Moulin Rouge is back. Rouge never left.
Paris’ famous Moulin Rouge cabaret has restored its iconic windmill after its blades broke and fell to the ground in April. The construction work was completed just weeks before the opening of the Paris Olympics and before the torch passed on its route through Paris on 15 July.
“We want to be ready for this special moment,” said managing director Jean-Victor Clerico, whose family has run the cabaret since 1955, adding Said, “Moulin Rouge without the blade? This is different.”
The cabaret, whose name means “red windmill” in French, has remained open during repairs. But it has been topless since April and some of its letters have fallen off. No one was injured; a spokesman blamed mechanical issues.
Expressions of sympathy poured in from around the world, Mr. Clerico said. Fans sent letters of support, he said. Some even write poetry. For two months, Moulin Rouge raced to reinstall the aluminum blades, forcing a metalworking company to rush work to meet the deadline.
Finally, as planned, the cabaret celebrated its full return to glory with a street performance on Friday night. When the windmill’s bright neon lights came back on, a crowd of about 1,500 erupted in cheers, Clerico said.
Dancers in blue, white and red costumes perform the cancan – a symbol of the city and the epitome of the Moulin Rouge cabaret culture. They screamed and kicked, their ruffles rustled and their skirts swayed. Mr. Clerico said the outdoor performance was only the second time the cabaret had staged the cancan in the streets. (The first was in 2019 for its 130th anniversary.)
“We have been under a lot of pressure over the past two months to prepare,” Mr. Clerico said. “But a lot of people are happy to see Blades coming back.”
However iconic, the restoration is just a small part of Paris’ run towards the Summer Olympics.
The site is ready, but the Seine may still be too dirty for swimmers. For people with disabilities, barriers still exist. Parisians even took to social media to warn tourists to stay away, concerned about overcrowding and a city packed with millions of tourists. Meanwhile, the country, which goes to the polls on Sunday, has been mired in political uncertainty.
But the Moulin Rouge has witnessed other difficult chapters in Paris’ history.
The venue opened in 1889 and quickly became a center for artists and writers in the bohemian 18th arrondissement. It stayed open through world wars and waves of gentrification.
“It’s a symbol of life. It’s an icon,” said Gabriel P. Weisberg, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Minnesota and editor of “Montmartre and the Making of Popular Culture.”
For 135 years, the Moulin Rouge has inspired artists from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Baz Luhrmann, whose 2001 film Moulin Rouge) unveils its lively mystery for modern audiences. In 2021, the film’s theatrical adaptation even won the Tony Award for Best Musical.
The building itself is more than just a landmark, said Richard Thomson, an art historian at the University of Edinburgh who studies late 19th-century French art. This is also a metaphor. If Notre Dame represents the religion of Paris, and the Eiffel Tower represents the city’s modernity and ambitious technological experiments, then the Moulin Rouge is the standard-bearer of popular entertainment.
Professor Thomson said: “It suggests a lively part of Paris, a slightly decadent part of Paris, but an exciting part.”
The venue had suffered damage previously, most notably a fire in 1915. The cabaret was closed for nearly a decade. But then, as the Moulin Rouge always does, it reopened.
“It became a symbol of the city of Paris, but also of a way of life,” Dr. Weisberg said, adding that “these artists, poets, writers and dancers were able to gain a sense of freedom at the Moulin Rouge.”
“This is very important: freedom,” he added. “The French are very good at this.”
