, "The boy is infatuated with me," a line straight out of To Die For. Her costume in one scene of their rehearsal is a copy of Queen Amidala's formalwear from The Phantom Menace.
As the movie opens, Baz spins the camera around his lush sets and well-trained dancers, then overlays it with music in such a way that you're never quite sure what you're seeing or hearing. It's as if he heard a bunch of songs on the radio and wanted to put images with them.
The strongest moments in Moulin Rouge are, as I said, the comic ones. The opening scene has an unconscious Argentinian crashing through Christian's cieling, closely followed by a midget with a lisp in a nun's costume. Some of the best scenes are those in which Zidler and the Duke seduce each other with words and song in Satine's name, even going so far as to sing "Like a Virgin" at one point.
I still don't understand the appeal Ewan McGregor holds for so many people. As Christian, he is excruciatingly ordinary. Christians are a dime a dozen in any piece about the period. He is the male dull spot in the bright array of characters who are far too colorful to be real.
Nicole Kidman's Satine is the female dull spot. Satine is too much Nicole and not enough Satine. I've seen her do nearly everything she does as Satine as herself in various interviews in the last month. The way she says, "A real actress," from inside a circle of cancan dancers is pure Suzanne Stone Maretto, her character in To Die For. Nicole is at her best when she's strong, as she is when she informs Christian that love is not enough in the real world. Unfortunately, Satine spends much of the movie coughing up blood and being a giggly schoolgirl.
For all the fuss about the chemistry between Nicole and Ewan, I had a very hard time believing that Satine and Christian were so deeply in love. Only when they appear onstage as the Hindu courtesan and the penniless sitar player can I believe it.
The same effect is even more pronounced in Satine. She is always acting, except when she's onstage. She proclaims her wish to be "a real actress" onstage. She first faints onstage. She tells Christian she loves him onstage. She dies onstage. It's made me very cynical towards Nicole herself. Nicole is an actress, and she's been in the public spotlight for a long time. Do you really think she didn't know what Oprah was going to ask her? Do you really think she hadn't thought about how she was going to answer? According to Entertainment Weekly, she's winning in the court of public opinion regarding her divorce from Tom. Do you really think that's accidental?
Christian and Satine are a cliche, and a boring one at that. We know the story by now, and Baz Luhrman hasn't done anything new to the dramatic elements, other than throw song lyrics into every conversation.
In fact, crediting the movie entirely to Baz Luhrman is misleading. The plot is painfully unoriginal. He uses song lyrics as dialogue. He steals from everywhere. Satine says of Christian, "The boy is infatuated with me," a line straight out of To Die For. Her costume in one scene of their rehearsal is a copy of Queen Amidala's formalwear from The Phantom Menace.
As the movie opens, Baz spins the camera around his lush sets and well-trained dancers, then overlays it with music in such a way that you're never quite sure what you're seeing or hearing. It's as if he heard a bunch of songs on the radio and wanted to put images with them.
The strongest moments in Moulin Rouge are, as I said, the comic ones. The opening scene has an unconscious Argentinian crashing through Christian's cieling, closely followed by a midget with a lisp in a nun's costume. Some of the best scenes are those in which Zidler and the Duke seduce each other with words and song in Satine's name, even going so far as to sing "Like a Virgin" at one point.
I still don't understand the appeal Ewan McGregor holds for so many people. As Christian, he is excruciatingly ordinary. Christians are a dime a dozen in any piece about the period. He is the male dull spot in the bright array of characters who are far too colorful to be real.
Nicole Kidman's Satine is the female dull spot. Satine is too much Nicole and not enough Satine. I've seen her do nearly everything she does as Satine as herself in various interviews in the last month. The way she says, "A real actress," from inside a circle of cancan dancers is pure Suzanne Stone Maretto, her character in To Die For. Nicole is at her best when she's strong, as she is when she informs Christian that love is not enough in the real world. Unfortunately, Satine spends much of the movie coughing up blood and being a giggly schoolgirl.
For all the fuss about the chemistry between Nicole and Ewan, I had a very hard time believing that Satine and Christian were so deeply in love. Only when they appear onstage as the Hindu courtesan and the penniless sitar player can I believe it.
The same effect is even more pronounced in Satine. She is always acting, except when she's onstage. She proclaims her wish to be "a real actress" onstage. She first faints onstage. She tells Christian she loves him onstage. She dies onstage. It's made me very cynical towards Nicole herself. Nicole is an actress, and she's been in the public spotlight for a long time. Do you really think she didn't know what Oprah was going to ask her? Do you really think she hadn't thought about how she was going to answer? According to Entertainment Weekly, she's winning in the court of public opinion regarding her divorce from Tom. Do you really think that's accidental?
Baz wants to be Gus Van Sant, Nicole's an Ice Queen, and Ewan wants to disappear.
Date: 2001-06-02 11:52 am (UTC)R+J is the ultimate in steal-and-remake. It's Shakespeare, for God's sake, and way overdone modern-version Shakespeare at that. (As opposed to Ethan Hawke's Hamlet, which is a slightly surreal modern remake, but not overdone like R+J.) I think part of Baz's gift/curse is that everything in his movies is so opulently flashy. And Moulin Rouge is beyond flashy.
