December 3: 2019 (XXXIX: 15) Baz Luhrmann: MOULIN ROUGE (2001, 128m) The version of this Goldenrod Handout sent out in our Monday mailing, and the one online, has hot links.

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DIRECTOR Baz Luhrmann WRITING Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce PRODUCERS Fred Baron Martin Brown Baz Luhrmann MUSIC Craig Armstrong CINEMATOGRAPHY Donald McAlpine EDITING Jill Bilcock In 2002, the film won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Costume Design and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Nicole Kidman), Best Cinematography (Donald McAlpine), Best Film Editing (Jill Bilcock), Best Makeup, and Best Sound. In 2001, it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. CAST Nicole Kidman...Satine (based on Jane Avril) Ewan McGregor...Christian Jim Broadbent...Harold Zidler Richard Roxburgh...The Duke of Monroth John Leguizamo...Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Jacek Koman...The Narcoleptic Argentinean Caroline O'Connor...Nini Kerry Walker...Marie Lara Mulcahy...Môme Fromage Garry McDonald...The Doctor Matt Whittet...Satie Keith Robinson...Le Pétomane David Wenham...Audrey Kiruna Stamell...La Petite Princesse DeObia Oparei...Le Chocolat Kylie Minogue...The Green Fairy Peter Whitford...The Stage Manager Linal Haft...Warner BAZ LUHRMANN (b. September 17, 1962 in New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian writer (15 credits), director (18 credits), and producer (8 credits) with projects spanning film directing (18 credits), television, opera,

theatre, music, and recording industries. On the screen he is best known for his Red Curtain Trilogy, comprising his romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom** (1992), for which he won the Award of the Youth at Cannes, the romantic tragedy William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet*** (1996), and Moulin Rouge!**** (2001), for which he was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and the Palm d’Or. Following the trilogy, projects included Australia**** (2008), The Great Gatsby** (2013), and his television period drama The Get Down for Netflix. Luhrmann is equally known for his Grammy-nominated soundtracks for Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby, as well as his record label House of Iona, a co-venture with RCA Records. Serving as producer on all of his musical soundtracks, he also holds writing credits on many of the individual tracks. His album Something For Everybody features music from many of his films and also includes his hit "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)". Luhrmann's influence has extended outside the traditional realm of media and entertainment. Luhrmann works closely with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Anna Wintour Costume Center, having chaired its famous annual gala. He has also directed these shorts: Chanel N°5: The Film***** (2004), Waist Up/Waist Down (2012), Ugly Chic* (2012), The Surreal Body* (2012), The Exotic Body* (2012), The

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—2 Classical Body* (2012), Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations (2012), Naïf Chic* (2012), and Hard Chic* (2012). *Writer **Writer and Music ***Writer and Producer ****Writer, Music, and Producer *****Producer CRAIG ARMSTRONG (b. April 29, 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK) is a Scottish composer of modern orchestral music, electronica and film scores. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1981, and has since written music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. These are some of the films he has composed for: Orphans (1998), Best Laid Plans (1999), The Bone Collector (1999), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), The Quiet American (2002), Hide & Seek (Vogue) (2003), Love Actually (2003), Chanel N°5: The Film (Short) (2004), Fever Pitch (2005), Must Love Dogs (2005), World Trade Center (2006), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Neds (2010), In Time (2011), The Untold History of the United States (TV Series documentary) (2012-13), The Great Gatsby (2013), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), Victor Frankenstein (2015), Snowden (2016), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), Mrs. Lowry and Son (2019), The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019), and Dirt Music (2019). DONALD McALPINE (Born: 1934 in Quandialla, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian cinematographer (66 credits) who began his career in the late 1960s and was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Moulin Rouge! (2001). These are some of the other films he has worked on: Leonard French's Stained Glass Screens (Short) (1969), Or Forever Hold Your Peace (1970), The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972), Gentle Strangers (1972), The Getting of Wisdom (1977), My Brilliant Career (1979), Breaker Morant (1980), The Club (1980), Puberty Blues (1981), Now and Forever (1983), Blue Skies Again (1983), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Predator (1987), Orphans (1987), Moon Over Parador (1988), Stanley & Iris (1990), The Hard Way (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Nine Months (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), The Time Machine (2002), Anger Management (2003), Peter Pan (2003), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Main Street (2010), The Dressmaker (2015), Kapoor & Sons (2016), and Ali's Wedding (2017).

JILL BILCOCK (b. 1948 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian film editor (40 credits), nominated for an Oscar for her work on Moulin Rouge! (2001). These are some other films she has worked on: Strikebound (1984), A Cry in the Dark (1988), Till There Was You (1991), Erotique (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Head On (1998), Elizabeth (1998), The Dish (2000), Road to Perdition (2002), The Libertine (2004), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), The Young Victoria (2009), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010), Red Dog (2011), Mental (2012), My Mistress (2014), The Dressmaker (2015), and Ride Like a Girl (2019).

NICOLE KIDMAN (b. June 20, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an Australian and American actress (84 credits) and producer (8 credits). She began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. In 1990, she made her Hollywood debut in the racing film Days of Thunder, opposite Tom Cruise. She went on to achieve wider recognition with leading roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). She received two consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a courtesan in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002). In 2012, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn and returned to television in 2017, co-producing and starring in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress as well as Outstanding Limited Series. These are some of the other films she has acted in: Wills & Burke (1985), Windrider (1986), Emerald City (1988), Billy Bathgate (1991), Malice (1993), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), The Peacemaker (1997), Panic Room (2002), Dogville (2003), The Human Stain (2003), Cold Mountain (2003), The Stepford Wives (2004), The Interpreter (2005), Bewitched (2005), Fur: An Imaginary

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—3 Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), The Golden Compass (2007), Australia (2008), Rabbit Hole (2010), Just Go with It (2011), Stoker (2013), Grace of Monaco (2014), Paddington (2014), Strangerland (2015), Secret in Their Eyes (2015), The Guardian Brothers (2016), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), Top of the Lake (TV Series) (2017), The Beguiled (2017), The Upside (2017), Destroyer (2018), Boy Erased (2018), and Aquaman (2018).

