Join us at the Rio Theatre on Thursday, February 9, for a Valentine’s Day-ish double feature inspired by one of our favourite filmmakers, Baz Luhrmann. We’re getting in the mood for love with a romantical pairing of fan-faves including ROMEO + JULIET and MOULIN ROUGE.

See one, or see ’em both for one sweet price!

The third film from visionary Australian director Baz Luhrmann, MOULIN ROUGE!, is a hyper-stylized, dramatic and romp that turns the conventions of the musical genre onto its (glittering) head by mixing a period romance with anachronistic dialogue and songs, reminiscent of the approach he utilized (with great success) in ROMEO+JULIET.

Ewan McGregor stars as Christian, a young Englishman who leaves behind his bourgeois father during the French belle époque of the late 1890s to seek his fortunes in the bohemian underworld of Montmartre. Here, Christian meets the absinthe- and alcohol-addicted artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), who introduces him to a world of sex, drugs, music, theater, and the scandalous dance known as the cancan at the Moulin Rouge, a decadent dance hall, brothel, and theater that’s the brainchild of Harold ZidlerHowever (Jim Broadbent), and quickly becomes completely infatuated with the beautiful singer and courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman, in a career-high). However, she has been promised by the manager to a Duke – in return for funding his next production. As the young lovers meet in secret, Satine’s wedding day draws closer but she hides a fatal secret from both Christian and the Duke. The film seamlessly weaves contemporary songs by Nirvana, Madonna, the Beatles, and Queen into a sparkling confection, loosely based on the opera “Orpheus in the Underworld.” With Richard Roxburgh, Kylie Minogue.

“A love-it-or-hate-it experience, MOULIN ROUGE! is all style, all giddy, over-the-top spectacle. But it’s also daring in its vision and wildly original.” (Rotten Tomatoes)

“MOULIN ROUGE! is a tour de force of artifice, a dazzling pastiche of musical and visual elements at the service of a blatantly artificial story.” (Variety)

Thursday, February 9
MOULIN ROUGE!
Movie 9:00 pm *As this is a double bill, the start time is apx.  Please arrive on time.
Single Film Tickets HERE

Why not make it a double feature with ROMEO + JULIET at 6:30 pm? Double bill tickets HERE

*Minors permitted. Must be 19+ for bar service. Rio Theatre Groupons and passes OK for any single film screening only. Please redeem at the box office. Online sales end an hour before showtime; unless otherwise noted tickets are also available for purchase at the door.
*If you are looking to redeem your tickets to either a canceled Rio Theatre screening or a Rio Theatre gift certificate, please email <[email protected]> with info including your name, canceled receipt number, gift certificate info, what you are wanting to see and when, and we can make the switch for you in advance. Alternately, you can bring this information with you to the venue, and we will do our best to help you at the box office.

MOULIN ROUGE! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001 / 127 mins / PG) A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club’s most notorious and beautiful star.