cover image Moulin Rouge!: The Splendid Book That Charts the Journey of Baz Luhrmann's Motion Picture

Moulin Rouge!: The Splendid Book That Charts the Journey of Baz Luhrmann's Motion Picture

Catherine Martin, Baz Luhrmann. Newmarket Press, $34.95 (170pp) ISBN 978-1-55704-507-2

""I was left with the understanding that the Bollywood musical and its outrageous tragicomic storytelling succeeded because of a deal that exists between the film and its audience... the pretence that what is to be experienced is in any way real is swept away,"" explains Baz Luhrmann in Moulin Rouge! A Film Directed by Baz Luhrmann of his original inspiration for the movie. Absinthe; gaslight; sultry, pallid, Toulouse-Lautrec-inspired characters; drag; more absinthe; contortionists, Siamese twins, song, dance, sets and cinematography to set the mind reeling characterize this unprecedented musical film set in the ""real artificiality"" of Luhrmann's Parisian/Bohemian/modernized-turn-of-the-century vision. Cinematic and plot highlights, behind-the-scenes shots and confessions by producers, choreographers, cinematographers, editors, etc., along with images by guest photographers Ellen Von Unwerth, Mary Ellen Mark and Douglas Kirkland, give fans a chance to luxuriate in the stunning visual array that whirls dizzyingly by in the film. (Aug.)