BAZ LUHRMANN `MOULIN ROUGE'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

ASKED HOW he was holding up during the Academy Awards campaign for his film ``Moulin Rouge,'' director/producer Baz Luhrmann pauses and focuses. ``I'm trying to think about what I'm saying.''

Yes, the man who created the colorful, outrageous spectacle of can-can girls gyrating salaciously to a disco beat in ``Moulin Rouge,'' which reaped eight Oscar nominations, is trying to keep his wits about him in the hubbub. Not an easy task considering Luhrmann has just patiently faced a barrage of journalists' questions for a couple of hours and then a few interrogators one on one - just another day in the long award-season march that began last year.

Still, on this day, the 39-year-old Australian, dressed in a dark blue suit and ski cap (no explanation), oozes calm - even if it seems to mask nervous energy. He's focused on his mission - two, actually. One is to sell his vision of the musical in today's cinema. On that count, Luhrmann has succeeded. ``Moulin Rouge'' is the first musical to be nominated for best picture since Bob Fosse's ``All That Jazz'' in 1979. The last musical to win was ``Oliver'' in 1968.

The other mission is to secure recognition for those who worked on the film, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. While there has been effusive praise for ``Moulin Rouge,'' there has been plenty of damning as well. It's been called dizzying, a spectacular, astonishing, excessive, foolish - sometimes in the same review.

Set in ``1899, the summer of love,'' ``Moulin Rouge'' is a daringly stylized love story between a young writer, Christian (McGregor), and Satine (Kidman), the star of the famed Parisian night spot. But instead of original music or old standards, the film uses a pastiche of pop numbers in sometimes outlandish ways, such as Jim Broadbent's randy version of ``Like a Virgin.'' Critics were as divided by this gambit as they were with Luhrmann's brash narrative and editing style, some likening it to someone having attention deficit disorder.

Unconventional campaign

``I'm used to being ridiculed; I'm used to burning,'' Luhrmann says, but feels obligated to promote the accomplishments of his crew, who ``risked their careers'' to work on the film.

Luhrmann says he feels that the accolades ``Moulin Rouge'' has received - Golden Globe wins for the film and Kidman's performance, the Producers Guild's best-picture award and Oscar nominations - are somewhat of a vindication. But he doesn't feel off the hook yet. ``That's why I'm a mouthpiece (for the film).''

You can hear how much Luhrmann has invested in the project as he talks about tearing up when he heard that Kidman got an Oscar nomination. ``She sings, she dances, she acts, and she pulled it off,'' he says proudly about her performance. ``That is an incredible test.'' Kidman, another Aussie, says that when she heard she got the nomination, she was ``thrilled'' that she didn't let Luhrmann down. But she worries, too, about academy members seeing the film in order to give it a chance.

``I think Baz has a really good way of putting it,'' she says. ``To see all the films is a hard thing for an academy member; so what you're trying to say to people is, 'Look at this film. Watch this film' ... that's sort of his mantra.''

Going for the gold

One Oscar nomination Luhrmann didn't get was for best director. ``I was disappointed in the moment,'' he says, but affirms he isn't looking back. ``There's no point in that.''

In fact, he's philosophical about the whole awards process. ``The reality is 'Crouching Tiger,' 'Traffic' - two great ice-skating routines,'' he says, referring to the recent Olympics controversy. ``Some people may love one style, some people another. They're both extraordinary. It's not like a foot race where you go, 'There's the photograph - his nose is in front.' ''

Growing up in the ``middle of nowhere'' with the only TV stations available showing films like ``Singin' in the Rain'' helped fuel Luhrmann's love of musicals. And interestingly, it's quotes from veterans of those very Hollywood musicals that adorn ads for ``Moulin Rouge's'' Oscar campaign.

``Baz and his team have reinvented the Hollywood musical, and done it in a way that is surprising, always enlightening and always exhilarating,'' raves Robert Wise (``West Side Story,'' ``The Sound of Music'').

Others quoted are directors Stanley Donen (``Singin' in the Rain'') and George Sidney (``Showboat'') and actresses Debbie Reynolds and Cyd Charisse.

Luhrmann defends the campaign, saying that when the critical arguments started about whether ``Moulin Rouge'' was a true musical or not, Wise and Donen stood up to defend it. ``We then went to them and asked if they would be willing to be in the ads,'' says Luhrmann. No matter what happens next Sunday, though, Luhrmann says he will be relieved the campaigning is over. ``I owe (my crew) that, and then it will be done.''

Done in another way, too. ``Moulin Rouge'' is the last of his ``Red Curtain Trilogy,'' a 10-year odyssey that includes his first two films, ``Strictly Ballroom'' and ``William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'' (both just out on DVD). Up next is his staged version of ``La Boheme,'' scheduled to open in San Francisco in September and then move to New York.

But before he tackles another film project, he intends to take time off and think about what direction he wants to go. ``I may do a small psychological drama between two people shot in a weekend in a kitchen,'' says the man who created ``Spectacular, Spectacular,'' the musical within ``Moulin Rouge.'' Then, after a beat, he smiles and adds, ``It's unlikely, though.''

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