EWAN McGREGOR (b. March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, UK) is a Scottish film actor (85 credits) who also directed and starred in the 2016 film adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel American Pastoral. Some of his best-known roles include heroin addict Mark Renton in Trainspotting (1996), Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), poet Christian in Moulin Rouge! (2001), Edward Bloom in Big Fish (2003), and James Joyce in Nora (2000), which he co-produced. These are some of the other films he has appeared in: Being Human (1994), Blue Juice (1995), The Pillow Book (1996), Emma (1996), Nightwatch (1997), The Serpent's Kiss (1997), Welcome to Hollywood (1998), Rogue Trader (1999), Eye of the Beholder (1999), Black Hawk Down (2001), Down with Love (2003), Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006), Miss Potter (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Incendiary (2008), Deception (2008), Angels & Demons (2009), The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), Amelia (2009), The Ghost Writer (2010), Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), Beginners (2010), Perfect Sense (2011), The Corrections (TV Movie) (2012), Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), Jane Got a Gun (2015), T2 Trainspotting (2017), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Christopher Robin (2018), and Doctor Sleep (2019). JIM BROADBENT (b. May 24, 1949 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK) is an English film and television actor (162 credits). He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film Iris (2001). Broadbent played Horace Slughorn in the fantasy films Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and Harry Potter and the

Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). He joined the cast of the television series Game of Thrones, playing a role of Archmaester Ebrose, in the seventh season (2017). These are some of his other appearances in film and television: The Go-Between (1971), The Shout (1978), The Life Story of Baal (1978), The Passage (1979), Breaking Glass (1980), The Dogs of War (1980), Time Bandits (1981), The Hit (1984), Brazil (1985), The Good Father (1985), Silas Marner (TV Movie) (1985), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), Vroom (1988), Life Is Sweet (1990), The Crying Game (1992), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Widows' Peak (1994), Richard III (1995), The Secret Agent (1996), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), The Avengers (1998), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Gangs of New York (2002), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Around the World in 80 Days (2004), Vanity Fair (2004), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), The Young Victoria (2009), Perrier's Bounty (2009), Another Year (2010), The Iron Lady (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012), Closed Circuit (2013), The Harry Hill Movie (2013), Paddington (2014), Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods (2014), Get Santa (2014), Brooklyn (2015), The Weather Inside (2015), The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), The Sense of an Ending (2017), Black '47 (2018), and King of Thieves (2018). RICHARD ROXBURGH (b. January 23, 1962 in Albury, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian film actor who has appeared in such films as: The Riddle of the Stinson (TV Movie) (1988), Dead to the World (1991), Tracks of Glory (TV Mini-Series) (1992), Talk (1994), Children of the Revolution (1996), The Wedding Party (1997), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), A Little Bit of Soul (1998), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Moulin Rouge! (2001), The Touch (2002), The One and Only (2002), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Van Helsing (2004), Like Minds (2006), The Diplomat (TV Movie) (2009), Sanctum (2011), The Turning (2013), Maya the Bee Movie (2014), Blinky Bill (2015), Looking for Grace (2015), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), Swinging Safari (2018), Danger Close (2019), H Is for Happiness (2019), and Angel of Mine (2019). JOHN LEGUIZAMO (b. July 22, 1964 in Bogotá, Colombia) is an American film and television actor (146 credits), stand-up comedian, producer (21 credits), playwright and writer (14 credits). He began his acting career in the music video for Madonna’s 1984 hit “Borderline.” As his career took off in the early 1990s, he made notable appearances in features like Die Hard 2 (1990), Carlito’s Way (1993), and To Wong Foo Thanks

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—4 for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995). Before appearing in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (2001), he appeared in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996). In 2017, he debuted Latin History for Morons, a show about the participation of Latin Americans throughout US history. The show premiered at the Public Theater before moving to Studio 54. Latin History for Morons was nominated for the 2018 Tony Award for Best Play and was filmed for a Netflix special that premiered the same year. These are some of his film appearances: Mixed Blood (1984), Casualties of War (1989), Revenge (1990), Poison (1991), Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991), Regarding Henry (1991), Executive Decision (1996), The Fan (1996), Body Count (1998), Doctor Dolittle (1998), Joe the King (1999), Summer of Sam (1999), King of the Jungle (2000), Collateral Damage (2002), Zig Zag (2002), Ice Age (2002), Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), Lies and Alibis (2006), The Groomsmen (2006), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), The Happening (2008), Righteous Kill (2008), Repo Men (2010), One for the Money (2012), The Counsellor (2013), John Wick (2014), Stealing Cars (2015), The Hollow Point (2016), The Infiltrator (2016), The Crash (2017), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), Nancy (2018), and Playing with Fire (2019).

