On with the show

Media Moment: Moulin Rouge
Queen Related: Cover of The Show Must Go On

I remember seeing this film at the theatre and thinking, if Ewan McGregor is doing a Kiss song, surely Queen will make an appearance at some point. Then comes a Bowie song, then an Elton John song, then a… But no Queen.

Until nearer the end when the familiar opening chords of The Show Must Go On begin and Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent do a fine job of incorporating the song and its theme into the critical moment in the film where Satine must carry on with the show even though she’s dying (wait, did I just give that away).

The single CD soundtrack didn’t have TSMGO but I actually found the more rare box set that contained a second disc which had the song, along with the other great tunes missing from the single CD release.

As for the movie, which was on TV again last night, I really liked the highly stylized treatment that Luhrmann gives the overall picture. From the harsh lighting to the deliberate use of scale models of the city, he really captured the spirit of turn-of-the-century Paris in the naughty part of town.

And if Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor weren’t enough of a draw…to contemporize the soundtrack with theatrical covers of popular rock songs was an innovative way to bring today’s youth to the theatre to watch a story set in the late 1890s.