50 Fun Facts About Moulin Rouge

Which two films join Moulin Rouge! in Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy?

Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet. The three share no plot or characters: Luhrmann grouped them for their openly theatrical style, built on dance in the first, Shakespeare's verse in the second and song in the third.

In Moulin Rouge!, Christian joins the Bohemians in which Paris district?

Montmartre. Low rents and rowdy cabarets had made the hilltop village the home of Paris's painters and performers, and the real Moulin Rouge opened at its foot.

In the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, what is the play the Bohemians are writing when Christian meets them?

Spectacular Spectacular. Christian gets the job of writing it when a narcoleptic Argentinean crashes through his ceiling in mid-rehearsal and the troupe asks him to stand in.

In Moulin Rouge!, Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke and receives him in her boudoir inside a giant what?

An elephant. The real Moulin Rouge had a giant elephant in its garden too, and the film's designers copied it at three storeys, with Satine's bedroom inside.

In the show the Bohemians pitch in Moulin Rouge!, a courtesan falls for a penniless musician who plays what?

A sitar. When the Duke realises the plot mirrors Satine's real romance, he demands a new ending in which the courtesan marries the maharajah and not the penniless sitar player.

In Moulin Rouge!, which fatal illness is Satine diagnosed with?

Consumption, the old name for tuberculosis. Zidler keeps the diagnosis from her and reveals it only when she is packing to run away with Christian.

Which Marilyn Monroe number does Satine sing from a trapeze in Moulin Rouge!?

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. Satine's entrance splices it with Madonna's 'Material Girl', and Nicole Kidman tore knee cartilage in a fall while filming the number.

In Moulin Rouge!, Christian wins over the Bohemians by singing the first line of which famous title song?

The Sound of Music. In the film's 1899 Paris the tune hasn't been written yet, so its famous first line makes Christian look like a genius and lands him the job of writing the Bohemians' show.

Which pop star appears as the Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge!?

Kylie Minogue. She appears when the Bohemians' absinthe kicks in and sings the part, but the fairy's other voice belongs to Ozzy Osbourne.

Which Madonna hit does Zidler sing to the Duke in Moulin Rouge! to excuse Satine's absence?

Like a Virgin. Satine has collapsed and missed their dinner, so Zidler improvises the excuse that she is confessing her sins to a priest in order to come to the Duke pure.

In Moulin Rouge!, Harold Zidler shares his surname with which real figure?

A co-founder of the real Moulin Rouge. Charles Zidler opened the cabaret with Joseph Oller; by the cabaret's own account, the pair billed it as the first palace of women and promised a temple of music and dance.

Which actor says his 'atrocious' singing voice cost him the role of Christian in Moulin Rouge!?

Leonardo DiCaprio. He recalls trying what he thinks was 'Lean on Me' with Baz Luhrmann and a pianist, and says the director's reaction to his high note ended the conversation.

Which rock frontwoman auditioned to play Satine in Moulin Rouge!?

Courtney Love. Baz Luhrmann has said she tried out before Nicole Kidman was cast and that, as Kurt Cobain's widow, she still had to approve Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', so he went to show her the whole piece.

Where was Moulin Rouge! filmed?

Fox Studios in Sydney. No scene was shot in Paris: the city's streets were built as scale miniatures, and when the shoot overran, the last shots were picked up in Madrid.

Which injury did Nicole Kidman suffer twice while filming Moulin Rouge!?

Broken ribs. Reports from the set blamed the lifts in the dance routines, and Kidman later said one break came from being laced into a corset to reach an 18-inch waist.

Which Beatles song does Christian quote in the love-song medley he trades with Satine in Moulin Rouge!?

All You Need Is Love. It opens a duel of about ten borrowed love songs, from Kiss to U2 to Dolly Parton, that ends with Satine giving in and the two of them kissing.

In Moulin Rouge!, The Police's 'Roxanne' is performed in which dance style?

A tango. The film welds Sting's song to 'Tanguera', an Argentine tango, and hands the lead vocal to its narcoleptic Argentinean.