Terry Keefe: “The Man Behind the Red Curtain: Director Baz Lurhmann Reveals the Secrets of Moulin Rouge” (Venice Magazine). The "Red Curtain" is a descriptive phrase coined by filmmaker Baz Luhrmann to describe his style of filmmaking, and it is apt - cinema which is also so highly theatrical that it feels like it was birthed from the stage. Think of the fevered final dance competition of his debut feature, Strictly Ballroom (1992) which was so colorful and high-octane that it almost seemed to be an animated film come to life. Or the swirling camera and dazzling production design which breathed new life into the oft-told story of Romeo + Juliet (1996). Luhrmann's films take place in a world that can best be described as heightened reality, and they combine elements of theater, opera, traditional cinema, and numerous elements of pop culture to create an almost completely new genre. The universe

behind Luhrmann's red curtain is always on 10, and it demands that the audience be anything but passive. In a Luhrmann film, you know you're watching a movie, but it sometimes feels more like a live performance. So much, in fact, that audiences at the Cannes Film Festival this year were applauding at the end of each of the songs in Luhrmann's newest feature film, Moulin Rouge, as if they were at a Broadway show. Moulin Rouge takes place in turn of the (last) century Paris and tells the story of a young musical playwright, Christian (Ewan McGregor), who falls in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), the star of the decadently infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub. Satine also happens to be the city's most famous courtesan, and this is where trouble comes into paradise. Zidler (Jim Broadbent), the Moulin Rouge's P.T. Barnum-like impresario, has promised the hand of Satine to the Duke of Worchester (a delightfully evil Richard Roxburgh). In exchange, the Duke will finance a renovation of the Moulin Rouge into a legitimate theater, where Satine can become a true actress. It's a tale of love vs. money. Did we mention that it's also a musical? A musical in which McGregor and Kidman sing everything from the title track of The Sound of Music to David Bowie's "Heroes." With Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann reinvents the movie musical by delving into the past. It's almost as if he took all the music videos, studio musicals, pop albums, and stage productions of the last 100 years, stuck them into a Cuisinart, and proceeded to shape Moulin Rouge out of the mixture. There are so many pop culture references in Moulin Rouge that there are references within the references -- such as the scene in which Nicole Kidman croons Madonna's "Material Girl" while a bunch of tuxedoed male suitors chase her around with gifts, the imagery of which references the 1985 video for the Madonna song. But wait, that video was itself an homage to Marilyn Monroe's scene from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) in which she sings "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," which, incidentally, Kidman also sings here. Moulin Rouge showcases the Red Curtain style at its most full-blown yet. It even opens with a shot of a red curtain which pulls back to reveal one of the most dazzling opening sequences in recent cinematic memory, as Luhrmann's camera flies over a recreation of the cityscape of Paris, zips into various apartments to introduce some of the lead characters, then rockets into the Moulin Rouge nightclub for the opening number. The roots of Luhrmann's groundbreaking cinema can be traced back to his extensive theatrical background in his home country of Australia. While studying to be an actor at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Luhrmann co-wrote, staged, and directed a play which he would develop into his film Strictly Ballroom. But before he made the jump to film, Luhrmann would produce his

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—5 first opera, "Lake Lost," which is where he began his long collaboration with his wife and production designer, Catherine Martin. During subsequent opera productions of "La Boheme" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Luhrmann and Martin would develop their signature style which would eventually be brought to the world of cinema. We caught up with Baz Luhrmann on the eve of the nationwide opening of Moulin Rouge, which had already completed a highly successful limited release in New York and Los Angeles. In both cities, audiences were lining up around the block to get a glimpse of what's behind the red curtain. When you were at the conceptual stages of Moulin Rouge, did you know that you'd basically be re-inventing the movie musical by the time you were done? Baz Luhrmann: Yes, that was what we set out to do. Apart from the other things that feed the process of deciding what to make, it's always been a desire of mine. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and we got lots of old television and my dad ran a cinema for a while, so I loved musicals as a kid. You know, music cinema, all this artificiality making you feel things, I've done a lot of opera and theater, and I just thought that somebody's got to get around to making that work in the cinema again. And so that was the project. With all the songs, dance, and production design you had to try out, this couldn't have been a traditional scripting process. You know, this is the third in this kind of film we've done. We set out to make a cinematic form which is the antithesis of the current cinema vernacular. Where the audience participate. Where they are awakened. Where they are alive in the cinema. Where they are actually uniting with the rest of the people in the cinema and participating. Now, the film's played in both New York and Los Angeles, in just two cinemas, but the audiences are clapping in exactly the same places during the movie in every single session. And that's good news for us, because that's why the film is different. I mention this because we built Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and this film in the same manner. And it's very, very labor-intensive. We spend a lot of time doing very detailed academic research, then we build the plot line. And the difficult thing is to build a very simple plot. They all require simple, recognizable stories that the audience knows the ending of when it begins. They require that. And that's very hard to

do. We found it much easier when we were doing naturalistic work, because when you're revealing plot as you go along, you've got something to hang it on. Whereas, when people know the plot, it's about the execution. What we had to do, for example, is you're writing the scene and

you've got the boy going, "Love is everything," and she's going, "No, I'm a career girl. I can't fall in love." Then you have to convert that into musical form. And we've already set up the rule, which is an old rule, that the audience had to have a familiar relationship with the music and that the music had to be of our vernacular. So it

was incredibly labor-intensive. But really, that's true of all musical work. No opera and no musical has been a quick job. I mean, "Cats" when it opened did not have "Memories" in it, for example. A lot of the rehearsal for Moulin Rouge occurred at a place of yours in Australia called "The House of Iona," described in the production notes as a "sprawling Victorian mansion." Tell us about that. The key actors would come down for four weeks, It's a production facility but we also live there. The same thing happened on Romeo + Juliet - Leonardo DiCaprio came and lived with us for a while as we developed it. And we take very seriously working with the actors in the sense that they do their work and we redraft based on what happens in the rehearsals and the workshopping. What was the casting process for the leads like? Was it always a mandate that they could sing, or did you ever consider casting non-singing stars that you could dub? They had to be able to sing. I cherish the fact that I know of many, many famous actors and I know that they can sing beautifully. But both Ewan and Nicole I had had some contact with before, because I shot Nicole for Vogue which I was the editor of for an issue, and I knew she was very funny and warm and unlike the Nicole that most people know about. And Ewan I almost cast as Mercutio (in Romeo + Juliet). I went through the process of finding out what actors could fulfill the roles and then convey emotion through voice. They didn't have to be big singers, but they had to be able to move you emotionally. They had to be able to act through voice. Basically, Ewan and Nicole were the best for the job. That's the bottom line of it. Is it true you weren't able to screen-test Ewan and Nicole together before making the final casting decision? Yes, Nicole was on stage on Broadway in "The

