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Monday, Jul 23, 1990
Moulin Rouge
A sheer delight to watch, Moulin Rouge has been called "a film for the eye, not the mind." John Huston, in this British production, went to great lengths to recreate not only the period but the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec, with Technicolor techniques that revolutionized the film industry. But the film, in quest of romanticism, also goes to lengths to distort the personality of Toulouse-Lautrec, who, "contemporary reports agree...was a charming and delightful person who made the best of (his) disability and led, at least until his last years, a thoroughly enjoyable life" (David Stewart Hull). "(Moulin Rouge) perpetuates yet another mis-reading of disablement. It excuses and justifies the disabled man as an outsider, in a circus-like world embellished colorfully with other, more popular, entertaining outsiders. Bitter and short-tempered, he drinks, draws and paints away his lonely life while looking on at decorated dancing ladies of the street. A Technicolor tour-de-force-but it also reinforces the mythical relationship of cripple, artist, and a beautiful `low life'" (Steve Dwoskin, Allan Sutherland, NFT London).
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