MOVIES AND DOCUMENTARIES
OF MOULIN ROUGE

• 1898 : Moulin Rouge Dancers (1&2)

USA
Silent film about the Moulin Rouge

• 1925 : Le Fantôme du Moulin Rouge

France
Directed by René Clair
With Sandra Milowanoff, Georges Voltier A French MP who is in love asks a medium to separate his soul from his body during an experiment at the Moulin Rouge.

• 1928 : Moulin Rouge

Germany (silent film)
Directed by Ewald André Dupont
With Olga Tschechowa, Eve Gray and Jean Bradin
Eve Gray, daughter of a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, is in love with Jean Bradin. Unfortunately, Jean is in love with someone else: Eve’s mother.
Filmed in Paris and London, the film was an international success and caused a certain amount of scandal in the United States because of the risqué dance scenes and characters in flimsy costumes.

• 1922 : Queen of the Moulin Rouge

USA
Silent film
Directed by Ray C Smallwood and Peter Milne
With Joseph Striker, Martha Mansfield, Henry Harmon
Louis Rousseau believes that the excellent musical technique of his violin student, Tom, lacks soul because Tom has never really suffered. He persuades Rosalie, Tom’s girlfriend, to dance at the Moulin Rouge to help the young student pay for his studies. When Tom finds out that Rosalie has demeaned herself by becoming a dancer, he pours all his anger and suffering into his music.

• 1934 : Moulin Rouge (also entitled L’étoile du Moulin Rouge)

USA
Directed by Sydney Lanfield
With Constance Bennett
Helen Hall, a cabaret singer, decides to return to the stage. As her husband is against the idea, she decides to take the place of another actress.

• 1937/1938 : La Chaste Suzanne

France/GB
Directed by André Berthomieu
With Raimu and Henri Garat
M. Des Aubrais, an important member of the Academy of Moral Sciences, is asked to send a letter to the winner of a prize for virtue. He makes a mistake and sends it to a married woman whom he is pursuing. Her husband, M Pomarel, learns about it and asks Des Aubrais for an explanation. Des Aubrais, captivated by Mme Pomarel, makes up a story and arranges to meet her the same evening at the Moulin Rouge.

• 1939/1940 (released in France in 1941 and in the USA in 1944) : Moulin Rouge

France
Directed by André Hugon and Yves Mirande
With Lucien Baroux, René Dary, Annie France, Pierre Larquey, Josephine Baker
Two destitute friends want to find a way out of their poverty but only by honest means. One of them manages to become a star and employs the other as his manager.

• 1945 : La P’tite femme du Moulin Rouge

Argentina
Directed by Benito Perojo
With Alberto Bello, Héctor Calcaño, Homero Cárpena, Tilda Thamar
Based on “La Chaste Suzanne”

• 1952 : Moulin Rouge

USA
Directed by John Huston
With José Ferrer, Suzanne Flon and Zsa Zsa Gabor
Set in the Belle Epoque, about the life of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Montmartre. His paintings, whose models are dancers from the Moulin Rouge, girls from the surrounding houses and ordinary people, become famous among the Paris smart set.

• 1955 : French Cancan

France/Italy - Directed by Jean Renoir
With Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, Maria Félix, Jean-Roger Caussimon, Gianni Esposito, Philippe Clay, Michel Piccoli Danglard is the manager of The Paravent Chinois, a music hall in Montmartre. His mistress is its star. To try and attract more middle class clients, he decides to relaunch an old-fashioned dance, the cancan, and to build a new establishment, the Moulin Rouge.

• 1957 : Une Nuit au Moulin Rouge

Directed by Jean-Claude Roy
With Tilda Thamar, Noël Roquevert, Armand Bernard, Jean Tissier
An American wants to give money to his nieces on the condition that they appear for an evening at the Moulin Rouge, where one of them already performs. Everyone does their utmost to help the girls put on a number, to trick the cabaret manager and to ensure that they win the money – which will be doubled if they manage to marry.

