From Hollywood Shack Job: Rock Music in Film and On Your Screen by Harvey Kubernik. Copyright © 2006 University of New Mexico Press. Reprinted by permission.
Interscope Records released the soundtrack, Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film, Moulin Rouge!, the 20th Century Fox movie.
Previously, the Australian-born Luhrmann directed Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. He had also released on CD Something for Everybody (Music from the House of lona), a collection of remixed and reinterpreted songs from his films, theater, and opera, including hits from Romeo + Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, and La Boheme.
Moulin Rouge! stars Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, and Richard Roxburgh. It was written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.
Current cutting-edge artists, lyricists, and composers collaborated closely with writer-director Luhrmann on this soundtrack. Moulin Rouge! is a period piece musical, underscored with elements of comedy and tragedy, a merger of love and inspiration set in 1900, in the infamous Paris nightclub. Luhrmann threads together text, narration, and speech with modern-era pop tunes, and celebrates many key pop songs of the twentieth century, from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Lennon and McCartney, from Sting to Elton John, from Dolly Parton, Bob Crewe, and Jack Nitzsche to David Bowie.
Bowie sings Eden Ahbez’s “Nature Boy,” initially made famous by Nat King Cole, and reprises it as well with Massive Attack, with the song bookending the compilation. Fatboy Slim offers a new tune, “Because We Can,” for the film. Bono, Gavin Friday, and Maurice Seezer cover T-Rex’s/Marc Bolan’s “Children of the Revolution.” Jose Feliciano and actors McGregor and Jacek Koman team to create a tango version of the Police’s “Roxanne,” mixed with a classic Argentine tango, “Tanguera,” by Mariano Mores. There are other tunes aired in the movie, including some not available in the soundtrack package. Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor make their on-screen and soundtrack singing debuts.
Harvey Kubernik: It seems that your earlier Something for Everybody (Music from the House of lona) album had an impact on Moulin Rouge! and the subsequent soundtrack album. Narration, spoken word, reinterpreted songs from opera?
Baz Luhrmann: You know what? It’s a good observation and it’s real simple. Anton Monsted, my music supervisor, also co-produced a lot of the tracks on the Music from the House of lona album with me. We set out to do that as a practice run for doing Moulin Rouge! Specifically, we were going to do a little charity record for Australia. We wanted to do more hands-on producing, because, with all the films I’ve done, I work very closely on the music, and I worked closely on Romeo + Juliet with Nellee Hooper, Marius de Vries, and Craig Armstrong, to actually physically produce the music myself and to do that hands-on work. So I was ready. And, also, this way we could deal with the eclectic nature of the music that was going to be used in Moulin Rouge! So that was the starting point.
HK: The hit, “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)”: a year after release in the U.K., it pops stateside. Did you know when it was first recorded that you had something special? Didn’t some people, or music and record industry ears, think you were off your rocker, or doing something out of format?
BL: As with all the music that we do, y’know, Harvey, every record I’ve ever made, including the album for Romeo + Juliet, I had a lot of A&R people telling me, “That will never work in the states.” “It’s too different.” “It’s too eclectic.” That was the whole thing with R+J: “Too European.” The thing is: there’s this assumption that because I work in Australia, it couldn’t be the same here.
HK: But this flow and song mix seems very logical and natural. Is it always a fight?
BL: No-one has ever asked me this before, and, yes, it is always a fight. Going back to the first part of your question: yes, it’s quite natural to me. It is really the way we see the world. I’ve grown up in a very isolated place. I love music. Just great music, whether it’s rap, opera, or rock, and the universality of things, is what attracts me, not the division.
The thought of the need for economics is the strongest in the States. I don’t mean that as a criticism, just as an acknowledgement of how difficult it is, when it’s such a vast market, to segregate things, to focus things, to nail and nail and nail. And so, therefore, it has turned into a fight, and it’s a fight I’ve had from my very first film.
Romeo + Juliet sold eight million copies worldwide. “This soundtrack is too eclectic,” they told me when I first talked to EMI about the marketing. Then it went multiplatinum. You know what I mean? I’ve got to tell you, though, it’s been the reverse at Interscope.
HK: You had made two films before Moulin Rouge!: Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom.
