The Moulin Rouge conjures up a gallery of images of scantily-dressed, long-legged beauties with their glitzy, sequined bodies and ostrich plumes “growing” out of their heads, contorting on stage in the Cancan, frothy and bubbling like champagne.
This celebrated dance hall has joined several other Parisian landmarks, and is today on the must-visit list; that’s if one can afford it. Seen from afar with its red windmill, it is situated at Place Blanche near Montmartre in the Paris district of Pigalle on the Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement.
The Moulin Rouge opened its doors on 6 October 1889 in the Jardin de Paris at the foot of the Montmartre hill, and was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller. It had a very extravagant setting – its garden adorned with its landmark gigantic elephant which permitted people from all walks of life to rub shoulders.
This was a period of peace and optimism with industrial progress and cultural exuberance. It was called the Belle Epoque. During this period were also the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 (for which the Eiffel Tower was constructed) and 1990.
There was also the little village of Montmartre, which, despite being in the centre of the vast and impersonal Paris, still retained its bucolic village ambiance with its varied festivities.
Thanks to Yasmin, Bonsoir’s viewers were once taken to the Moulin Rouge, and free of charge too. All it took was her creativity, my connivance, and Chintha’s skill and voilà, Bonsoir was at the Moulin Rouge!
She transformed our humble little studio into a “little corner of the interior of the Moulin Rouge” where the both of us had a romantic little table for two. The club’s décor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France. We had to be content with close-up shots.
She dressed up our Man-for-All-Seasons, alias Shelton Francis Perera, into a steward and there we did our number.
We spoke about and featured Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec whom the Moulin Rouge commissioned to produce a series of posters which gave him a living of his own. It is said that other artists at that time looked down on the work, but Toulouse-Lautrec was so aristocratic that he did not care.
He was a regular at the cabaret which even reserved a special seat for him and displayed his paintings. His well known work includes paintings of the dancer Louise Weber, better known as the outrageous La Goulue or The Glutton who made the French Cancan a hit, the more subtle Jane Avril, and the singer Yvette Guilbert.
At the Moulin Rouge we had our champagne at our little table for two, we applauded at the French Cancan, we enjoyed the music, we nodded graciously at the high society dames at the other tables, we took in the ambiance…yes we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly in the comfort of our little studio at No. 89, Rosmead Place, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