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—6 Blue Room" and Ewan was in the West End in a play as well. So I really had to take a punt on that chemistry and I must say Ronna Kress, my casting director, really held my hand and said, "Look, you've got to take the leap of faith." And we did and it really is a chemical reaction between the two of them. How was the on-camera singing filmed? We used all the techniques. There's the traditional technique of playback, which is your basic one: They record and we do playback (on the set). But we did use a very groundbreaking technique which is where they sing live and then you replace the voice later with digital technology. It's a program which locks what you've sung to lip-sync. And then the other thing is that for a few moments in the film they're actually singing live. I have to ask you how you created the fantastic opening where you're zipping in and out of all those buildings and all over the city of Paris. It's a combination of very old techniques and very new techniques. The illusion that it's black and white film and then we zoom in -- that is all model work, they're old-fashioned models that are built. And then we used digital technology to put in boats and water and sky and people. We shot hundreds of little extras. There's tiny little people walking on the bridge and things to make it real. And so it's a combination of old and new. We spent all of our digital money, and we didn't have a lot of it, making things not good but BAD. Basically stopping it from looking digitally perfect, to make it look "cinematically imperfect." What types of techniques were used to make it look imperfect? You can equate this with the difference between digital sound and analog. They're like CDs vs. vinyl records. Because life in digital is absolutely mathematically perfect. Unfortunately, real life is nothing like that. In fact, it's the imperfections between individual violin strings that make an orchestra warm. They're all slightly out of tune. That's why when you get a digital sample of a violin and you put hundreds of them together, they sound nothing like the real thing. Because it's the imperfection that makes something warm. And we've done that a lot on Moulin Rouge. For example, when we have our camera sweeping through buildings over Paris (in the opening), we had to actually program in digitally the imperfections of bumps and shakes. At first you really do believe you might be in a bit of black and white footage, and that's because it shakes. Also, if you look at the shot it goes out of focus. We had to

digitally put it out of focus. What are some of your favorite movie musicals? I think that I have tastes that range from "Top Hat" to "Bandwagon" to "Cabaret." I love the early Elvis musicals, but I also love "West Side Story," which is a

tragedy. You're willing to take a lot of risks that most directors would never hang their career on. Can you even allow yourself to get scared or can you put it out of your mind completely when you're starting a project like this? It's a paradox. I'm paradoxical about it in a really big sense. Because

people say to me, "My God, you're so brave," and all that. And I'm just thinking, "What are you talking about?" I'm sort of like, "Well, gee, somebody's got to make the musical work now. I guess I'll have to do that job," you know? On the other hand, it would be a lie not to say that every morning I wake up with a sort of sick feeling in my stomach as I go towards what we're doing. But it's usually just about making the day work. It's like, "Oh my god, I've got 300 shots. I'll never get there." I have no question mark whatsoever that whether a billion people go off to see this movie or only the crowds that are now lining up in L.A. or New York, there's no question that the genie is out of the bottle (in terms of bringing back the musical). And there's no question in my mind that the genie was going to get out of the bottle. If it wasn't me, it was going to be someone else. So I'm like, "What's the big deal?" How many absolutely monolithic heads of monolithic companies in the last four days are going, "You know, this is a billion-dollar idea. We own music companies. We own film companies. You bring the two together and they work? Hmmmm." [laughs] It's not rocket science to work out that the world goes around in circles and this, at some point, was going to come around again. Given the fact that the movie musical had been considered a dead genre by the major studios for so long, did it take a lot of convincing on your part to get the green light from Fox? No. In the old days maybe, but just think -- I've made a film about ballroom dancing and a film about Shakespeare. Nobody was knocking on my door going, "Please, we really need somebody to make a ballroom dancing film. We know it's going to be huge." or "Shakespeare! That's a great idea!" So after the first two -- they made a lot of money and won a lot of awards. I have a deal anyway at Fox where I'm about making new culture. My company is Bazmark Films, and you either want the

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—7 Bazmark thing or you don't. I went in and I just basically outlined in words the basic notion of [Moulin Rouge] and they said, "Not a cent over 45 million. Come back when it's ready." And to be really honest, as much as I'd like to go into a kind of horror story about the studio, the real truth is that they've been unbelievably, relentlessly supportive, like at a ludicrous level. People lose their jobs over squandering 50 million on having a crack at the musical. And they were the ones who said, "Hey, we think this is a summer picture." I was a little bit more like, "Art house September looks good to me." They're the ones who have gone, "This is something for everybody. This can play broad." And you know, if they believe in my commitment, I've got to believe in their commitment. We're very family-orientated, in the sense that we work with the same people over a long period of time, and I know it sounds corny but I feel really great that all the people at that studio feel really proud about the achievement of this film. It gives the studio a great sense of higher morale that there are actually people saying, "Oh, you're doing something edgy. Must be great to work there." It makes Fox an interesting place to be. Let's talk a little about your early work. Your first film Strictly Ballroom actually started as a play. Yes, we developed it as a play when I was at drama school. And then I further developed it in my theater company and we toured Czechoslovakia; this was before the Wall came down. It won a lot of awards as a play. Then I set out to make it into a film. I realized that if I naturalized it, and this is not to demean Dirty Dancing, it would become like a naturalistic Dirty Dancing. So one had to find a cinematic language that kept the irony, that kept the sense that it had a resonating comment about artistic oppression. That's when I began developing this idea of theatricalized cinema. And it's not brand-new, you know. It's looking back to the movies of the '30s and the '40s which have a contract with the audience. I was also very influenced by Bollywood movies, or Hindi movies. Cinema where the audience participates in a movie. Where they know they're watching a movie at all times. While you were working in theater, was it always a goal to cross over into films? You know, I made movies as a kid and I made plays. It's never been any different for me. I've always made little movies and I've acted in movies and I've acted in plays and I've made records. We come from a small country, Australia, so everybody does a little bit of everything. You've got to. [laughs]

