Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and most importantly, Love

When I think Moulin Rouge, I think of the hit single from Moulin Rouge, "Lady Marmalade" from a year ago with Pink, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Christina. It's a fun, upbeat party type song. It's happy.

After watching the film Moulin Rouge, my thoughts on the song are now immediately about the movie instead of any of the happy emotions.

So different from the song is the film, so powerful and sad is the story, that it erases all which is good and happy when hearing the song. It isn't that the movie doesn't tell a great story, it is a wonderful love story, but it also tells a love lost story. And that is the saddest of all.

Moulin Rouge is a musical, this may turn potential viewers away, but I'm here to tell you, put away your preconceived notions on what a musical is. Give Moulin Rouge a chance. If you don't you miss out on one powerful movie.

While watching Moulin Rouge, I found myself thinking, what makes a movie great? Is it the entertainment? Is it the escape from reality? I say those things can, but what makes a film truly great is what it makes you feel.
Moulin Rouge will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. You'll find yourself confused, happy, jealous, angry and full of rage, you'll find yourself hopeful and touched, and worst of all, you'll be made to feel incredibly sad. You'll be able to feel all this, despite knowing the characters aren't real, the story is fiction, and the events never happened.

I don't believe it is easy for a film to accomplish all this, yet Moulin Rouge does. It achieves this feat through the acting performances, the story, the execution, amazingly elaborate sets, and importantly, the music.

The Music. Being a musical, Moulin Rouge requires many songs. I believe what makes this such a great movie is, we all know the songs in Moulin Rouge. The songs are current, and from the recent past. I can't think of a single song which was in the film which wasn't a hit, or which I didn't find myself hearing in my head while the characters sang the verses. The songs also stick with you. The characters in Moulin Rouge do not just stop and break out into song for no apparent reason in the film. Every single time they begin singing, it is fitting. The songs are not always sung all the way through, many times conversations are held using verses from songs. It's really a nice change from normal dialogue, and so very fitting for this film, which is about the Theater.

Or is it about the Theater?

Moulin Rouge is said to be a story about Truth, Freedom, Beauty and Love. And it is, in many ways. But it is mostly a love story about an Actress who doesn't see herself for what she really is, and a writer who has never been in love.

Nicole Kidman plays Satine, the star of the Moulin Rouge, lead actress, beautiful attraction for the men to arrive at and stare at in the theater.

Ewan McGregor is Christian, the writer who has gone off in search of the Bohemian ideals in 19th century Paris.

These two paths converge early on, due to Christian's chance meeting with a group of actors attempting to create some really bizarre play. Christian makes changes to their script which they so love, that they accept him in as one of them. Notable is John Leguizamo as one of the group. His character is really very important in the film, as he is the one who has loved and sees things as they are. He is normally a drunken reveler, but when he makes an important announcement to Christian, it will cause wonder as to why he drinks, is it because of what he lost? Is it because he could have acted on what Christian can now? yet he chose a different, easier path, and lost it? He may not be listened to right away, but his words are profound.

The group of actors and Christian devise a plan to get their play into the Moulin Rouge through deception. Christian is to bluff his way into a meeting with Satine so that he may work as a writer on the next musical. It would turn out that Christian and his friends are not the only ones involved in deception that evening. The owner of the Moulin Rouge, Zidler, has planned with Satine to have her seduce a rich possible investor, The Duke (Richard Roxburgh). That's all, she's just supposed to meet him after the show, sleep with him, and hopefully he will dump money into the theater. For odd reasons, Satine seems OK with this. What really amounts to Zidler pimping out Satine to rich guys, I found highly disturbing. Equally angering was Satine's own view of herself, as one who can't afford to fall in love. One who is no better than what she is told to do. She's an aspiring star, in fact, she IS the star, she just doesn't see herself as that yet. So sadly she gets pimped out between her performances. You just want to grab her and shake her and tell her how wrong she is. She's bought into what she's been told by the manipulative Zidler.

After a mix-up, Satine and Christian end up together, her thinking he is the Duke and ready to sleep with him. This leads to some of the funniest scenes in the movie full of double entendre. He is there to give her a poetry reading, she trying to seduce him, it's a really amusing scene as Christian tries to get his poetry out while Satine does all she can to turn him on, and distract his train of thought. But here is where they begin to fall in love.

Sure enough, the Duke does end up in the room, and through very quick thinking, he is fooled. But the seeds of conflict are planted as Satine has to promise the Duke she will begin dating him.

