Kylie as the Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge!

Title:
Kylie as the Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge!
NFSA ID
583507
Year
2001
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It was a clever choice by director Baz Luhrmann to cast Kylie in a cameo as the playful and seductive ‘Green Fairy’ in his epic musical Moulin Rouge! (2001).

The scene illustrates the indelible mark a celebrity of Kylie’s stature can leave on a film in less than one minute of screen time.

Kylie’s character is a hallucination that appears as the young poet Christian (Ewan McGregor) and his bohemian friends begin to experience the effects of the alcoholic spirit absinthe, often called the ‘Green Fairy’ because of its colour and mind-altering qualities.

The men surrender themselves to the Green Fairy’s allure as she lights up the sky in green neon, singing and dancing. Her effect on them is both breathtaking and mind-blowing as she multiplies before their eyes, filling the screen with psychedelic Green Fairies.

It’s a scene of controlled chaos, highly characteristic of a Luhrmann production, with jarring zoom effects, extreme camera angles and close-ups that capture the madness of the moment.

Kylie’s rendition of the wholesome Rodgers and Hammerstein song ‘The Sound of Music’ collides with the 1972 T-Rex hit ‘Children of the Revolution’, a celebration of youth and rock music.

The music choices mirror her performance as the Green Fairy – a blurring of the line between the playful innocence attributed to a fairytale character and the sex appeal of a captivating siren.

Both are images that have been associated with Kylie at different stages of her career, making the casting of Kylie for this brief cameo a stroke of genius, and totally in line with her ability to transform her image.

Notes by Mel Bondfield