Baz Luhrmann:A Letter from Baz Luhrmann” (Broadway Direct) Moulin Rouge! the movie was an attempt to reinvent the movie musical. It’s not a stretch that my desire to do this germinated in the tiny country town where I grew up. There, we had a gas station, a farm, but we also had a local cinema and a small black-and-white television with only one channel, onto which they dumped old movies and musicals. I grew up on these films, and though many of them are now considered classics, at that time in the 1970s, they were sort of disregarded and disrespected. Later, as I grew up in the theater and in film, I studied realism, Brecht and Artaud; I was a

great devotee of Coppola, Scorsese, Fellini, and Bergman; but still I never lost my love for the musical form. What I found so interesting was that each epoch or era had its own musical language. Once I started to make movies, I became obsessed with finding a musical language that could work for now. As someone who had loved musicals from childhood, I wanted to see them live again. So in making Moulin Rouge!, I set out with my collaborators to reinvent an old form. What I found was fundamental to all these films is that they aren’t psychological dramas. They’re not trying to hide the plot; it’s obvious. The art form is how you reveal that plot, heightening emotion through visual language devices and, most of all, the music. Once I started to collaborate with Craig Pearce on the story, we took a primary myth, that of Orpheus, which the audience could instinctively recognize, and set this myth in the 1890s Belle Époque, in the Bohemian environment of Montmartre, a period that reflected our own, full of invention, massive change, and on the eve of a whole new epoch. Throughout the journey, there were moments when people in the industry who I genuinely respect truly believed that the musical could never be popular again. Now it’s uplifting that more than 15 years later, the movie-musical is an important part of the cinema-going experience again. When it came to bringing Moulin Rouge! the movie to the stage, I knew I wasn’t the right person to reinterpret something I made years ago. Because, in fact, there’s now a whole generation of younger artists who have a purer relationship with the work than I do. I feared I might be inclined to protect every choice that was made in the original work as if it were somehow sacred, but that is the antithesis of art. Any good story needs to be interpreted in different places, in different ways, for different times. Recoded, if you like. So I made the conscious decision to hand the work over and, instead of being the birther, to become something of an uncle to the project.

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—8 I saw a show done by the very talented Alex Timbers, and in it, I saw a little bit of influence in the way I was telling stories on film, both ironic and heartfelt, challenging to the audience in its rhythms, outrageous, and yet at the same time, very respectful of we funny old humans. From the get-go, Alex — along with a team that included book writer John Logan, choreographer Sonya Tayeh, set designer Derek McLane, costume designer Catherine Zuber, and a musical crew headed by Justin Levine — wanted to go way, way out on a limb in terms of the interpretation and started to make choices that some people might guess that I, and some fans of the original, would find sacrilegious, adding new songs alongside many of the original hits from the movie, and rearranging plot. In its original, cinematic form, we had been careful to heighten Moulin Rouge! in its plotting and visual language, to give it a theatricality that could counteract the film medium’s inherent movement toward realism. Whereas in the theatre, of course, it’s already theatrical! And so the choice that Alex, John, and the rest of the team made to ground the story more, to perhaps find more psychological depth, was really kind of daring. It made me think back to when I wanted to take a beloved work, something Shakespearean or a classic opera, and make strong choices with it, only to have people rail against what I was trying to do. So all I could do is have faith in these gifted creatives. It was one of the more thrilling things in my recent experiences to discover that the preposterous conceit of Moulin Rouge! had not only survived, but flourished! Once more, a Bohemian poet made his way to the underworld, and when he opened his mouth to convey his genius through poetry, all manner of popular music poured forth in remixes and mash-ups of songs we all know. This new theatrical production absolutely honors the movie, but finds a new life that is exciting and vital for this audience in this time. What was so uplifting was that in the end, audiences connected with the show in such an electrifying way. I’d never had that experience before. Something that I’d been intimately involved in creating was now living new and fresh without me at the center of its process. I personally can’t wait for summer to come, so that I can enjoy the show purely as an audience member, and take all my friends and family along to the Moulin Rouge! Desson Howe: “Vive ‘Moulin Rouge’!’” (Washington Post)

When you're thinking "musical stars," chances are, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman aren't the first two actors that loom large in the brain. But in Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," they're easy, heck, even charming, on the ear.

They continue the growing tradition of musicals (such as "Everyone Says I Love You"), in which people sing in their own, unapologetic voices, rather than with false Broadway brassiness. Of course, neither performer would be wise to pursue a professional singing career after this, but they

acquit themselves wonderfully. They're more than carried along, anyway, by Luhrmann's postmodern bohemian rhapsody of a musical. It's a brilliant tribute to many things: Paris's bohemian era, the evolution of pop music from Gilbert & Sullivan to Nirvana and musicals from "Gold Diggers of 1933" to Lars von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark." McGregor plays Christian, the archetypal penniless writer come to Gay Paree, circa 1899. Kidman – conspicuously cast against prim type – is Satine, the Moulin's biggest attraction and a successful courtesan. Satine gets her shot at the big time (she wants to be a classy actress à la Sarah Bernhardt) when club owner Zidler (Jim Broadbent) offers her services to a repressed, psychologically twisted financier, the Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh). In turn, he agrees to finance Moulin's latest ambitious show. Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), a club regular and social observer, helps Christian get a job writing songs for the show. He pleases everyone with his first idea, a song that begins with, "The hills are alive with the sound of music." Christian falls in love with Satine, who mistakenly thinks he's the Duke. By the time the Duke rears his ugly head, Satine's already in love with Christian. While Satine rehearses for the show and keeps the Duke at bay, she meets surreptitiously with Christian. Things are obviously going to get stickier. McGregor's appealing as always. He's a great sport of an actor, who's always game for a new challenge. He makes a truly sweet-natured character. Kidman's cool screen presence warms up considerably. She'll never be hot to the touch, but she's likable enough here. But the great star, of course, is behind the red curtain. That's Luhrmann, who also made the inspired "Strictly Ballroom" and "Romeo + Juliet." Working with music director Marius DeVries and many of his regular collaborators (including cinematographer Donald M.

