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Genre Criticism: The Musical Moulin Rouge is the third in Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain" trilogy, which began with Strictly Ballroom (1992) and continued with William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and all three of them most definitely contain his personal touches. Strictly Ballroom is perhaps the most conventional of the three, a simple story of Australian ballroom dancers, but even here the colors are bright and vibrant and the editing is strong and fast. He manages to make ballroom dancing look like a death-sport, rather than an outdated, formal, and rigid dance style. Romeo + Juliet took an old story (and archaic dialogue) and transferred it into an unknown time of guns called "swords" and punk-styled Montague and Capulet servants. His anachronistic attempt to reconcile pop culture with Shakespeare was not entirely successful, but it was certainly bold and daring, containing the same rapid editing and vitality that appears in the other two films. Moulin Rouge is the crowning glory of Luhrmann's work so far. If anything, its editing is even more frantic — during the can-can numbers, everything is moving so quickly and changing so often that is nearly impossible for the brain to keep track of it all. Anachronism again plays a big role, for the heyday of the Moulin Rouge was in the 1890s, and none of the songs in the movie were written before 1950. And yet, in no way does it matter. The most impressive scene to my mind is the "Roxanne" number. Both visually and aurally, Luhrmann makes the viewer feel the internal tension of Christian and Satine. Visually, Christian's scenes are red, connoting anger and sexual heat. The scenes in the tower with Satine and her unwanted lover are blue-cold and distant. The sudden juxtaposition of the two refuses to allow our own minds and bodies to adjust to either one, creating tension. Musically, the two parts being sung, one by the Argentinian and one by Christian, are opposed to one another. I'm no musical theorist, but considering how worked up I get just listening to the soundtrack, trust me that it creates tension. The one complaint I have with Moulin Rouge is that the predominance of image and sound overwhelm the characters, who only really stand out as individuals in a few scenes — Satine's solo ("One Day I'll Fly Away"), the medley the two sing on top of her roof, and the few quiet times we have with them. When Satine dies, I feel let down rather than sad…I should feel Christian's pain, but instead I just wish I had known her better so I could care more. My expectations of Moulin Rouge were built not on my knowledge of the musical genre (I was cured of that by Cabaret, remember?), but on my knowledge of Baz Luhrmann films. Having been disappointed by Romeo + Juliet, and not having yet had the pleasure of Strictly Ballroom, I was skeptical about Moulin Rouge. It greatly exceeded my expectations, and managed to come across as both a renewal of the classic Hollywood generic traditions (in its plot structure) and as a foray into previously unmarked stylistic ground (in its visual style). By combining an old-fashioned story with modern techniques, Luhrmann tried to rejuvenate the dying musical genre, and did an impressive job. Whether it will turn into a new wave of modern musicals is yet to be seen, but a film version of the hit play Chicago comes out this Christmas, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera has been in the works for a while. We still haven't broken completely from the mold of stage-inspired musical movies, but Moulin Rouge is a step in the right direction. This article originated as an assignment for Intro to Film Theory and Criticism, Webster University, Fall 2002. The original assignment was to discuss a genre, looking at the overall characteristics of that genre, and use three films (one from the 1930s-1950s, one from the 1960s-1970s, and one from the 1980s-now) as examples of that genre and how that genre has changed over the years; to look at the director of each of the three films from an auteurist viewpoint and how he used the traditions of the genre; and to examine how one's knowledge of the films' genre affected one's expectations. ©Copyright 2002 by Jandy Stone Page last updated 8/1/04. |
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