Jose here.
I couldn't let Nathaniel's week of Moulin Rouge! end without paying tribute to one iconic creature from the film: the Green Fairy. More specifically, to the actress who plays her, the one and only Kylie Minogue.
Kylie might not be too popular in our continent and some might not even know who the hell she is when she pops out in the absinthe induced fantasy sequence...
...but the truth is, that for more than two decades Ms. Minogue has been contributing immensely to pop culture, with her music, TV appearances (check out 2007's The Kylie Show if you can!) and overall iconic performances. Her film work is quite limited and other than her appearance as Cammy in the notoriously cheesy Street Fighter, she might not have an Oscar worthy oeuvre. However, like the incomparable Madonna, Kylie is a well known cinephile, who works the movies into her shows, videos and performances as much as she can. She might not be influencing the movies but the movies sure are influencing her.
I feel that Kylie’s contribution to the film is certainly undercredited.
- Baz Luhrmann talking about Kylie in Moulin Rouge!
During the opening act of her perfect Fever tour, the entire venue where she played was showered in green light, while she performed the first notes of The Sound of Music (in the very same way she does in Moulin Rouge!). After this she proceeded to enter full robotic mood to perform Come Into My World. Dressed in a robotic armor, reminiscent of the iconic Metropolis, Kylie revealed herself in a show starter so fantastic, that a few mere years later Ms. Beyoncé Knowles herself would steal it for one of her own performances.
In that very show, she would pay tribute to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: Space Odyssey and more. When she loves a movie she shows it to the world.
Kylie's cinephile sensibilities steer towards the classics. In a way she embodies a cute Doris Day like performer, always staying away from scandal and trying to look cheerful in order to satisfy her fans. The first time I saw her live a couple of years ago, I was extremely delighted when she began her show, not with her own music but with Alfred Newman's iconic fanfare for Twentieth Century Fox. Like Baz Luhrmann himself in the opening of Moulin Rouge! she's establishing that you're escaping into a cinematic world.
During that same concert she performed a stunning setpiece where she appeared dressed in the best Garbo fashion lying on an art deco lounge chair as she performed her greatest ballads.
This is the intro to that sequence:
As you see, with her usual flair for drama and elegance, she mentions The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, All About Eve and even Mommie Dearest! Perhaps the best thing about Kylie's relation to the movies is the pure love. She doesn't do any postmodern twisting, she never gives us Lady Gaga's ironic winks or even Madge's erudite commentaries.
Here are some other of her best movie inspired performances.
A Clockwork Orange
Barbarella
Pushing the envelope with Michel Gondry in "the best video of the aughts" according to Slant Magazine.
Do you think the Green Fairy should be in more movies? Have you ever seen her live? Share your Kylie experiences with us.