Whether or not the film accurately portrays the life and personality of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec correctly, one thing you certainly have to say about "Moulin Rouge" is that it is a gorgeous movie. Not surprisingly, it won two Oscars--for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Costume Design, Color. I am also a bit surprised it wasn't nominated for Best Cinematography, Color--as the film was exquisitely filmed--giving it a look and color that is second to none. It also received quite a few important nominations--including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director (among others). So, it is clearly a standout film for the era. I also suspect that the film might have been overlooked a bit over the years since, as an even more spectacular biopic of a painter, "Lust for Life" gained even more notoriety in 1956. Both films are absolutely gorgeous.As to the life story of Lautrec, I am far pickier than most because I am a (among other things) a retired history teacher. I look for inaccuracies others might not notice. So, when I see Lautrec brooding CONSTANTLY in the film, I ask why they almost never show him smiling or acting human?! Sure, the real life character was a pathetic man in many ways, but he was a man--a three-dimensional man. Although Jose Ferrer did good in many ways, his performance lacked the fullness of a real man. He got the main and depression quite well--just not anything else. I also think that the film sanitized and over-glamorized Lautrec's relationship with one particular prostitute--whereas the real Lautrec had MANY sexual relationships--many. In the film, however, he hangs out with prostitutes and is quite chaste! Part of this, I am sure, is due to the Production Code. Sure, it was being relaxes in the 1950s--but not THAT much! Overall, a wonderful film but one that isn't perfect--but incredibly beautiful--breathtakingly so. For a great double-feature, try watching this immediately preceding or followed by "Lust for Life".By the way, I realized why they changed Lautrec's life here and there for dramatic reasons, but he never fell down the steps and broke his legs. The legs actually were very brittle and broke doing much more mundane activities--such as falling out of a chair and breaking one of them. In other words, his genetic problems caused the break and the dwarfism--not some dramatic fall.

Joes Ferrer is painter Toulouse-Lautrec in this lush, colorful film co-written and directed by John Huston. It had been years since I saw this the first time and I had forgotten just how great it is and how much I liked it. I was impressed with its deep affinity for its subject matter and with Jose Ferrer's performance. He exuded a warmth towards those he knew and conversed with at the Moulin Rouge, as if he knew all about them and loved them for who and what they are, because he himself as Toulouse Lautrec, not being like everyone else, needed self-affirmation and therefore knew how to be open towards others and how to really connect to people without judgment. He gave a very personable and vulnerable performance. Zsa Zsa Gabor is seen to good advantage in this film and is one of the ones that Toulouse appreciates for what she gives to others, herself and the ability to be herself. Colette Marchand gives an unforgettable performance as a common girl, who happens into Toulouse's life and he falls for her. But will he find love? Will he only find solace in the paintings he leaves behind? Watch this loving adaptation of Toulouse-Lautrec's life and find out.

There were moments when I was watching this in which I felt intensely interested, and moved. But there were too many "blah" moments for me to see it as a really good picture. It's a very loose biopic of the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer), crippled in early life by an accident, shown as brilliant artist but a tragic, lonely drunk. Director John Huston and photographer Oswald Morris capture the atmosphere of 19th century Paris very well, with often gorgeous compositions. It also surprisingly captures the vulgarity of this life, with Colette Marchand's desperate, animal-like prostitute a standout. But Jose Ferrer's performance is so average that it ruins the picture. He just stands and delivers his lines in a monotone scene after scene. The relationship between Marchand and Ferrer, who so desperately wants love that it's killing him, is interesting but you can't help thinking that Ferrer is just a dumb sap, which kills the picture. And when a decent woman comes into his life later in the picture, he's too blind to see it! His obsession with Marchand just gets really irritating after a while, because her character is just not worth the trouble.

The artist Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec, came from a grand and Noble family. Handicapped with a birth deformity brought about when cousins marry, he nevertheless rose to prominence as a post Impressionist in Paris during the 1890s. Created for the silver screen, by director John Huston, this incredible movie " Moulin Rouge " stars the very versatile actor, Jose Ferrer. Although it encapsulates the artist's brief life of 36 years, it nevertheless highlights the auspicious moments of his career and his lonely search for acceptance in and out of love. The film depicts the early painful years at his family's estate and his beloved Montmartre where other famed artisans, writers and philosophers of the day, came to share their thoughts. Recognition for his artistic ability, like so many, was slow in developing. While associating with the lowest street segments of Paris, he was always cognizant of the fact he would never be considered anything but a grotesque figure of a man. Ferrer played Lautrec as a tortured soul with an immense talent for painting as well as a sober alcoholic which would eventually destroy him. As a result, we see him at his usual nightly seat at the Moulin nightclub where the "French Can-Can" was created and would go on to become as world renown as the visiting artist. The movie also contains other notable stars such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Peter Cushing and Theodore Bikel. The result being a Classic film which is so superbly made it will live on as long as the paintings of Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec. It that, the artist never knew how well he had succeeded. *****