His was a rather short life. He was born in 1864 and died in 1901. But in the 37 years Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec helped change modern painting and advertising illustration, with a vivid but light line and an ability to capture movement. One of the best remembered Post-Impressionists, he managed to be the one to best illustrate the fin-de-siec age of Paris in the 1890s. While Monet and Van Gogh concentrated on the countryside, and Gaughin took his genius into the colors of the tropics, Toulouse-Lautrec concentrated on the theaters, dance halls (such as Moulin Rouge) and racetracks that the society of Paris frequented (the same society that would be shown in Vincent Minelli's GIGI six years after this film was made).
It is hard to find a really dramatic story about most great artists. LUST FOR LIFE (dealing with Van Gogh) dealt with that artist's failure to find any responding human being to his affections and search for purity. It also dealt with his descent into madness and suicide. REMBRANDT followed the 17th Century master into his years when his artistic ability was misunderstood (after he did THE NIGHT WATCH) and he fell into financial difficulties. THE MOON AND SIX PENCE was Somerset Maugham's comment that Gaughin's brilliance as a painter did not mean he was a decent human being (his anglicized version - Strickland - uses people right and left in order to paint). THE NAKED MAJA showed Goya to be a man having to navigate his way through a corrupt royal court. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY shows how a titan in art (Michaelangelo) painted his masterpiece (The Sistine Chapel) despite his personal war with an equally determined Pope Julius II.
The story in MOULIN ROUGE is how Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had everything (talent, money, aristocratic position) but had nothing. For due to an accident in his teenage years, Henri fell down a stairs and broke his two legs. His parents were cousins, so genetically his bones could not knit properly: He became a dwarf. He could perform as well as a full grown man, but he looked the size of a top-heavy child complete with mustache and beard, and pince-nez eyeglasses. He could not attract women the normal way (we see his teenage female friend reject him when he offers himself to her). So he moves into the bohemian center of Paris, and starts painting. Unlike his fellow Post impressionists, Toulouse actually had money, so he never suffered for lack of rent or for no food or torn clothes (like Van Gogh and Gaughin occasionally did). But his loneliness, and apparent helplessness led to his becoming an alcoholic, in particular of the then popular but dangerous drink absinthe.
The subject matter of this film happened to get the right director. John Huston was usually seen as dealing with grittier and more adventuresome material (like THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRES). But Huston actually was very interested in art, and his use of color and casting is almost flawless here, choosing supporting players who literally look like Toulouse' poster drawings of them dancing the "can can" and other popular dances of the day. So is the choice of Jose Ferrer as Toulouse. Although the dwarf was half Ferrer's height, special braces were used to enable Ferrer to walk "normally" like his real life counterpart. It must have been painful but Ferrer never bats an eyelash.
Ferrer's turmoil deals with the women in his life. He is known to the cast of dancers and singers at Moulin Rouge (led by Zsa Zsz Gabor as the resident chanteuse, who sings the theme song of the film, "Where Is Your Heart"). We see him meet a prostitute, who briefly lives with him, but cannot live with him or without him (she sees he is a good, kind man who can provide for her, but he is a dwarf). They split up twice in the film (he seeks her out and finds her in a more natural milieu in the gutter). This almost breaks him but he recovers, and his most creative years follow. Then he meets a more acceptable woman (Suzanne Flon) whose genuine friendship and affection he fails to recognize until it is too late. Ferrer also played the artist's father, a man who fails to realize just what an amazing son he produced.
It was a first rate production and Ferrer got another nomination for best actor. It remains a good biography of a great artist, and one that is as pleasing to the eye as LUST FOR LIFE. It would not be amiss if both films were shown in tandem by some film society or other.
It is hard to find a really dramatic story about most great artists. LUST FOR LIFE (dealing with Van Gogh) dealt with that artist's failure to find any responding human being to his affections and search for purity. It also dealt with his descent into madness and suicide. REMBRANDT followed the 17th Century master into his years when his artistic ability was misunderstood (after he did THE NIGHT WATCH) and he fell into financial difficulties. THE MOON AND SIX PENCE was Somerset Maugham's comment that Gaughin's brilliance as a painter did not mean he was a decent human being (his anglicized version - Strickland - uses people right and left in order to paint). THE NAKED MAJA showed Goya to be a man having to navigate his way through a corrupt royal court. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY shows how a titan in art (Michaelangelo) painted his masterpiece (The Sistine Chapel) despite his personal war with an equally determined Pope Julius II.
The story in MOULIN ROUGE is how Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had everything (talent, money, aristocratic position) but had nothing. For due to an accident in his teenage years, Henri fell down a stairs and broke his two legs. His parents were cousins, so genetically his bones could not knit properly: He became a dwarf. He could perform as well as a full grown man, but he looked the size of a top-heavy child complete with mustache and beard, and pince-nez eyeglasses. He could not attract women the normal way (we see his teenage female friend reject him when he offers himself to her). So he moves into the bohemian center of Paris, and starts painting. Unlike his fellow Post impressionists, Toulouse actually had money, so he never suffered for lack of rent or for no food or torn clothes (like Van Gogh and Gaughin occasionally did). But his loneliness, and apparent helplessness led to his becoming an alcoholic, in particular of the then popular but dangerous drink absinthe.
The subject matter of this film happened to get the right director. John Huston was usually seen as dealing with grittier and more adventuresome material (like THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRES). But Huston actually was very interested in art, and his use of color and casting is almost flawless here, choosing supporting players who literally look like Toulouse' poster drawings of them dancing the "can can" and other popular dances of the day. So is the choice of Jose Ferrer as Toulouse. Although the dwarf was half Ferrer's height, special braces were used to enable Ferrer to walk "normally" like his real life counterpart. It must have been painful but Ferrer never bats an eyelash.
Ferrer's turmoil deals with the women in his life. He is known to the cast of dancers and singers at Moulin Rouge (led by Zsa Zsz Gabor as the resident chanteuse, who sings the theme song of the film, "Where Is Your Heart"). We see him meet a prostitute, who briefly lives with him, but cannot live with him or without him (she sees he is a good, kind man who can provide for her, but he is a dwarf). They split up twice in the film (he seeks her out and finds her in a more natural milieu in the gutter). This almost breaks him but he recovers, and his most creative years follow. Then he meets a more acceptable woman (Suzanne Flon) whose genuine friendship and affection he fails to recognize until it is too late. Ferrer also played the artist's father, a man who fails to realize just what an amazing son he produced.
It was a first rate production and Ferrer got another nomination for best actor. It remains a good biography of a great artist, and one that is as pleasing to the eye as LUST FOR LIFE. It would not be amiss if both films were shown in tandem by some film society or other.