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—9 McAlpine and production manager/costume designer Catherine Martin), he has created a wonderful cutting-edge opera. He nods at cinema itself with glimpses of silent movie irising techniques, a beaming man-in-the-moon (straight out of the turn-of-the-century films of Georges Melies), and salutations to great screen divas from Dietrich to Minnelli. Musically, you can hear strains of almost everything, as the colorful bohos at the Moulin sing, dance and vamp. There's a cafe waltz based on Marc Bolan's "Children of the Revolution." Another song segues from Jule Styne and Leo Rubin's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" to Madonna's "Material Girl." And here's my personal showstopper: "El Tango de Roxanne," a darkly voiced rendition of Sting's ethereal pop song, replete with tango dancers and a scheme that might be called "sepulchral gloom and doom." It's a wonderful postmodern hug of a movie, and never once do you not know you're watching a movie. But that's the point: Not to lose yourself in the movie, but to be brightly aware of your participation as a viewer. In Luhrmann's vision, that's what the movies are about.

Rachel Stewart: “Moulin Rouge: A musical Masterpiece, Come What May” (25YL) Let me start by saying I hate when film reviews use words like “masterpiece” and “genius” but for me, when I talk about Moulin Rouge and Baz Luhrmann there’s simply no other way to start. Firstly, I can’t believe it’s been 18 years since it was first released. Second, in retrospect, it’s plain to see how ahead-of-its-time it really was and how pop culture has continued to reference or borrow from it while never quite reaching the same heights. My introduction to Luhrmann’s work was in high school, and it was perfectly timed for my sophomore English project. We were studying William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and I compared the use of language and adaptation between Zeffirelli’s lush and sensual costumed spectacle and Luhrmann’s edgy Venice Beach revamp. I remember being thrilled I got to play the

trailer to the film in class as part of my discussion, and I ended up getting an A. Fast forward to my first year of college and Nicole Kidman’s on the cover of Vogue, promoting Lurhmann’s latest film, Moulin Rouge. A test audience member referenced in the article said it felt “like The Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Titanic.” I knew this movie was for me. I went on opening day. I was unprepared. Even though I had read tons of promotional materials and watched coverage I was still so very unprepared. It was all the holidays and your birthday at once. It was like a Disney musical on steroids and absinthe. It was utterly insane brilliance, and I left the theater only to return later that night with a friend in tow. (I ended up seeing it a total of eight times in the theater before it disappeared from the marquee for good.) But first, the plot: In 1900, young, wide-eyed Christian (Ewan McGregor) travels to Paris to learn about the world, and ends up falling in love with Satine (Nicole Kidman), the star courtesan of the Moulin Rouge. A writer, Christian has the gift of song, but, despite his pure heart and love he cannot save Satine from the seedy underworld—or her hidden case of consumption. So it’s the Orpheus myth by way of La Boheme (which it’s worth mentioning Luhrmann directed productions in both Australia and New York). The film opens as if we are at the symphony, with a conductor. The lights go down, the red curtain parts, and the story unfolds to the strains of “Nature Boy”… The greatest thing You’ll ever learn Is just to love And be loved In return I always say if you can get through the first 15 minutes of a Luhrmann film, you’re clear for liftoff, because there always seems to be a bit of turbulence as he lays down the concept. For Romeo + Juliet, it was Shakespearean language; for Moulin Rouge, it’s popular music as a means of communication. Christian literally gets recruited to help write a play when his upstairs neighbors crash through his apartment ceiling. The play’s for Moulin Rouge owner Harry Zilder (John Broadbent). Inspired, Christian sings a little bit of “The Sound of Music,” then drinks absinthe with the other bohemians. Boom! Next thing you know, Kylie Minogue’s the Green Fairy and then boom! (again) we’re at the Moulin Rouge. The can-can dancers, or Diamond Dogs, are strutting their stuff to “Lady Marmalade” while the thirsty clients start jamming out to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This is all before Satine descends from the ceiling singing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Material Girl” in a Marilyn-meets-Madonna moment for the ages.

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—10 This is not your grandmother’s musical, nor your great-great-great grandmother’s Moulin Rouge. It’s also not your typical costume film. There’s nothing stuffy here, with each Diamond Dog’s technicolor cancan shirts reflecting their name and personality. Satine’s top hat and corset combo is another Marilyn Monroe reference in itself, recalling the corset from Bus Stop and a tiny bit like a screen test costume from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Luhrmann also had massive sets built, while production direction and costume direction were both helmed by his wife and creative partner, Catherine Martin. (She went on to win two Oscars for Moulin Rouge, while Luhrmann wasn’t even nominated—one of the many times award season got it wrong with this particular film.) So while everything might feel style over substance, realize that these frantic frames have been discussed for hours on end. It might be high concept, but the ideas have been refined and polished to the brash and bold final product, packing out every inch of the silver screen. Of course, there’s a comical mix up to set up the star-crossed lovers from the onset—Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke (Richard Roxburgh) who will be financing the show that will make Satine a legitimate actress. While Satine’s busy trying to seduce Christian, he starts reciting the lyrics to Elton John’s “Your Song” before finally singing “My Gift is My Song” causing all the lights in Paris to go on—and every person watching this to stop dead in their tracks and fall in love with Ewan McGregor (I speak from experience). Before you know it, Christian and Satine are dancing in the clouds above the Eiffel Tower, accompanied by an opera-singing moon. But when they come back down to earth, it’s revealed that Christian isn’t the Duke and they have to hide Christian from the Duke, with near-disastrous results that ends in pitching Spectacular, Spectacular, the tale of a Hindu courtesan promised to an evil Maharaja but in love with a poet with a magical sitar that only speaks the truth. The Duke bites, not realizing it’s a thinly veiled retelling of the events going around them (and what will play out for the rest of the film.) For the first half of the film, Kidman is remarkable. She’s frothy and hilarious in the high comedy scenes but gives the depth needed for the impending tragedy we’ve been warned of from the film’s opening. She has a beautiful solo moment singing “One Day I’ll Fly Away” setting the caged bird motif that will follow her character the rest of the film. She’s well-paired and

