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Re: moulin rouge

> In my opinion, it is almost always in bad taste to bring modern songs
> into period pieces.

I would disagree.  For example, I thought the music in _A Knight's Tale_
just made the film that much giddier an experience, and I didn't mind it
at all.  For the film's primarily teen-ish audience, medieval jousting and
1970s rock'n'roll are both before their time, and may as well belong to
the same era; for the rest of us, the film simply represents a new form of
"creative anachronism".  :)  My problem with _Moulin Rouge_ is not that it
puts "modern" songs (meaning songs written between the 1950s and the
1990s) in a 19th-century setting, but that it relies sooooo heavily on
pop-culture references that it barely develops a soul of its own.

> In this case, added to the fact that neither Ewan nor Nicole actually
> sing . . .

Uh, then why are they credited on the soundtrack?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005BJ2O/petertchatta

> . . . the whole thing comes off as a very elaborate Disney on Ice show,
> and I urge anyone who is looking for more than pure circus glamour,
> which Luhrman has in Spades, to avoid this film at all costs.

Heh.  My favorite comment on this film so far is Roger Ebert's remark that
watching the film is like being trapped on an elevator with a circus.  :)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/moulin01f.html

> I heartily recommend that "Mememento" is a good film.  Granted it relies
> sole on one gimmick, but it is a good gimmick and excellently executed.

I count at least two gimmicks -- and it's got a lot more going on than
mere gimmickry!  This is one of my three favorite films so far this year,
up there with _Yi Yi (A One and a Two)_ and _Startup.com_.  (And yes,
while _Yi Yi_ came out in the States *last* year, it didn't open in
Vancouver until about a month ago, if that.)

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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