BL: Do you think any executive was begging me to make those films?
HK: No.
BL: Exactly. With the second, it was kind of like, “William Shakespeare!? Go back to the ballroom dancing. We know that can be a hit.” Eventually the film becomes a Bazmark Production: “As long as he doesn’t go off his number, what do we know about reinventing the musical?” Y’know?
With Moulin Rouge!, we are using traditional break-out-into-song techniques, Greek chorus techniques, post-mod MTV techniques, and some of our own techniques.
HK: You are blending a lot of dialogue, speech and text, music and songs, and along the way you are giving some well-deserved props to the writers and lyricists. It’s refreshing to hear on the big screen. So why can’t narrative and speech and song be more in demand in film projects?
BL: It matters to me. People say, “Oh, you’re so daring.” But I’m very much of the mind of, “Daring? I’m just saying it’s just a natural step. It’s going to happen, even if I don’t do it.” You can feel it around you; think of people like Dre and people like that, who are reaching their tentacles out for film, or people who write poetry, or spoken word.
This is going to be the last of the “red curtain” films I make, although I will do music cinema again. But sometime next year I want to see a film where someone is using a spoken-word or rap-like storytelling in cinema. It’s got to happen. It’s going to happen.
That’s why we’ve got audiences who clap and cheer at the songs in cinemas. They are not cheering the projectionist. What they are doing is communing with everybody else in the room and saying, “Ha ha ha. I get it too.” You know: “We’re unified by this experience.” Now nothing is more powerful than that in doing music. If you can shackle music to story, not shackle, but display music through story, I know it sounds dramatic, but if you can do that, you unleash a force that is unstoppable. I feel that Moulin Rouge! is just the first step on that road.
HK: One of your central goals then obviously is to move the story along with music.
BL: That’s a rule. If you break that rule you are in dire trouble. The music is only there to advance the plot, and I had many musical ideas that had to be jettisoned simply because they weren’t advancing plot or revealing character.
HK: You’ve also mentioned that, when making Moulin Rouge!, it was about breaking “the code.” It’s like a combination of many cinematic languages applied to music numbers.
BL: Well, when I say “breaking the code,” what I’m talking about is that we needed to find a code, if you like, to make it acceptable for people to tell story through song in this moment. Now, while we reference the past, and we look to the future, it’s ultimately a potpourri of references and techniques that speak to a person now.
It’s just about a deal between the film and the audience that allows the contemporary audience to know they are in on it. Moulin Rouge! and its particular cinematic form are part of a larger gesture that we started ten years ago and we’re concluding now. With the film, we want to do the finest version of this cinematic form.
HK: When you were first writing Moulin Rouge!, did you already have certain songs, recording artists, and composers in the initial draft? Did you write the script with definite songs and tunes in place?
BL: This is what happened. I began with a philosophy. Here’s the background. First, I wanted to reinvent the musical. Second, I also wanted a musical where the musical language on one hand had to tell story; on the other hand, I wanted the track to it to be eclectic like a modern soundtrack, instead of using one voice. So I just didn’t want to work with one voice.
Some background notes, Harvey. It’s a very old idea in musicals, like when Judy Garland sings “Clang clang clang went the trolley” in Meet Me in St. Louis [1944]. That’s set in 1900 and she is singing big band music from the 1940s, the music of her time, to let you into the characters of another time and another place.
The other thing is that, in an old musical, the audience had a relationship to the music generally before they went in, whether it was in a Broadway show or with songs that moved from film to film. So the audience having a pre-existing relationship to at least some of the music was very important. Hence, Craig [Pearce] and I came up with the device of our main character telling the story, and, because he was a poet, channelling, if you like, the great examples of every kind of music of the last hundred years. So that’s how we began. Then we constructed a very simple story that took a long time to do, based on a few things including La Boheme. And, once we had a recognizable story for the audience, we spent a great deal of time scanning, scanning, and scanning songs to identify which one would best tell a particular moment or reveal a character.
HK: Did “Nature Boy” set the tone early for the film? It’s used twice on the available soundtrack, opening and closing the disc.