believable as she’s trying to fight off McGregor’s breathless attempts of getting her to submit to one night of love in the film’s “Elephant Love Medley,” a mishmash of multiple pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s. She’s able to hold off until the chorus of David Bowie’s “Heroes” that

blends straight into Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and a blaze of fireworks and starlight. That song alone is a tiny snapshot of the behind-the-scenes work Luhrmann did for this film. He literally discussed song usage and rights with every songwriter. (No small thing, to sit with the likes of both Bowie and Parton, I’d

wager.) Additionally, “Elephant Love Medley” was originally Christian singing “Higher Love” in response to Satine’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” but they couldn’t get the keys to work. (Eighteen years after the fact, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” features in the Broadway stage show as a nod to that—one that made me very happy during Boston previews.) A Spectacular, Spectacular Mashup of Genres Luhrmann films can feel a bit like emotional whiplash. While Moulin Rouge could be called an operatic tragedy, it’s full of mad humor and campiness. I think it’s those qualities that make it easy for viewers to connect to characters quickly—you sort of get a feel for what everyone’s about and will be over the course of the film. The campiness also balances out the impending darkness we’re spiraling towards. For example, the sequence where Zidler and the Duke sing “Like a Virgin” is earmarked between scenes where Zidler tells Satine to leave Christian (for the first of many times) and her diagnosis of consumption, which Zidler hides from her. Satine tries to do right by her family and tries to end things with Christian. Instead, he suggests he write a song to put in the show. It’ll be their song—so they know they love one another, no matter what. This is when the film finally slows a bit, letting the star crossed lovers display their love right in the open until Nini Legs-in-the-Air lets the cat out of the bag and Christian lets his growing jealousy get the better of him. Satine’s still able to stitch it back together by casting Christian off and turning her eye back to the Duke, and finally showing to supper with the Duke after months giving him the runaround. Christian’s (and the Duke’s) jealousy for wanting Satine for their own is crystallized in the Argentian’s “El Tango De Roxanne” a spotlit tango of The Police’s “Roxanne” that almost makes the whole picture take actual flight off the screen and into the stratosphere. From the

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—11 actual tango playing out on screen versus the emotional one Satine is trying to work out with the Duke, it all comes to a halt when she sees Christian—she can’t lie—and it almost costs her dearly, had Le Chocolat (Deobia Oparei) not slunk off into the shadows in case of danger. (A dancer at the Moulin Rouge, he’s one of her constant protectors in front of and behind the curtain.) Today’s the Day When Dreaming Ends Luhrmann’s films are full of dreamers, and in Moulin Rouge, everyone has their own. Christian dreams of love but isn’t ready for the pain and jealousy that comes along with it. Satine dreams of freedom but she’s constantly caged by men’s empty desires and their overflowing pockets. The bohemians want to share their ideals with the world—truth, beauty, freedom, and love—that seems full of people that never dream. But dreams are dangerous, and when Satine escapes the Duke, Christian presses them to leave. But what about the show? “I don’t care about the show,” he says simply. Such a simple knife-through-the-heart moment. In a world where people only care about what Satine can do for them, Christian just cares about her. As she packs her things, she’s intercepted by Zidler, once again telling her to push Christian away, now for his own safety as the Duke means to kill him. She almost makes it out the door and to freedom when Zidler hits her with the truth she’s known all along but couldn’t admit: she’s dying. It’s then that Zidler is able to convince Satine to do her worst: make Christian believe she never loved him. “We’re creatures of the underworld, we can’t afford to love,” he reminds her. Frozen and defeated, Satine concedes that this “today’s the day that dreaming ends.” This moment is a nice call back to the first time Zidler instructed Satine to call things off with Christian. Then she was lost in her dreams —now her dreams are dead. This isn’t just a musical now, it’s reaching deep into the emotional depths of opera. As the sun rises, so do last-minute preparations for the show’s premiere alongside the operatic reworking of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On,” which feels tailor-made for the film. Satine appears ready to battle and give up the only thing that ever mattered to her. He words work and wound Christian, causing him to go mad, convinced he must pay her for services rendered. He returns to the

Moulin Rouge once more, no longer an epicenter of frivolity and excess but a darkened theater flooded in blue, the Bollywood-inspired play churning out a darker version of the bright “Sparkling Diamonds” medley we were first greeted with. Between scenes, Christian’s able to track down

Satine, who is still trying to put him off to save him – however, as the frantic film plays out, their last words will be played out on stage. Christian throws money in Satine’s face, saying he’s paid his whore and walks off stage, almost out of the underworld, once and for all. But Toulouse Lautrec (John Leguizamo) finally remembers his line and reminds why we’ve all been here from the start:

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” So Satine sings their secret song once more, begging “come back to me, and forgive everything” and there, in front of all, she tells Christian what she should have never denied: that she’ll love him, until the end of time. He turns, and replies—and it’s at that moment he’s found her (but will lose her come curtain call). There are no words for this scene, the way the actors voices mesh, the way the camera follows Christian back up on stage and Satine’s relief in knowing she didn’t lose him in the last moments of her life. I can still remember people gasping and sobbing in the theater. I was one of them. Closing the Red Curtain So the lovers and bohemians prevail and get their on-stage happy ending thanks to Zidler’s last-minute Duke punch-out. But as soon as the curtain and rose petals fall, Satine succumbs to her illness and that’s when everything goes still. Long, slow shots capture the shadows against Christian holding Satine’s lifeless body in a sea of white and red rose petals. While Kidman nabbed the Oscar nomination, it was McGregor that was cruelly overlooked and after a whole film of being a wide-eyed prince charming in pauper’s clothing, it breaks down and he lets out a sob so guttural, so real, it makes me shudder thinking about it, much less rewatching it. Luhrmann often immerses his actors in workshops weeks before actual shooting begins and it shows in the work. His coaxing allowed Kidman to let loose and break through the “ice queen” persona she was slated with at the time and be goofy in the early moments of the film. But here at the end, he allows McGregor to go to the darkest of

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—12 spaces and finally come out on the healing side of grief, with Christian realizing their love will last forever now that he’d written their story, as he promised Satine. The red curtain from the beginning returns, as well as the conductor, to play us out. All goes dark. In 2001, I was unprepared for such a lush, sonic journey. I think audiences might still be, although consider the things that grew in popularity or were inspired by Moulin Rouge since 2001: an Olympic Gold-winning ice skating performance, uncountable episodes of Glee, showgirl-influenced fashion, its own Broadway musical, and musical remakes in general, including Chicago, which became the first musical to win Best Picture in a long time—a win I’ll always be sad about. Chicago is great for what it is, but it’s also too safe (and borrowed the concept that Dancer in the Dark employed to a much better and emotional end). There’s nothing safe about Moulin Rouge—it’s dark, it’s dangerous, it’s absolutely too much. And it never ever apologizes for it. For that reason, it’s why we as viewers continue to return. In a way, I think Luhrmann also returned when he made his version of The Great Gatsby which was a spectacle of language, music and high fashion aesthetic. Why do I return? Often, I think it’s to lose myself in its wonder. To remember how it feels to be in love that first time. But as an older, wiser person, deep down it’s to remind myself of the bohemian ideals I clung to in my youth. They are what truly make life worth living: truth, beauty, freedom, and love. Thank you, Baz Luhrmann.

From Wikipedia: The following is a partial list of songs featured in the film along with the artist that popularized them.

• "Nature Boy" – Nat King Cole, covered by David Bowie and remixed by Massive Attack for the soundtrack.

• "The Sound of Music" – Mary Martin (and later by Julie Andrews) (from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical of the same name, featuring overdubbed theremin played by Bruce Woolley)

• "The Lonely Goatherd" – also from The Sound of Music (but heard as instrumental)

• "Children of the Revolution" – T. Rex • "Lady Marmalade" – Labelle, covered for the film,

(by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa, Missy Elliott, and Pink)

• "Because We Can" – Fatboy Slim • "Complainte de la Butte" – Georges Van Parys

and Jean Renoir covered by Rufus Wainwright • "Rhythm of the Night" – DeBarge • "Material Girl" – Madonna • "Smells Like Teen Spirit" – Nirvana • "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" – Introduced

by Carol Channing, made popular by Marilyn Monroe.

• "Diamond Dogs" – David Bowie covered for the film by Beck.

• "Galop Infernal (Can-can)" – Jacques Offenbach (tune for Spectacular, Spectacular)

• "One Day I'll Fly Away" – The Crusaders, later Randy Crawford

• "Children of the Revolution" – T.Rex (Covered by Bono, Gavin Friday, Violent Femmes, and Maurice Seezer)

• "Gorecki" – Lamb • "Come What May" – Ewan McGregor and Nicole

Kidman (written by David Baerwald) • "Roxanne" – The Police (Title in film: "El Tango

de Roxanne", combined with music "Tanguera" by Mariano Mores)

• "Tanguera" – Mariano Mores (Title in film: "El Tango de Roxanne", combined with music "Roxanne" by The Police)

• "The Show Must Go On" – Queen • "Like a Virgin" – Madonna • "Your Song" – Elton John • "Chamma Chamma" – Alka Yagnik (Incorporated

in the film song titled "Hindi Sad Diamonds"; originally performed by Alka Yagnik in the 1998 Hindi film China Gate, composed by Anu Malik).

Lurhmann—MOULIN ROUGE—13

THAT’S IT FOR THE FALL 2019 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS (SERIES 39)

BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS SPRING 2020, SERIES 40

Jan 28 Chaplin City Lights 1931 Feb 4 Lloyd Bacon 42nd Street 1933

Feb 11 Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943 Feb 18 Billy Wilder Sunset Boulevard 1950

Feb 25 Henri-Georges Clouzot Wages of Fear 1953 Mar 3 Lucino Visconti, The Leopard 1963 Mar 10 Maskaki Kobayashi Kwaidan 1965

Mar 24 John Schlesinger Midnight Cowboy 1969 Mar 31 Alan Pakula Klute 1971

Apr 7 Robert Altman McCabe and Mrs Miller 1971 Apr 14 Martin Scorsese King of Comedy 1983

Apr 21 Wim Wenders Land of Plenty 2004 Apr 28 Wes Anderson Isle of Dogs 2018

May 5 Pedro Almodóvar Pain and Glory 2019

CONTACTS: email Diane Christian: engdc@buffalo.edu…email Bruce Jackson bjackson@buffalo.edu... for the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http: //buffalofilmseminars.com...

to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addtolist@buffalofilmseminars.com.... for cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/

The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst

Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.