Background

Moulin Rouge! is a story of two lovers who are foridden to be together due to Satine's work as a courtesan in the nightclub, the Moulin Rouge. The film is brought to life using a plethora of theatrical techniques borrowed from stage musical conventions. The director, Baz Luhrman, creatively integrates a myriad of modern-day songs that are performed throughout the movie, which is set in Paris, 1900. The songs are all staples of modern day pop-culture which have all been etched into our memories to elicit a certain response when each is heard. For example, songs like “The Sound of Music” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as well as Madonna’s “Material Girl” are all ingeniously crafted into cabaret show-type ensembles that bring the viewer into the realm of the situation of the 1900s and make them feel today, what they may have felt then. It took Luhrman nearly three years to secure the rights to all of the songs used in the movie.

Conventions

Song and Dance

Here is a scene in which Satine, played by Nicole Kidman is performing her number entitled "Diamonds" which incorperated Madonna's Material Girl and the well known song, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. Throughout the entire film, the characters break out in lavish song and dance routines either to explain themselves or a situation that would otherwise be lost on the audience. This technique is borrowed from stage musicals, in which the characters perform in the same manner.

Here Christian is serenading Satine and trying to convince her that the life of a courtesan is not right for her. The musical numbers are vehicles in which the characters can elaborately express what a simple line from a script cannot.

Elaborate Settings

A set like this would be painstaking to produce on a theatrical stage. One of the advantages to film is the versatility the director has in incorperating lavish scenery that would otherwise be impossible to add to a stage production. With the use of soundstages and multiple sets, the director is left with more freedom concerning the look and feel of the film. Cinematographic techniques that are used in film also offer a more liberal aspect to how the scenes can be lit. In this film, techniques are used to make the film feel more like a stage production with intense lighting and filters that convey stronger color than one would normally see in a film.

Tie-Back to Theater

Many scenes in Moulin Rouge remind us of the standard theatrical productions of a stage musical with their performances directed at an audience. The tie-back to theater occurs so much in this film that the audience often forgets that they aren't watching a live stage production. The characters have a tendency to burst out in elaborate routines on stage that prove to be a definite nod to the stage origins that precursed the film musical.

Common Themes

Like their stage counterparts, film musicals can reflect upon issues that have or still concern society. This film serves as a vehicle in which we see the methods of societal constraints bear down on the ideals and desires of the bohemian lifestyle of the main characters, Christian and Satine, who are desperate to find love in the emotionally desolate underworld of the night club that is the Moulin Rouge

Works Cited