'Moulin Rouge'

I own Moulin Rouge, the most recent adaptation centered around the famed Paris dance hall. I don't know why. I suspect that it was a gift.

I do remember watching it for the first time and not really liking it for the same reasons I don't like a lot of Baz Luhrmann's films: the editing is insane and the cuts make me nauseous. Plus, there are too many "Cheer Up, Charlie" moments.

Of course, I'm referring to the scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where Charlie goes to visit his mother at work down and out because he probably wasn't going to get a golden ticket.

Unadvisably, the mother begins singing "Cheer Up, Charlie" with footage of the forlorn Charlie walking home. By far, it's the most fast forwarded scene in film history.

That's about 80 percent of the second half of Moulin Rouge: the "Like a Virgin" scene, the jealousy scene, the "Come What May" scene and everything else. Unwatchable and boring.

So why do I still own this film? I don't know. I'm prepared now to Half-Price back to the masses.

I assume it's because I like Ewan McGregor, the turn-of-the-century Paris is very intriguing to me and I don't mind the mashing together of the modern songs to the idiom of 1899 Paris.

Maybe it's a little gay. But I do love pop music and I think it holds a timeless signifigance because it's all about love, loss and partying (to put it simply). These are the same themes that music of that period extolled. Except Bernie Taupin wasn't writing them. Yet.