At this point, the film begins to progress very rapidly, the show "Spectacular Spectacular" starts coming together, the writing of the story and the revisions begin in earnest. Christian and Satine seem fixed on one another, and despite their apprehension they have the courage to feel each other out and end up singing about love. Are each of them afraid the other doesn't hold the same feelings for the other? Perhaps, but luckily they act on their feelings, and quickly fall in love.

Christian and Satine begin to live a life full of love and secrecy due to The Duke's desire for Satine. It's a repressed love, expressed in public only through what "Spectacular Spectacular" is becoming. And the love does appear to be just that, spectacular spectacular, like nothing you've ever seen before. And for these two characters, it is nothing they've experienced before.

Huge problems for the love of Satine and Christian begin to develop when The Duke does invest in the theater. He drives a hard bargain, and requires the deed to the Moulin Rouge in exchange for the investment, but that isn't all, he requires Satine. He seeks to own her, and even has a contract drawn up which includes "Obligations, Sexual" and sadly, Zidler doesn't seek to stand up for his actress for even one minute, he signs her right over to him, as if he has the ability to just sign over her life and her heart to some greedy investor.

The film progresses to the point where the affair between Christian and Satine is exposed. The Duke still hasn't slept with Satine, and he demands it. By this point, we see Satine has discovered some self worth, and has fallen deeply in love with Christian. Despite this, she is supposed to sexually satisfy The Duke. If she doesn't, he will own the theater.
This is far from "taking one for the team" and really a sad part of the film. The discussion between Christian and Satine about what she must do is very sad, and you can feel his rage and jealousy. Christian is still supposed to promise not to be jealous, yeah, like that could happen.

Christian and Satine continue to experience each other's love, even through the trying times of The Duke's demands. Satine manages to hold off the sexual advances through various crafty excuses, until one moment, when some actress in the Moulin Rouge goes and blabs in The Duke's ear about what is going on. This leads to one of the most powerful musical numbers in the film.

ROXANNE. A song about a prostitute, done with dance and a very pained voice, interspersed with scenes of what Satine is going through with The Duke. What it amounts to is, she's about to be raped. She tries to fight it off, but she never stood a chance against this enraged man. Satine is saved by a fellow actor, who makes the mistake of not killing The Duke.

And when you don't kill someone who needs killing, he always comes back to haunt you.

Satine is rescued and taken to Christian, together they plan to run away from Paris and begin a life together. It doesn't matter what they are leaving behind, they will have their love, and they will have each other, and nothing else matters. Satine goes to pack, and then she learns what will ruin them.

Satine is sick, she has consumption and is dying. Sadly, this information has been withheld from her by Zidler. Probably so he can continue to use her for whatever he needs without worrying her. But the problem is, she is now in love and has plans and a dream. These are shattered with the knowledge she is about to die. She also realizes if she goes away with Christian, she takes him away from what he has worked for, to become a successful writer, and she will only leave him shortly in death.

In a way, Satine makes a very selfless decision. She has to hurt Christian and leave him behind in order for him to become successful. She knows her days are few, and her days running away with him in love would be short lived. So instead of listening to her heart, or explaining to Christian what is going on, she keeps this information from him, and hurts him.

She goes on to star in Spectacular Spectacular, and save the Moulin Rouge.

Eventually Christian comes to his senses and seeks out Satine. He needs to know if she loves him, but he approaches this horribly. He is incredibly mean to Satine when he confronts her backstage during the show. What he does is uncalled for and wrong. But he has no idea what the consequences are of her giving him the time of day. The Duke will have him killed. Satine loves him so much she only wants to save his life, yet he has no idea.

Christian's presence leads to the climax of the film where you think the worst is going to happen. You swear Satine is going to get killed and die right in his arms. You know it can't possibly get any sadder than that.

But it does.

Satine and Christian are saved by acts of the cast, they have one glorious moment together in love publicly. There, on the stage, looking beautiful for her scene, as the audience erupts in applause, when everything seems perfect, love realized, a star born, and a writers dream fulfilled, she collapses and dies in his arms. Satine is snatched from Christian by her consumption.

And that became their story.

The story of Truth; what a person is, depends on how others see them, not how someone sees themselves.
Beauty; what lovers can become together and accomplish.
Freedom; what they'd found in and about each other.
and the greatest of them all,

Love.


Which makes all things possible.