Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: During the finale, the backround looks like a sunset and there is a big door in the back. Watch closely and all of a sudden from one camera angle to the next (it's right after the big puff of smoke), the background changes to an elaborate background of layers of hearts, the door is gone, and there are about 60 more extras onstage. During the DVD Baz explains that they filmed the scene with both backgrounds and it just so happened that the beginning was better with one and the end was better with the other, so they put the puff of smoke in there to distract the audience so that they wouldn't see the change.

Deliberate mistake: When Satine and Christian are singing "The Elephant Love Medley" and Satine dismisses Christian singing "I'll drink all the time" and then heads down to the heart window of the Red Room. If you watch the chains attached to the elephant's head just after Satine passes under them and before Christian leaves they move as if being struck by something. The actors actually were on safety wires and Satine's hit the chains when she went in. They later edited out the wires so now the chains look as if they were hit by an invisible object.

Moulin Rouge mistake picture

Continuity mistake: The scar on the Duke's bodyguard's face switches from one cheek to the other throughout the movie, due to flipped shots. (00:17:30)

More mistakes in Moulin Rouge

Toulouse-Lautrec: The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return.

More quotes from Moulin Rouge

Trivia: At the beginning, right after Christian sings the 'hills are alive' line, the unconscious Argentinian says something about him having lots of talent, and 'happens' to put his hand on his crotch. Then later in the movie, when Satine is unbuttoning his pants when they are in the elephant for the first time, she calls him a 'big boy' and Toulouse says he has HUGE talent.

More trivia for Moulin Rouge

Question: Why was Toulouse crying at the end of the Elephant Love Medley? If I am correct he was sitting on a balcony eating and drinking when singing the words "How wonderful life is, now you're in the world." Is it just that he is happy about his dream of finally getting the Bohemian Play? Is it a potential that he is in love with Christian or Satine. Another possibility is that he just happy seeing Christian in love, since Christian previously stated that he had never been in love before?

Answer: The way I saw it, that was Toulouse in present day singing, after the death of Satine etc.

He's a funny little man who is lonely himself. All he has is his bottle when everything is all said and done. He has nobody.

Answer: Maybe it's sort of a foreshadowing.

More questions & answers from Moulin Rouge

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.