BL: Actually, you know what? I have to tell you honestly that was the one song that came a little later in the process. Eden Ahbez is an Orphic, messianic character. I’ve always loved “Nature Boy,” but when I learned about the story of Eden Ahbez, I realized the song reflected the overall structure of the film. And I grew that out during the shooting process.
I’ll tell you how it came about. I actually began the film with a theme between the father and the son with Cat Stevens’s “Father and Son.” What happened was that Cat rejected it, based on religious beliefs. OK, I respect him for that. But that left me wondering, “How do I clarify the structures?” So, coming back to it and having identified the song, then it was about how to get the licensing people to agree. Honestly, it was just a journey of going to see most of the artists one-on-one. I went to publishing companies and they were enthusiastic, because the proposal represented a new use of popular song, in the grand rite of the musical. But then I met with Elton [John]. I knew Bono. I wrote to Paul McCartney. I met with Dolly Parton. They were really enthusiastic. You know, Harvey, if it were the 1940s, someone like Bono would be writing for movie musicals.
No one stood in our way. It was the opposite: because we didn’t have that much money. I worked with Bowie quite openly on it. He was very supportive in giving us the song, “Heroes.” I’ve got a lot of codes. Subtle signs and symbols. It’s like a record. If you play this movie more than once, you hear things. Bowie appears through it, and I was going to use him with Massive Attack on the end credits. But he and Massive ended up being, in a sense, so dark that we needed to resurrect the audience during the credits. So that’s where the idea of “The Bolero” came from, which Steve Hitchcock or then Steve Sharples composed.
I really enjoyed working with Bowie. He was very giving. You can imagine how he feels about the film.
HK: When did songs start entering the scenes on the pages?
BL: They were all driven by one question: “What does the story beat need?” Now, I love “Nature Boy,” so I was happy that it revealed itself as the right choice. But things were dropped. We had “Under My Thumb” in a kind of rape scene, but we didn’t need it in the end. So I missed a Rolling Stones piece. But it wasn’t about, “Well, we must have a Rolling Stones piece.” It’s a story that simply doesn’t need it.
HK: What is the secret of getting and working together with music people, labels, publishers, songwriters, to serve the project? Hassles, games, egos?
BL: Y’know what: the silver sword to cut through all of that is that the idea is so exciting that it actually diminishes all of those fears.
Other than being an acolyte of that, I personally go and—I hope—enthuse people and explain and involve them, and don’t manipulate them and don’t make them feel that what we’re doing is a quickie. Our love of what we’re making, which is so absolute, is also about transporting that. And how often do you get the opportunity to actually work on something where you’re reinventing a genre or breaking new ground? People really find that exciting.
HK: The film’s songwriting credits, and to a lesser extent, the soundtrack, due to space limitations, have so many names you never see linked together. From Paul Stanley of Kiss to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Yet radio programmers, print, and electronic media often fail to integrate their names in broadcasts or magazines in the same pages.
BL: Exactly, exactly. I’m blind to it, Harvey, I’m blind to it. To me, they are all great tunes, great popular culture. Popular culture today becomes classical culture tomorrow. Shakespeare was pop of its time. I work in opera. So I know that Puccini was the television of his time. One of the strengths of the piece is that I am captain of the collaboration. I am very big on collaborators. I wanted all kinds of musical talents to work together.
HK: “Lady Marmalade” is done in the film with four actors, another character is rapping over it with spoken word, and “Teen Spirit” is being sung at the same time. So it’s really a round of three things. Much like an opera. Then Paul Hunter directed a video, away from the film, with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink.
BL: I think the video is a very good interpretation of the film. It’s not the film, but it captures some moments. We supported him a lot, gave him some stuff. The idea was to say, “Look, Paul, don’t try to homage the movie. Just go and make a gesture that tells what you got from the film.”
HK: “Sparkling Diamonds” features Nicole Kidman’s vocals.
BL: Nicole turned out to be a wonderful singer. She tells the story through her voice.
HK: Ewan McGregor has a very pretty singing voice too. Really carries a rendition of “Your Song.” I know he worked very hard with a vocal coach, and he can sing. It’s a pivotal part in the movie, and I’m sure it helps that your leading man can really carry a note.