• 1963 : La Chaste Suzanne

Spain/France
Directed by Luis César Amadori
With Armand Mestral, Noël Roquevert and Frédéric Duvallès

• 2001 : Moulin Rouge

USA
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
With Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh At the end of the 19th century, in Belle Epoque Paris, Christian, a poor young poet, comes to live in Montmartre. He gets to know the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and is employed by the Moulin Rouge to write the words for a revue. He falls in love with a dancer, Satine, who is also pursued by the Duke, a wealthy aristocrat who finances the show.

• 2008 : Paris

France
Directed by Cédric Klapisch
With Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, François Cluzet, Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche, Mélanie Laurent, Zinedine Soualem Pierre, a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, is seriously ill. No longer able to dance, he loses the will to live and spends his days watching anonymous Parisians from his balcony.

• 1913 : Die Heldin vom Moulin Rouge (« l’héroïne du Moulin Rouge »)

Germany/Austria
Short, silent film

• 1913 : Shadows of the Moulin Rouge

USA
Directed by Alice Guy
A Paris doctor is besotted with the wife of his benefactor. He drugs and kidnaps her and tries to convince her that her husband is dead.

• 1934 : Zouzou

France
Directed by Marc Allégret. Based on a novel by Pépito Abatino
With Josephine Baker, Jean Gabin, Pierre Larquey, Yvette Lebon
Released in Paris on 14 December 1934 at the Moulin Rouge Cinema.

• 1935 : Princesse Tam-Tam

Directed by Edmond T. Gréville and Yves Mirande. Based on a novel by Pépito Abatino
With Josephine Baker, Albert Préjean, Robert Arnoux, Germaine Aussey. A writer in search of inspiration decides to go to Tunisia after an argument with his wife. There he meets a young local girl whom he takes to Paris, passing her off as a princess. Disappointed by the fashionable world, she decides to return to her home country.
Released in Paris on 8 November 1935 at the Moulin Rouge Cinema.

• 1951 : Ding-Dong: A Night in the Moulin Rouge

USA
Directed by Merle W Connell
Documentary Filmed at the Moulin Rouge Theater of Oakland in Canada. The film shows the work of the establishment’s strip tease performers; the theatre closed in the 1970s.

• 1960 : Can-Can

USA
Directed by Walter Lang
With Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier 1896, Montmartre: The cancan is banned. However, Simone allows it to be danced every night in her night club. Her employees use their charms to cajole the police. But the young, ambitious judge Philippe Forrestier decides to stop it.

• 1963 : Moulin Rouge, a Vida de Toulouse-Lautrec

Brazil
Directed by Geraldo Vietri
The life of Toulouse-Lautrec

• 1964 : Due mattacchioni al Moulin Rouge (« Deux rigolos au Moulin Rouge »)

Italy
Directed by Carlo Infascelli
With Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Margaret Lee
In order to launch the career of a new Diva, Ciccio devises a practical joke: He pretends that one of the night club’s dancers has been killed.

• 1998 : Lautrec

France
Directed by Roger Planchon
With Regis Royer, Elsa Zylberstein, Anémone, Claude Rich, Jean-Marie Bigard
The life of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

• 1899-1902 : Quadrille dansé par les étoiles du Moulin-Rouge (1, 2, 3)

France, produced by Pathé
Length: 3 x 20 min
Three silent documentaries showing the dancers doing the quadrille.

• 1981 : An Evening at the Moulin Rouge

Directed by David Niles, produced by HBO
Length: 60 min
Special programme about the Moulin Rouge

• 2001 : Coulisses d’une revue, le Moulin Rouge (In English : Moulin Rouge, Behind the curtains)

France
Produced by Philippe Pouchain et Yves Riou
Length: 60 min Backstage at one of the world’s most famous cabarets showing the creation of a revue; from the composition of the music to the auditions for dancers.

• 2002 : Moulin Rouge Forever

France
Produced by Philippe Pouchain et Yves Riou
Length: 55 min
A backstage look at a mythical and fascinating place, the Moulin Rouge, and a cabaret that, at the end of the 19th century, immortalises the painter Toulouse-Lautrec.

• Moulin Rouge : la restauration et Une vie de passion au Moulin Rouge

Two documentaries that nowadays accompany the DVD of the film Moulin Rouge by John Huston.