Truth, Beauty, Freedom and above all, Love

[mbarrick]

I just got back from seeing Moulin Rouge with Trish and I am inspired. I have, with no question, one foot firmly planted in the 19th century and a romantic notion of Bohemianism. I bought into it early, when I was 11 years old I saw the real Moulin Rouge. I had already bought the image whole-heartledly enough that I was horribly disappointed that it was no longer a nightclub. On that same trip I escaped from the tour (to my mother's horror) and took off on my own to see what the streets off the tourist path looked like.

So before she tries to embarrass me, I will preemptively embarrass myself: I cried when Satine died.

I also laughed inappropriately and loudly at one line: "Never fall in love with a woman that sells her body. It always ends badly!" Either you already know why or I won't tell you.

Comments

[saturnina.livejournal.com]

ARGGGGG! You just ruined the ending for me!!!!

It's not a spoiler at all

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

They tell you in the first minute of the movie (because it is presented as a retrospection) that she dies.

Re: It's not a spoiler at all

[saturnina.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I've just been dying to see it and Boy won't go - not cerebral enough for him. *pout*

Re: It's not a spoiler at all

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe I can help you appeal to his intellect then. Sure the movie is a musical and a love-story, but there is more to it than that. Like "Romeo and Juliette" and "Hamlet" by the same director this is recontextualization of a period peice (although it doesn't make any pretense not to be set in 1899/1900, so in that regard it really more of a anachonistic representation like "Titus"). The use of contemporary popular music brings the feel of the Belle Epoche to the forefront better than accurate representation could since there would be no way to use the popular music of the time without it sounding antique and quaint. This is not a film about historical accuracy, but rather an expression of the emotion and sensuality of the time and place, which, ultimately is what that particular time and place was all about. In every meaningful way it is actually a better representation than something more historically acurrate could ever be.

It's not fluff. It trancends fluff. It is perfectly brilliant. He may actually find himself enjoying the refernces to century-old films (there are a lot of them) and the way contemporary pop culture is mixed seemlessly with the bohemian avant-garde that spawned it. In the literary sense it is actually a Gothic romance. There are layers upon layers here.