I knew I just had to watch this movie from the first time I saw the trailer. And Nine surely didn’t disappoint my expectations. I expected it to be beautifully shot, which it definitely is. I expected it to be well acted, which it absolutely is. And I expected it to be sexy, which it is 100%.

The story I didn’t expect. Or at least I didn’t know anything about it. Famous Italian director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is about to shoot another movie but doesn’t have a script or even an idea what the movie should be about. All he has is the title: Italia. What he also has are lots and lots of muses to help him create his stories. The movie is divided in two parts: One is the story of him and his problems with women and his producers and in the other part we see his fantasies of the women around him singing songs and dancing to express their emotion. Whenever he is with a woman his thoughts drift off into this dream world.

The Girls: Nicole Kidman is the star of all of Guido’s movies. She has a smaller part and although she is perfect for the role and I  usually like her I didn’t believe that she was upset in this movie. She was just giving a performance. I wasn’t impressed. As Guido’s wife Marion Cotillard gave an outstanding performance. Her I believed. She was truly hurting. I don’t think I have ever seen such a moving performance in a musical before. Penélope Cruz is funny as Guido’s mistress although I was surprised of just how sexy her dance was. That must have taken some courage to do in front of a movie crew. Sophia Loren seems the obvious choice for the part of the mother. She is wonderful but extremely lifted. Judi Dench is always great. She is the costume designer for Guido’s films and also takes on another mother figure for him. A sort of side character is Stacy Ferguson although she has the best singing act (Be Italian). This song is really well choreographed, she has a great voice and its just a fantastic song. I didn’t like Kate Hudson in this movie. She somehow doesn’t have the look of that time and her costumes and the song in her singing sequence seemed out of place and too modern. I do love that the movie has such an international cast. That seems to be unusual in movies and I always wonder why. Maybe thanks to globalization we will see more of this in the future.

But the real star of the film is Daniel Day Lewis. I think it is great that he was up for doing a musical. He seems to be mostly in very serious movies. He does bring a certain sincerity to the movie. He just is that character. I believed that he is Italian (excellent accent!), he certainly must have watched a lot of Italian films from that time. He is also charmingly in love with all of these women and it doesn’t come across as pervy how much he wants and needs them. And although he is really arrogant and self centered, he is likable.

The first half of Nine was a bit slow and all about Guido wanting women and being a ladies man but then the film really comes together and becomes a very moving story about an ultimately broken man who doesn’t know how he got to be the person who he is and who has lost focus on what is important in life. So looking back on it maybe the first, very sexy, part is needed to get to that point. I really enjoyed this movie. It has a great soundtrack and a very different story to what I have seen in musicals so far.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

The world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s newest film Australia is going to be in Sydney on the 18th of November. New York will host the US premiere on the 24th of November.

This is supposedly the biggest and most expensive film ever to come out of Australia (at least it’s giving the country a lot of publicity). The divine Nicole Kidman will play alongside Hugh Jackman in the leading roles. Baz Luhrmann’s wife Catherine Martin (who won the Best Costume Oscar for Moulin Rouge) did the set and costume design on this film. Should be great!

The Australian (as in he is Australian and he directed the film Australia…) Baz Luhrman has directed three of my favourite films: Moulin Rouge!, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. I have been eagerly waiting for his next film to come out since 2001!

Watch the trailer here:

Other opening dates around the world:

Germany: 25.12.08, France: 24.12.08, New Zealand: 26.12.08, Argentinia: 1.1.09, Japan: 28.2.09

One of my favourite films. This is a story about Truth, Beauty, Freedom and above all things, Love.Christian is a young writer come from London to Paris to live a penniless existence and write about love. The only problem is, he has never been in love. This changes radically when he lays eyes on the “sparkling diamond” Satine, a can-can dancer at the Moulin Rouge.

He convinces her that they should be together, but what neither of them knows is that she is suffering from a fatal disease. The other problem for their love is that the rich, insanely jealous Duke wants to have Satine to himself and is spending a fortune to turn the Moulin Rouge into a theatre.

The first twenty minutes are a dazzling mixture of colour, light, music, singing and dance. Everything is going so fast that the audience is swept up in this strange and wonderful world. It slows down after a while when the actual story begins. The camera angles and cutting techniques are quite unusual. It is a bit like watching a very long music video.

“Come What May” is the only song written specially for the movie. All the other songs were taken from popular music, such as “Roxanne” (Sting), “Your Song” (Elton John) and “Like a Virgin” (Madonna).

Moulin Rouge! is the third film in Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy”, which includes Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (another one of my favourites). It is a spectacle of costumes, lights and great songs. Not to be missed!

Moulin Rouge! has received the MovieCat Award for great creativeness and beautiful cinematography.