BL: Elton John would agree with you. Ewan worked really hard and he grew into a great singer in front of us, really. He was good, but he became great. When Elton saw the footage of Ewan doing “Your Song,” he went, “My God, he really is a singer.” There’s a recording career ahead of him if he so chooses. That’s been one of the great surprises, just how strong he is.
HK: His singing was as convincing as Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls.
BL: I totally agree with you and that’s a favorite role of mine. But he has got that absolutely bold face openness to the camera, which you have to have to sing. Singing exposes you on a very deep level. You’ve got to be able to be that vulnerable, open, and exposed.
HK: Then there’s a T-Rex song, “Children of the Revolution,” that unites Bono, Gavin Friday, and Maurice Seezer. It’s one of the important cues in the film and on the soundtrack album. Bolan and T-Rex are overlooked in America.
BL: Marc Bolan is hugely underrated in America. T-Rex is bigger for us in Australia. That was a theme for me, “Children of the Revolution.” But also, again, it’s all about story. It’s about the Bohemians, in a Bohemian revolution. It’s about identifying popular songs that can unite all of us, that tell story. It’s that simple.
Bono actually rang me about something else. He’s such a great supporter of my films and he said, “Anything I can do to help out with Moulin Rouge!?” I said, “Well, as a matter of fact . . .” “Maybe I can make a cup of tea.” So he went in with Gavin, who worked with us on Romeo + Juliet, and Maurice, and he made that track in about a week for us. He was very passionate about it, y’know, as only Bono can be. You’re a lucky person if you get to work with Bono, I have to say that.
HK: Was there ever a time when you reviewed songs and tunes and artist pairings, looked at something and felt, this is too obvious, or it telegraphs too much?
BL: No. I think it’s really important that you take the obvious. You take what you might think is the “cheesiest,” you take something that is overt, and what you do is turn it on its head. Because there is a reason why things are obvious. They have value inside them. The problem is they become rusty from overuse. What we had to do was shake the rust off by inverting it. So I feel that what we’ve done with that piece is invert it by subjecting it to story. You can constantly shake the rust off. And, you know, anything that survives time and geography is always worth revisiting.
HK: You had a great say in the casting of the movie. Did you initially look for actors that you thought could work vocally as singers?
BL: You know, in my films I have a big say about every single thing. You know what I mean? I looked very extensively—and I’d worked with both Nicole and Ewan before—but I had to find actors that could sing the roles. Ultimately, it sounds boring, but they got the jobs because they were best for them. That’s really the truth.
HK: That doesn’t happen very often in this world.
BL: Well, no. But, as I say, for all the disadvantages of trying to reinvent the wheel every time we make a movie, one of the advantages is that you’re left alone. It’s got to be the right person for the right role.
HK: Don’t you think some of the songs were better realized when matched with the visual?
BL: Well, yes, I think that’s very true. I mean, it’s storytelling music. If you were creating it just for a sonic experience, you would probably take different roads on certain tracks.
HK: The film at times attacks the senses.
BL: Yes. Particularly in the first twenty minutes. It’s important that I wake people up. It’s not a passive experience. It has to slap you around a bit so that, by the time they break out into song, it becomes quite classical. I hope you surrender to the contract.
HK: Even though you didn’t get the use of the Cat Stevens principal theme early on, and then “Nature Boy” sort of emerged out of the pack to be featured widely on the soundtrack disc and in the movie, it appears often you find out things happen for a reason. Andrew Loog Oldham once told me, “There are no accidents.”
BL: Do you know what? There are no accidents. You are going always to the same place. How you get there is your inventiveness.
HK: Ultimately, you are serving the whole in some sort of Zen capacity.
BL: Absolutely. I think the reason for all the crazy ego stuff, the thing that actually makes it a human experience and worthwhile, is that we all finally serve something greater than ourselves. That is the story, the piece you are making. That is the beautiful side of this creative process. What it is, Harvey, is that it is ultimately fulfilling. That, I can say, is the truth.
HK: The film moves comedy and tragedy forward together.
BL: Comedy and tragedy together are not common on our screen, but they should be, because our audience is used to swinging from comedy to tragedy. Now we’re so advanced in being aware of manipulation, we can sign the contract that allows us to accept that.