I agree with you about some of the Nicole/Satine stuff. And about the chemistry between Satine and Christian. I was expecting so much more. They were all giggly in that one part, and I couldn't help but compare it in my mind to Nic and Ewan being all giggly with each other at Cannes. It's like (movie, not N&E), "Okay, we can be all flirty with each other, and lust after each other, but are we really in love?" Back when I first heard who was in this movie, I thought to myself, "Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor? I can't think of a more unlikely screen pair than them." And I built it up for myself, I know I did, but when it comes down to it my first thought rings true.
And I agree with you about the cliches - but it's not as bad as Pearl Harbor. I winced at the "I'm cold" at the end, because that has to be the most over-used 'I'm dying, how do I feel?' movie cliche in the world. It's almost like Baz wants you to forget about the script weaknesses by using those stunning visual images.
Pt. 2
Date: 2001-06-02 11:53 am (UTC)I read one review where the reviewer was happy Ewan didn't get naked in the film. *giggles*
My favorite Ewan movie remains Eye of the Beholder. (Yeah, I know a lot of people hated it.) And when I think about it, it's because he does such a good job of disappearing into the movie. (Do you get what I'm saying?) His character is, by all accounts, pretty much a spy who has to hide to keep spying. He has to blend in. And Ewan kind of blends in in MR, too. Christian wasn't quirky enough, character wise, to stand out like Toulouse-Latrec did. He didn't seem serious enough about the "truth, beauty, freedom, and love" tenants of the Bohemian lifestyle. At least not until after Satine died.
I wished Toulouse-Latrec had a bigger part because John Leguizamo did such a good job. The Duke annoyed the hell out of me (why oh why did Oprah think Satine should have gone with the Duke at one point?) with his nasty little voice - but I laughed so hard through the entire "Like A Virgin" scene.
And as for Nicole's performance - she just didn't melt enough to make Satine convincing. In some places, I think she tried too hard. And then there were a few spots where I could almost see that she didn't think she could pull it off. (I wonder who else they could have gotten to pull of those costumes like Nicole did, though. I can't think of anyone.)
Your comments are making me think more seriously about my mom's comment that Nicole's a phony. *sob* No, Nicole, you can't be a phony, because it wrecks like three stories I have started that you're in! But seriously, how do we ever know about anyone who's an actor/actress? They can't all be acting all the time, but I guess a lot of them - the minute they step outside the doors of their homes - become someone else. (That seems to be one of the pro-RPS arguments, too.)
It was a lovely movie, visually and musically, but it wasn't everything I'd expected. I have to admit I enjoyed the hype and the publicity and Nicole on talk shows more than the movie itself. Will I go see it again? Maybe. When I'm over feeling cynical towards it.
And -
Date: 2001-06-02 12:11 pm (UTC)I wonder what publicity for The Others will be like - Nicole's starring, and Tom's producing.
(Speaking of that movie, there was a trailer for it on MR. Suffice it to say that I will most likely not even be renting it on video.)
Re: Pt. 2
Date: 2001-06-02 04:50 pm (UTC)I loved the Duke. He was the perfect villain. It obviously wouldn't uphold the Bohemian ideals, but it would have given Nicole a lot more to do if Satine had turned her back on Christian and sold herself to the Duke.
They may not be acting all the time, but if they're going on TV to do an interview, they know what to expect, and I'm sure they prepare for that.
Re: And -
Date: 2001-06-02 04:57 pm (UTC)Based on the trailer, I really want to see The Others. It has Nicole the way I like her--slightly creepy, strong, and a little scared. Far better than Moulin Rouge Nicole--giggly, wimpy, and uninteresting.
Re: Baz wants to be Gus Van Sant, Nicole's an Ice Queen, and Ewan wants to disappear.
Date: 2001-06-02 05:03 pm (UTC)I really liked Romeo + Juliet, which is probably part of why Moulin Rouge disappointed me.
I also have trouble suspending my disbelief enough to believe that they would fall in love at that first meeting. You have to know someone before you can love them.
Re: And -
Date: 2001-06-02 06:33 pm (UTC)I'm such a wimp when it comes to scary movies.
And there's small children in the movie. I have an aversion to child actors under a certain age. (But I don't care how old Haley Joel Osment is, even though the trailer intrigues me, I won't be seeing A.I. in the theater. HJO just is icky.)
Re: Baz wants to be Gus Van Sant, Nicole's an Ice Queen, and Ewan wants to disappear.
Date: 2001-06-02 06:50 pm (UTC)I liked R+J the first few times I saw it, but one can only take so much Leonardo DiCaprio spouting Shakespeare. *grin* I haven't watched it in a long time - perhaps I'll have to go steal it back from my sister and do a more thorough comparison.
You may be right:
Date: 2001-06-03 12:02 pm (UTC)Ted Casablanca: Let's just say Nicole knows that more than her professional life (short-term, at least) depends on how Moulin Rouge is received.
Re: You may be right:
Date: 2001-06-03 12:31 pm (UTC)Re: And -
Date: 2001-06-03 12:33 pm (UTC)Re: And -
Date: 2001-06-08 10:28 pm (UTC)