Which Elton John number does Christian sing to win over Satine in Moulin Rouge!?

Your Song. In the film's 1899 Paris its lyric passes as Christian's own poetry, proof that he writes like no one else in his world.

Why was Moulin Rouge!'s 'Come What May' ineligible for the Best Original Song Oscar?

Written for an earlier film. The duet had been composed for one of Luhrmann's previous pictures and gone unused, and Academy rules say a nominated song must be written for the film it appears in.

Which four singers covered 'Lady Marmalade' for Moulin Rouge!?

Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mýa and Lil' Kim. Missy Elliott produced their cover, which spent five weeks at number one in the US even though the film itself tucks the song inside one of Zidler's medleys.

'Lady Marmalade', covered for Moulin Rouge!, was first a US number-one hit for which group?

Labelle. Lead singer Patti LaBelle has said she had no idea what the French chorus was proposing until a nun's complaint about the song set her straight.

Which Bollywood song from the film China Gate is sampled in Moulin Rouge!?

Chamma Chamma. Luhrmann fell for Bollywood on an opera research trip to India, where a Hindi film swinging from low comedy to tragedy to song held 2,000 people rapt, and he set out to try the same in the West.

Which Queen song do Zidler and Satine sing in operatic style near the end of Moulin Rouge!?

The Show Must Go On. Zidler sings it to send the dying Satine back on stage for opening night, after persuading her that giving up Christian is the only way to save his life.

At which film festival did Moulin Rouge! have its premiere as the opening-night film?

Cannes. Fox had planned a Christmas 2000 release but gave Luhrmann extra months to finish a complicated film, so its debut became the festival's opening night the following spring.

Made for about $50M, Moulin Rouge! grossed roughly how much worldwide?

$180M, near enough. North America supplied only $57M of it; the rest of the world paid more than twice that, which is how the film came to more than triple its budget.

Who beat Moulin Rouge!'s Nicole Kidman to the Oscar?

Halle Berry, for Monster's Ball. The first Black woman to win Best Actress, she wept as she dedicated it to the actresses who came before her; Kidman's was one of eight nominations for the film, and her first.

Which two Oscars did Moulin Rouge! win in 2002?

Production Design and Costume Design. Catherine Martin, Baz Luhrmann's wife, shared both awards, the first then called Art Direction, on a night when her husband wasn't even nominated for directing.

Which Oscars host opened the 2002 ceremony by descending from the ceiling dressed in the style of Moulin Rouge!?

Whoopi Goldberg. She was lowered from the rafters in a top hat, copying Satine's entrance in the film, which went on to win two of its eight nominations that night.

Which actor plays impresario Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge!?

Jim Broadbent. He won a BAFTA for the part, and a month later took the Oscar for best supporting actor, though for a different film, Iris.

Moulin Rouge! won Golden Globes for Musical or Comedy, Actress and which other award?

Best Original Score. Craig Armstrong took the Globe, yet at the Oscars two months later his score was not among the film's eight nominations.

Which star of Broadway's Moulin Rouge! won a Tony as his category's only nominee?

Aaron Tveit. In the season the pandemic cut short he was the lone nominee for best leading actor in a musical, and he collected the prize at a ceremony held over a year late, where the show won ten Tonys.

Who originated the role of Satine when Moulin Rouge! became a Broadway musical?

Karen Olivo. Already a Tony winner for West Side Story, Olivo was nominated again as Satine, then refused to return when Broadway reopened in 2021, in protest at the industry's silence over a producer accused of abuse.

Which Paris landmark opened in 1889, like the Moulin Rouge?

Eiffel Tower. It was the showpiece of that year's world's fair; the cabaret's own history has its founder opening on 6 October at 8pm sharp although the building work wasn't finished.

The Moulin Rouge made its name with which dance?

The can-can. Thought to have grown out of the last figure of the quadrille, a dance for couples, it became at the Moulin Rouge a women's spectacle that made stars of its best dancers.

