Moulin Rouge! - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Moulin Rouge! or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Moulin Rouge!

[ken]

The stage for "Spectacular Spectacular" was especially reinforced to hold the weight of a galloping horse for a scene where the evil Maharaja rides across the stage. The scene was abandoned but the white horse still appears fleetingly in one shot.

[brent]

The blood that Satine (Nicole Kidman) coughs up is really a mixture of red food coloring, corn syrup and water.

[tammy]

In the "Like a Virgin" number, Jim Broadbent's voice is dubbed by an opera singer, mimicking Broadbent's own vocal performance. The floor was rubbed in with Coca Cola so the dancers wouldn't slip. This segment, Richard Roxburgh's favorite experience from the production, took a week to film.

[elmer]

According to an interview with Craig Pearce on the DVD extras, an early draft of the script had the Count seducing both Satine and Christian and then hooking them on morphine.

[christina]

Tara Morice: the female lead in Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom (1992) briefly appears as a prostitute in the opening sequence.

[sophie]

The movie's plot is an amalgam of three operas/operettas. A young writer with Bohemian friends, falling in love with a terminally ill girl, is from La Boheme, based on Henri Murger's novel "La Vie de la Boheme." A courtesan learning that love can also be true and idealistic comes from La Traviata, based on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel La Dame du Camelias, which also involves terminal illness. Finally, the plot line of the writer who travels to the "underworld" of the Moulin Rouge to find his love and tries to take her back to the "upper-world" comes from Jacques Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld" based on Greek mythology--a movement from this opera's overture becomes the "pitch" song for Spectacular Spectacular.

[darrell]

This plot resembles that of Camille (1937) with Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor and Lionel Barrymore in the leading parts and Georges Cukor directing.

[javier]

During Satine's trapeze entrance, blue light was used due to Nicole Kidman's pale skin tone, the director found that the blue light made her almost "glow" and therefore stood out during the scene.

[frederick]

In original drafts of the script, Satine had a three-year-old child and the story was told in flashbacks, told by Christian to the child.

[marc]

Stereophonics' lead singer Kelly Jones says he was approached about playing a part in the movie but turned it down.

[albert]

The Elephant medley contains parts of several famous and not-so-famous love songs. These include "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles, "I Was Made for Loving You" by KISS, "One More Night" by Phil Collins, "In the Name of Love" by U2, "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston, "Silly Love Songs" by Paul McCartney, "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, "Heroes" by David Bowie, and "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton.

[chad]

In the scene where all the gentlemen throw their hats up in the air, all the hats were suspended on fishing wire.

[manuel]

Chosen as the opening film at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

[norma]

Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent later co-starred in Paddington (2014).

[camila]

Originally, the green fairy was going to be a long-haired muscle man with a giant sitar and Ozzy Osbourne was hired to provide the vocals. Eventually it was changed to the current "Tinker Bell" incarnation, played by Kylie Minogue, but Osbourne still gives voice to the fairy's guttural scream when it turns evil.

[francisco]

The Rolling Stones declined permission to use one of their songs in the film.

[kim]

Satine's sickness - though only referred to as "consumption" in the movie - is pulmonary tuberculosis.

[miriam]

"Come What May" was written by David Baerwald for Romeo + Juliet (1996) but not used. In Moulin Rouge! (2001), it is newly written for the stage show by Christian. It is the only completely original song in the entire film. However, because it was written for another film, it was disqualified for the Oscars' Best Song award.

[edgar]

Jim Broadbent based his performance on director Baz Luhrmann.