/ 10 May 2001

Cannes kicks off in cancan style

The making of the film was little short of a disaster. The director’s father died on the first day of the shoot. The leading lady smashed a knee and broke two ribs. A 60ft tall replica elephant was crushed on the set.

But still Baz Luhrmann’s musical extravaganza, Moulin Rouge, was deemed a triumph by the organisers at Cannes. And they seized on it as just the sort of spectacular, lavish, upbeat picture to launch the 54th film festival yesterday.

Just as well, perhaps, because much of the rest of the festival is likely to be harrowing, difficult or quite possibly even unwatchable.

Set during the louche days of the Moulin Rouge in Paris in the late 1890s, the film stars Nicole Kidman as a courtesan-dancer at the cabaret and Ewan McGregor as a struggling writer. The pair fall in love – with tragic consequences. Pop singer Kylie Minogue plays a green fairy and English comic actor Jim Broadbent bawls his way through the 2 hour 10 minute film in the role of impresario Harold Zidler.

Many critics at the premiere found the film, purportedly a modern incarnation of the Orpheus myth, both too full of Luhrmann’s trademark cinematic pyrotechnics and empty of true passion or significance.

The festival, which this year has high artistic pretensions thanks to the austere sensibilities of new artistic director Thierry Frémaux, should have set critics’ tongues wagging about the renaissance of Japanese art cinema, the recherché mise en scène of the new Iranian films and whether that old gunslinger of the avant garde, Jean-Luc Godard, still has what it takes.

But yesterday journalists all seemed to talk about one thing: how Nicole Kidman was getting on after the split with her husband, the American actor Tom Cruise, and her miscarriage.

“Obviously, this would not be my choice if it was under different circumstances: to sit in front of everybody and have questions about my personal life,” the 33-year-old Australian told the press conference after Moulin Rouge’s premiere.

Kidman left the US for Cannes after filing a restraining order against a man she alleges has turned up at her home twice and is sending her letters, according to court papers. She claims Matthew Hooker, 40, is “stalking me and my family and I am fearful for our safety and security,” according to papers filed in Santa Monica, California, on Monday.

Yesterday, Kidman was happy to pose for photographs but brushed aside questions about her personal life and instead talked about her role in the new film, in which she and McGregor both sing – interpreting a range of pop classics that include Elton John’s Your Song, T-Rex’s Children of the Revolution and David Bowie’s Heroes.

Kidman said after the experience of Moulin Rouge she would like to do another musical, either on stage or screen, although she did stress that Luhrmann’s film took a toll on her. “I think ultimately I’m physically more fragile than I think I am,” she said.

Director Baz Luhrmann explained why the making of Moulin Rouge was so difficult. “I walked up to the monitor on day one of this film after going through so many delays and so many troubles and two broken ribs for Nicole and I was just about to shout ‘action’ when the call comes through that my dad had died.

“I realised then that it was going to be a journey. Nicole smashed her knee up and she had to go into another film which she then had to pull out of. Plus, we had to keep it quiet because of the insurance.

“Every day the problems got worse. We built a 60ft elephant [a replica of the one in front of the Moulin Rouge at the turn of the century] but we were three weeks late and George Lucas was due to come in and shoot the Star Wars film. So he had to get a movie made and crush our elephant!”

Now Luhrmann’s chief problem is how to sell a musical costume drama set in Paris during the belle epoque to filmgoers in middle America. “They are telling me: ‘Whatever you do, don’t mention that it’s a musical’.”

The adaptation of Louis de Berniéres’ novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage, was originally considered to open the festival, but the organisers plumped finally for Luhrmann’s film.

Highlights and lowlights:

Numbers: 35-40 000 film industry people, including 4 000 journalists. Only 23 films have been selected to compete for the Palme D’Or, but more than 600 films will be shown in the next 12 days.

In competition: US – 6. France – 6. Japan – 4. Italy – 2. Bosnia – 1. Taiwan – 1. Russia – 1. Portugual – 1. Iran – 1. British films – 0.

Sightings

  • Angelina Jolie likely to show up to plug her performance in Lara Croft Tomb Raider, due to be released in Britain during the summer.

  • Paul McCartney showed up at the Majestic hotel to launch his post-Beatles greatest hits CD yesterday, but his press conference clashed with the one for Moulin Rouge.

    Most bizarre film: Crust – the story about two men and a girl trying to make their fortune with a giant boxing shrimp. Not in competition.

    Most ludicrous title: To Moscow With Ikea, a German production billed as: “Two loyal Ikea employees meet and fall in love in a store in Berlin and decide to move to Moscow.” Not in competition.

    Likely highlights:

  • The screening of the definitive version of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now with 53 extra minutes.

  • The Man Who Wasn’t There (by former Palme d’Or winners and perennial Cannes favourites the Coen brothers), a film noir set in 40s US starring Billy Bob Thornton, James Gandolfini and Frances McDormand.

  • L’Eloge de l’Amour by godfather of the French new wave, 70-year-old Swiss grump Jean-Luc Godard.

  • Taurus by Alexandre Sokurov. The story of Lenin’s last days.

  • Shrek – DreamWorks computer-generated feature using the voice of Mike Myers (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers) as a cynical ogre.