DVD Review: ‘Moulin Rouge’ DVD gives Luhrmann his due

Geoff Carter

Friday, Feb. 22, 2002 | 8:48 a.m.

Of the five films nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, only "Moulin Rouge" is available on DVD. It's not surprising -- it's the only film that was released long before the studios' pre-Oscar blitz, when every Film of Significance is released and pumped full of enough promotional juice to make a star of every man, woman and child in America. If you're wondering what happened to your 15 minutes of fame, call Universal and ask if they're done applying it to Russell Crowe.

So the Academy has a short attention span and a deep love of hype; we knew this when they made "Titanic" the Best Picture of 1997 and enabled James Cameron to get in touch with his inner idiot. (Yes, James, you are the "king of the world." We're happy for you. Now get a real job.) We also know that they receive DVD screeners of films -- bereft of all the jazzy bonuses the consumer gets, but such is life in the city.

But the full "Moulin Rouge" DVD set (Fox DVD, $29.98) has been available since December. Academy members could buy, rent or request this packed two-disc set well in advance of final voting, which makes me wonder why more of them didn't. If they had, director Baz Luhrmann would have been nominated for a trophy. For reasons unknown, Luhrmann was shut out of the Best Director category, while "Moulin Rouge" was nominated for Best Picture.

Imagine if "Star Wars" was nominated for Best Picture, but George Lucas wasn't nominated for his direction. "E.T." without Steven Spielberg. "Rear Window" without Hitchcock. "Moulin Rouge" is every bit a Luhrmann film; without him, it wouldn't exist, and we'd be poorer for it. The DVD of "Moulin Rouge" proves Luhrmann's worthiness beyond a doubt -- it's good enough to convert new fans and make devotees of existing ones. Myself, I'd see a new Luhrmann film before I'd see a new James Cameron film.

The DVD was supervised by Luhrmann himself, and makes a rock-solid case for DVD as an archival medium. The first disc boasts a crystal-clear digital transfer of the film, with a sound mix that begs for house parties. Two commentary tracks are provided, both of which Luhrmann graciously shares -- the first with writer Craig David, and the second with production designer Catherine Martin and director of photography Don McAlpine (both of whom were nominated for Oscars).

The second disc, however, is where the "Moulin Rouge" set moves from the sublime to the nearly religious. It has the bonuses you'd expect -- outtakes and deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews, trailers and photos (and not your standard production photos, either: high-fashion photographers the likes of Douglas Kirkland and Ellen Von Unwerth-shot images worthy of framing).

On the unexpected side, however, are several extended dance sequences, edited from footage that didn't appear in the finished film. The full version of the "Roxanne" tango is a masterwork, and the extended "Can Can" sequence a hypnotic frenzy. The angle feature allows you to further edit the sequences yourself by toggling between up to four distinct camera views. What would Hitchcock have done with DVD, one wonders?

I don't know which film will win Best Picture this year, and truth to tell it's not something I'm giving much thought to. Instead, I wonder if Academy members will rent the DVD of "Moulin Rouge" to see what the big deal is. Will they realize that a film is more than the information contained in its frames? Will they give Luhrmann his due, if only in their heads? The answer is on these two discs. They're the real kings of the world.