cancan

A behind the scenes look into the avant-garde, burlesque and decadent world of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, the magical mixture of erotic dance and vaudeville acts that has entered its 125th year.

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.

At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Florenz Ziegfeld turns the tables on his more-successful neighbor Billings, and also steals his girlfriend. This pattern repeats throughout their lives, as Ziegfeld makes and loses many fortunes putting on ever-bigger, more spectacular shows

The film is divided into two distinct stories with the same setting: the back-stage of the Moscow Operetta theater with the Can-Can metaphor which is a high-energy and physically demanding dance. Human relationships, betrayals, and the relationship between parents and children are the same common denominator found in the two parts of the film.