What destroyed the original Moulin Rouge in 1915?

A fire. It tore through the cabaret in the first winter of the war, and the site stayed dark until a rebuilt Moulin Rouge reopened in the 1920s.

Which future king is La Goulue said to have greeted at the Moulin Rouge with 'Hey, Wales, the champagne's on you!'?

Edward VII. The story goes that the Prince of Wales had booked a table on a private visit to Paris in 1890, and that the dancer spotted him between cartwheels and called out mid-routine.

Which French singer headlined the Moulin Rouge in 1944 with newcomer Yves Montand as her opening act?

Édith Piaf. By the cabaret's own telling, she first wrote Montand off as a Marseille singer playing at cowboys, 'the height of vulgarity', then took him into her act; he later said she had saved him time.

Which artist drew the 1891 poster 'Moulin Rouge: La Goulue' to advertise the cabaret?

Toulouse-Lautrec. By the cabaret's own telling, he came every evening and drew the dancers and customers from a corner table, and the dancers dubbed him 'the little guy'.

Which actor played the diminutive painter at the centre of John Huston's 1952 film Moulin Rouge?

José Ferrer. To play the short-statured artist he had his legs strapped up behind him and walked on his knees, a performance that brought him an Oscar nomination.

Baz Luhrmann once went to the real Moulin Rouge hoping to see which Jackson sibling wrestle a snake?

La Toya Jackson. She was starring in the cabaret's revue in the early 1990s; there was no snake-wrestling the night he went, Luhrmann said, but the visit stuck with him and gave his film its setting.

Baz Luhrmann has said Moulin Rouge! is built on which Greek myth?

Orpheus. Like the singer who goes down to the underworld for his love and returns alone, Christian is a poet who loses Satine; the story itself, Luhrmann has said, is derived from the opera La bohème and from Camille.

In Moulin Rouge!, 'Nature Boy' replaced which song after its writer objected on religious grounds?

Father and Son. Cat Stevens withheld it, so 'Nature Boy' took its place; it now opens and closes the film, and its last lyric, about loving and being loved in return, became the story's motto.

Moulin Rouge! had to clear its sound stages for which film?

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Ewan McGregor starred in both, so the stages passed from one of his films to the next, while Luhrmann quietly finished his own shoot in Madrid.

Moulin Rouge! was the first musical nominated for Best Picture since which animated film a decade earlier?

Beauty and the Beast. No musical had been up for the top prize in the ten years since Disney's film; Moulin Rouge! lost to A Beautiful Mind, and a year later Chicago won the award outright.

Which actor plays the short-statured painter who leads the Bohemians in Moulin Rouge!?

John Leguizamo. He also opens the film, singing 'Nature Boy' in character; its key line is the one his character keeps forgetting in rehearsal and finally shouts from the rafters on opening night.

Which ice dancers won 2018 Olympic gold with a free dance to music from Moulin Rouge!?

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. The Canadians had retired for two years after settling for silver in 2014, then came back for one more Games and won it skating as Satine and Christian.

Which opera star provides the voice of the Man in the Moon in Moulin Rouge!?

Plácido Domingo. Luhrmann had staged operas before he made films, and he gave his singing moon to one of the Three Tenors.

Which artist covered David Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs' for the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack?

Beck. Bowie wrote the song but doesn't sing it here; his own turn on the soundtrack is somebody else's, the Nat King Cole standard 'Nature Boy'.

A knee injury on Moulin Rouge! forced Nicole Kidman out of the lead in which thriller?

Panic Room. She had to quit two weeks into David Fincher's shoot, which put the whole film in doubt until Jodie Foster stepped into the role at short notice.

Which actor did Baz Luhrmann screen-test for Christian in Moulin Rouge!, only to judge him too young?

Heath Ledger. Luhrmann remembered his screen tests with Nicole Kidman as incredible, made when Christian was written as a much younger man, but he decided Ledger was too young and cast Ewan McGregor.