Moulin Rouge! The story is told through flashbacks from the point of view of Christian McGregor , a young Englishman writing the story of his doomed affair with the star of the eponymous Parisian nightclub.
Flashback to where Christian, an earnest young poet , has left his Victorian London home and his overbearing father in order to live an intellectual life amongst the Bohemian revolutionaries of Paris 's bawdy, colorful Montmartre district. Soon after his arrival, an unconscious Argentinean falls through his roof, quickly joined by a dwarf dressed as a nun He, along with the Argentinean narcoleptic, as it turns out and the rest of their theater troupe are in the flat above, rehearsing their musical spectacle which will, of course, revolutionize the artistic world as they know itโprovided, of course, that they receive the patronage of Harold Zidler Jim Broadbent , owner of the Moulin Rouge, the hottest nightclub-slash-brothel in Paris.
The Moulin is soon to be converted into a theater in order to launch a new career for Zidler's "Sparkling Diamond", Satine Kidman , the club's highest-paid courtesan and star attraction. Zidler, in turn, is relying on the patronage of the odious Duke Richard Roxburgh whose only condition in signing away the fortune it will take to convert the Moulin into a theater is that Satine become his mistress.
The Duke gets his courtesan, Zidler gets his theater, the Bohemians get their play, and Satine gets the respectable career she's always dreamed of. It's a perfect set-up, which is why it will all go horribly, inevitably wrong. Christian wins over the Bohemians andโafter their original librettist storms out in a jealous rageโis put in charge of writing their show, Spectacular Spectacular! To celebrate, they take him out to the Moulin Rouge, on, as it happens, the same night of the Duke's introduction to and first scheduled rendezvous with Satine.
There is an interesting misunderstanding , but Christian's fundamental innocence and the power of his well, Bernie Taupin's poetry win her over, leaving her as starry-eyed with him as he is with her โuntil, of course, it is revealed that he isn't actually the Duke. As the months passโas the Moulin becomes a theater and the show comes togetherโit becomes increasingly evident that their mutual attraction is too strong to ignore. However, the Duke is far less buffoonish than he appears, and if he is crossed, in love or otherwise, there's no telling what lengths he'll go to to keep the new lovers apart The film is a wild mishmash of genres, kinetic editing and atmosphere, often compared to a Music Video for its use of Jitter Cam.
