Moulin Rouge

'Truth, beauty, freedom, and most of all, love'. This is what Moulin Rouge is about. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Moulin Rouge is the movie musical that merges fin-de-siecle decadence of the French Musical with modernised film directing skill which was done by a famous Australian director, Baz Luhrmann. This movie belongs to two genres, the romance and the musical. However, Baz Luhrmann subverted the typical conventions of the genre by re imaging historical trapping of the narrative which peacefully coexists with the anachronistic insertions of today’s popular culture. This point will be proven by the story line with an escapist vision of reality, music and background of the movie. Welcome to Moulin Rouge.

First of all, Moulin Rouge has a different topic of story line. Generally, musicals are about an alternative, escapist vision of reality such as love, wealth, success and popularity. Moulin Rouge concerns love, however it is not simply the love between two major characters, Christian (Ewan McGregor) and Satine (Nicole Kidman). It is about the love of writers, actors, courtesan and all members of musical, towards Moulin Rouge, the musical. Baz Luhrmann subverted this aspect because he wanted to show Moulin Rouge is the �love’ itself and is where all love starts. Also by setting male major character as a penniless writer, Baz Luhrmann might attempted to show the true life of writers and their passion and love towards their musicals and movies.

Not only is the topic of storyline subverted, but also the ending of storyline differs from other romance movies. Audience expects positive and happy ending from romance movies. However, Baz Luhrmann pursued and achieved the success of romanticism an unexpected way. The love between Christian and Satine had to go through hardships and privations just as other romance movie, but in the end, the red curtain of Moulin Rouge closes with tragedy, the death of Satine. Moulin Rouge’s lush romanticism meshes audience perfectly along in a rush of love and tragedy. Baz Luhrmann took this unusual technique to make audience sympathize with the feeling of losing true love. By this subverted way, Baz Luhrmann could convey the true romance to audiences stronger than the typical conventions of the genre.

Secondly, the setting of Moulin Rouge is subverted from typical romance and musical movies. Audiences usually find bright and colourful costume and backgrounds in romance and musical movies because these factors have the effect of giving a positive image. Baz Luhrmann, however, did not use bright and colourful colours, but only single colours like red, black and white. This technique causes dark and negative images all over the movie unlike the genre. This can be interpreted as to reveal the decadences of life back in that time and to imply that Moulin Rouge’s ending will be dark and tragic.

Moreover, what has generated a stir the genre in Moulin Rouge, musical, are the musical numbers. Like the general Hollywood musicals of old, this is a film where characters spontaneously burst out

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