Moulin Rouge 101
In 1900, Christian, an impoverished writer who has come from Scotland the year before, types his story: he arrived in Montmartre and fell in with Toulouse-Lautrec and Bohemians who believe in freedom, truth, beauty, and love. They want to sell a show to the Moulin Rouge, and its impresario wants a backer so he can build a proper theatre. He's plying a duke, who wants exclusive access to the favors of Satine, the Moulin Rouge's consumptive star. She wants to be a proper actress, so the duke's offer is fine - except that she and Christian fall in love. Can Satine keep the duke at bay without losing his patronage? Will the duke discover the lovers and kill Christian? Can love trump jealousy?

Why am I a Moulin Rouge fan?
I was first going to rent MR, since I hadn't seen it before, but I opted to pay just a little more and buy it. I'm so glad I did! It's very original and very romantic.

Christian: Love? Above all things I believe in love! Love is like oxygen. Love is a many-splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love!

Satine: What's his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?
Zidler: I'd say... smoldering temptress.

Christian: Can't fall in love? But a life without love, that's terrible!
Satine: No, living on the streets, that’s terrible!

Christian: Love is a many-splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love!
Satine: Please, don’t start that again.

[Both singing]
Christian: I was made for lovin' you, baby, you were made for lovin' me!
Satine: The only way of lovin' me, baby, is to pay a lovely fee!

[Before kissing Christian.]
Satine: You're going to be bad for business. I can tell.

Christian: Then I'll write a song and we'll put it in the show and whenever you sing it or hear it or whistle or hum it, then you'll know. It'll mean that we love one another.

Nini (cluing the Duke in): This ending’s silly. Why would the courtesan go for the penniless writer? Oops! I mean sitar player.

The Duke (about the play): Why shouldn't the courtesan choose the maharaja?!
Christian (forgetting the play): Because she doesn't love you!

Toulouse-Lautrec: Christian, you may see me only as a drunken, vice-ridden gnome whose friends are just pimps and girls from the brothels. But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.

Christian: Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love!

Satine: Tell our story Christian That way we will always be together.

Christian: Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. And then, one not-so-very special day, I sat down at my typewriter and wrote our story. A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But above all these things, a story about love. A love that will live forever. The End.

* If you're going to write about love, you should probably have been in love first.
* Some people do not take criticism well.
* Money really can't buy you love.
* Sometimes love is bad for business.
* Sometimes - often, in fact - love is better than business.
* There's nothing like a little poetry after supper.
* A title isn't really that important.
* It’s not that some people are jealous. They just don’t like other people touching their things.
* The show must go on.
* Jealousy can drive you mad.
* When love is for the highest bidder, there can be no trust.
* Rich jerks rarely play fair.
* Sometimes you must hurt someone to save them.
* Things aren’t always as they seem.
* The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

The "Sparkling Diamond" dance at the beginning of the movie.

The scene where Christian and the others try to convince the Duke to invest in the play.

The musical montage where Ewan sings the line, "You're free to leave me, but just don't deceive me..." The music and the way he was walking in the dark: it was so hauntingly beautiful.

When Christian throws the money at Satine and yells that he's paid her off. (You know, because his heart is breaking since she tried to hurt him to save him.) Oh, the passion!