Moulin Rouge (1928)

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Everyone knows E.A. Dupont's Variety (1925) even in Paramount's somewhat abbreviated USA version on a rather dark but quite watchable 7/10 Grapevine DVD. Karl Freund's astounding photography combined with the noirish script, Janning's powerful Boss Huller, Lya de Putti's sensual Bertha and Warwick Ward's spivy Artinelli - all molded into an atmosphere maelstrom by E.A. Dupont - make this one an absolutely rivetting must-see! But I regard Dupont's Moulin Rouge (1928) as the better movie. It is also available from Grapevine in a 7/10 - no, make that an 8/10 DVD because it does have the original music and sound effects track plus the run-out music. This one stars that absolutely gorgeous Russian, Olga Tschechowa, as the mother who quite puts her movie daughter, Australian actress, Eve Gray, in the shade. If the movie is somewhat predictable in plot, it is always brilliantly off-beat in both its montage and directorial style, thanks to the charismatic genius of writer/producer/director (and no doubt supervising film editor) Dupont. The musical interludes are an intrinsic part of the plot. Here they are breathtakingly realized right from the night-montage opening to the dramatic conclusion.

It is many years since I had watched my video of this film so I played it this afternoon.Directed by DuPont in his British period.He is most known here for the ludicrous pauses in the dialogue of Atlantic.I would certainly agree with one of the reviewers who commented on the totally daft plot.After all why would a mother want a daughter to marry a man who was lusting after her.So far as the cinematography is concerned,this brings into focus the strange face makeup of the actors.Their upper eyelids are darkened and their eyebrows marked in very boldly.Is this part of the expressionist style or is it because of problems with the film stock used ?

"Moulin Rouge" is the sort of film you simply must accept for what it is--a modestly entertaining but silly film. It has the sort of plot that seems rather old fashioned and filled with holes.When the film begins, a famous stage actress from the famed Moulin Rouge is thrilled to have a visit from her daughter. It seems the young lady is planning on getting married and the mother is happy for the couple. However, later when the mother is alone with the girl's fiancé, he suddenly declares his love for the mother! Weird, I know...and where all this goes is a bit far-fetched. It is exciting but kind of silly.This film brings up lots of problems: why didn't the mother tell her daughter that the boyfriend was a creepy guy and why did the nightclub look NOTHING like anything from the Moulin Rouge (after all, everyone here had lots of clothes)? And, for that matter, why a black-face number?! It all is kind of silly (and a tad offensive) but did have really nice camera-work.

Ewald Dupont's final silent effort is one of his best combining firmly controlled direction and editing, highly stylized and innovative camerawork by Werner Brandes, along with a magnificent performance by the female lead, the great German actress Olga Tschechowa. Filmed in part at the Lido De Paris during an international review, the film is valuable to any who are deeply interested in social and cultural history as the Parisian scenes are fascinating and blend seamlessly with the scenario, which relates of a young French nobleman's erotic fascination for an actress, the mother of his betrothed. Although the plot is essentially melodrama, we are never far from the perception of reality, as Dupont does not permit whim to his actors, with the result that each glance and movement, if edited away, would reduce the effect of the story's progression. Cinematographer Brandes makes correct use of the Stanislavsky trained Tschechowa's striking features, since she is the linchpin of the film's considerable energy, although even the small roles in MOULIN ROUGE are handled in more than creditable fashion.