Moulin Rouge (1952) | 
| Director: John Huston
Actors: Jose Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon, Claude Nollier, Katherine Kath
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $1.00
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Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 14562
Format: Color, Ntsc
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6301972139
UPC: 027616173430
EAN: 9786301972130
ASIN: 6301972139
Theatrical Release Date: December 23, 1952
Release Date: September 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
It was one of the top 10 grossing films of 1952 and garnered seven Oscar nominations, but Moulin Rouge is neglected today. Not to be confused with the Baz Luhrmann-Nicole Kidman extravaganza, this is a color-soaked tale of Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer), based on a romanticized novel about the artist's life. Director John Huston explores the discrepancy between the creation of exquisite art and the messy business of living--especially messy for the growth-stunted, alcoholic painter, whose affairs revolve around prostitutes. The soap-opera aspects of the storyline limit the picture (as does the distracting fact of Ferrer walking on his knees), but it has some gorgeous things in it. The experiments in color photography (which horrified the Technicolor people) are spectacularly successful, and the movie won Oscars for set decoration and costumes. George Auric's haunting melody became a standard, so lovely even the dubbed performance of Zsa Zsa Gabor couldn't hurt it. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 No Absinthe of Malice? February 11, 2004
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
57 out of 58 found this review helpful
Many of those who have seen the film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman (2001) may not know about this film which appeared about 50 years earlier. Based on Pierre LaMure's biographical novel and directed by John Huston, this Moulin Rouge focuses entirely on the life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Two years previously, Jose Ferrer received an Academy Award for leading actor in Cyrano de Bergerac. He was nominated again in 1952 for his portrayal of Toulouse Lautrec (he also plays the painter's father, Comte Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec, a small but significant role in this film), losing to Gary Cooper (High Noon).
How interesting that each of Ferrer's two greatest performances on-screen is of a French aristocrat with a significant physical deformity who encounters only failure and despair in his love life. In any event, Ferrer is brilliant in a cast of consistently high quality. As chanteuse Jane Avril, Zsa Zsa Gabor essentially plays herself: beautiful, vain, melodramatic, self-absorbed, good-hearted, and charming. Also noteworthy are Colette Marshand (as Marie Charlet), Suzanne Flon (Myrianne Haven), Katherine Kath (La Goulue), and Christopher Lee (Georges Seurat). Although nominated for several Academy Awards, this film received only two (for Color Art Direction and Color Costume Design), both richly deserved. Huston skillfully directs an excellent cast while blending seamlessly Oswald Morris' cinematography with George Auric's musical score.
Born in 1864, Toulouse-Lautrec spent his childhood years on family estates near Albi, with Paris becoming his home in 1872. The victim of a genetic bone condition that made him vulnerable to fractures, he walked with a cane by age thirteen and grew to be only four feet eleven inches tall. One example of Huston's genius is the fact that much of the film is shot from Toulouse-Lautrec's perspective. That is, we see the aristocrat-artist's world almost literally through his eyes as he sits and sketches in the music hall, then drags himself to his stunted feet and slowly, painfully resumes his late-night debauchery.
In frail health throughout his adult years, Toulouse-Lautrec exacerbated his situation with alcoholism which no doubt hastened his death in 1901. Lying in bed and near death, he learns from his astonished father that his paintings will be on exhibition at the Louvre. ("The Louvre, Henri, the Louvre! I did not know, Henri, I did not understand....") This final scene reminds me of the final scene in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), starring Robert Donat. Both Toulouse-Lautrec and Charles Chipping are near death, barely conscious. Both imagine being visited by those they once knew, bidding them a fond farewell. For Toulouse-Lautrec, the performers from the Moulin Rouge; for Chipping, many of the boys he taught over a period of several decades at Brookfield School.
This film is a feast for the eyes. At least for about two hours, it enables us to return to Paris near the end of the 19th century, to a world which remains vivid in the great art of Seaurat, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, Bonnard....and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
First Widescreen movie was "The Robe" in 1953. December 31, 2004
Robert E. Rodden II (Peoria, IL. United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
I don't want to offend anyone, but the reason this wonderful film arrives in full screen on dvd, is because it was shot that way. The very first widescreen movie was "The Robe", 1953. So any film which you buy on DVD before 1953 will be a 4:3 aspect ratio. We as movie going fanatics back then didn't know any better. "The Robe" was produced in widescreen as a way of drawing people back into movie houses, since theater goers were staying home to watch old movies on 4:3 televisons.
So, if you're upset about the aspect ratio of this DVD, feel better about it. There never was a widescreen version of this movie. Enjoy it for lush sets and wonderful performances, all directed by a man who knew exactly how to use every single inch of a 4:3 screen, John Huston. He made some of the greatest movies ever produced in that aspect ratio, and this is one of them.
One of the Great Arts Films January 10, 2000
Jack Rice (Southern California, USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
To me, some of the greatest movies are about artists, because the intensity inherent in the artist is also inherent in his art, minimalism notwithstanding. And, of course, cinema is an art. "Lust for Life," "The Red Shoes," "Moulin Rouge" - each is a statement by great visual directors depicting visual art."Moulin Rouge" is the story of the great artist-caricaturist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Its excellence is due to the handiwork of John Huston and Jose Ferrer - Huston for his unflinching view of the pathos of the Parisian demi-monde, and Jose Ferrer for his delicious and moving portrayal of the tormented, self-absorbed artist who loved everyone except himself, which means that he never knew real love. This is Ferrer's greatest role, surpassing the Cyrano which won him his Best Actor Oscar. It is so typical of the Motion Picture Academy not to get it right.
Not every film was shot in widescreen November 3, 2004
David Horiuchi (Seattle, WA USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
According to IMDb, "Moulin Rouge" was shot in 1.37, not widescreen. Therefore you're not losing that much to view this in 1.33 (full screen) format.
The Real Lautrec & Moulin Rouge! April 19, 2006
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is one of the most interesting biographies I've ever seen on film.
Until I acquired the DVD, I never fully realized how beautiful this film looked, either. I was stunned to see how spectacular the colors were and how much it helped capture the flavor of the dance hall and the cobblestone streets of France 100 years ago.....and, of course, Tolouse-Lautrec's great artwork. This movie is a feast for the eyes.
The DVD also offers an opportunity to do something I suggest other fans of this movie try: use the English subtitles. This way, you don't have to strain to understand the French accents, notably Colette Marchand's, and it makes this intriguing story even better.
Story-wise, it's a bit of a soap opera but one I still found fascinating, thanks mainly to Lautrec's dialog. He had some really interesting things to say, mostly in a cynical way. That cynicism, unfortunately, caught up with him in the end. Jose Ferrer captured this tortured soul about as well as any actor could expect to do. I'm sorry he didn't win an Academy Award for this performance.
Viewers who only saw the more recent "Moulin Rouge!" missed the real story. That movie was a farce; this is the real thing.
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