Moulin Rouge Hotel This inspiration comes from the first Afro-American star in France, Josephine Baker. The wall painted of the Moulin Rouge Las Vegas, included many references to Paris and Toulouse-Lautrec. "Black showgirls performed on a stage amid a backdrop of walls featuring mahogany wood trim and Toulouse-Lautrec-style murals of black French cancan dancers. The showroom featured "Tropi-Can-Can" under the tutelage of veteran producer Clarence Robinson." When it opened, the Moulin Rouge was fully integrated top to bottom, from employees to patrons to entertainers. The hotel made the June 20, 1955, cover of "Life" magazine, with a photo of two showgirls. A veritable
Moulin Rouge! necessitated some pick-up shots being filmed in Madrid. In the liner notes to the film's Special Edition DVD, Luhrmann writes that "[the] whole stylistic premise has been to decode what the Moulin Rouge was to the audiences of 1899 and express that same thrill and excitement in a way to which contemporary movie-goers can relate." With that in mind, the film takes well-known popular music, mostly drawn from the MTV Generation, and anachronizes it into a tale set in a turn-of-the-century Paris cabaret. The movie also features editing that several critics compared to a music video, involving swirling camera motion,