4. Relationship
Moulin Rouge!
Introduction
On this page I’ll take a look at two scenes from the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film, Moulin Rouge! There’s a structural chart, a sample response to the two scenes, a prospective essay on the two scenes, and a sample essay on the second scene.
The two scenes below are complementary: in the first, the courtesan and performer (Satine) believes that the poor writer (Christian) is a wealthy Duke and that she needs to satisfy him sexually so that he will support their cabaret at Le Moulin Rouge (‘The Red Windmill,” a famous cabaret on the southwest edge of Montmartre, Paris). The dramatic irony in the first scene is humorous, since the audience knows that he’s not a Duke. It’s also a humorous reversal of the stereotypical situation where men want sex and women want romance.
As you’re watching, compare the two scenes in terms of the decor, the location in Paris, the shift from prose to poetry, the shift from speaking to singing, and the use of Elton John’s single, “Your Song” (which starts “It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside / I’m not one of those who can easily hide”). For instance, how does the mood and Satine’s body language change in the first scene when Christian shifts from reciting Elton John’s lyric to singing it? Where does Satin re-introduce the lyric in the second scene?
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Sight & Sound
The following video analyzes the two scenes and refers to the chart and samples below.
Chart
The following chart suggests several angles you could take in analyzing the two scenes. Space or setting plays a major role: the film is set in Paris, the City of Love; the director shifts back and forth between exterior shots of Paris and interior shots in which Christian expresses his love for Satine; the dark blue of the outside setting emphasizes the nightime romance of Paris and the intense reds of the interior, Satine’s dress, and Satine’s lipstick emphasize her status as courtesan and the more heartfelt love that develops between the two. Tone is also key, as it shifts dramatically, and these shifts are integrated with the music, especially when Satine stops rolling on the floor and looks up at Christian in the first scene. Finally, Elton’s John’s “Your Song” brings the two clips together when at the end of the second scene Satine returns to the song that Christian uses in the first scene to express his love.
Response
The whirling and hyperbole of the scenes are brought into focus by the colour red and the lyrics of Elton John. Red is initially everywhere — decor, Satine’s person, windmill blades — yet in the first scene the profusion is stabilized and focused when Satine looks up at Christian, who just shifted from speaking to singing Elton John’s “Your Song.” The scenes also come together when, at the end of an increasingly integrated mix of love songs, Satine re-introduces “Your Song,” bringing the viewer back full circle, to the moment Christian expressed his desire for a love that was more than sexual. (100 words)
Prospective Essay
This response could be worked into a full-length essay. The first paragraph of the body could start by examining the connections between the lavish interior, Satine’s dress and lipstick, and the whirling red blades of the windmill in the Paris night. The second paragraph could examine how this profusion and chaos gets stilled by Satine’s upward gaze, and how the shift from jumbled and misinterpreted poetry gets straightened out when Christian turns his back to her frantic display and looks out into the night. Your analysis could pause on the gaze of Satine, herself transfixed by the discovery of genuine emotion in a world she took to be material. You might offer the suggestion that her lipstick shifts from that of a courtesan to that of a potential lover. Your final paragraph could then bring the two scenes together, looking more closely at the intial chaos of lyrics and the eventual integration of lyrics. This paragraph might look very much like the one in the sample essay below, starting with the topic sentence, “As they near the end of the medley, their interchange becomes more and more integrated.”
Dialogue
The following dialogue is colour-coded red for Satine, blue for Christian, and pink where they sing at the same time.
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Sample Essay
All You Need is Love
In the “The Elephant Love Song Medley” the poor, idealistic writer Christian and the business-like courtesan Satine are drawn together into an almost magical world. The unity of this romantic world is created by the lyrics, which are increasingly integrated, and by the setting, which suggests intimacy and freedom.
Luhrmann uses increasingly integrated lyrics to unite the pair, who literally and metaphorically start off on different notes yet end up on the same note. Initially, Satine speaks prose words at odds with the poetic words Christian sings: Christian uses a famous line from the Beatles, “All you need is love,” to which Satine responds, without rhyme, “A girl has got to eat.” Satine then drops the prose and starts to sing in poetry, yet she continues to contradict him: Christian sings a line from Kiss, “You were made for loving me,” to which Satine responds, “The only way of loving me, baby, is to pay a lovely fee.” Note that although she contradicts Christian, she's entering into the way he's communicating. We can see that Satine is coming around to Christian's point of view when she contradicts him using lyrics from the same song he sings. Finally, she looks out into the night sky of Paris and initiates a new song: “Some people want to fill the world / With silly love songs.” Christine responds, “Well, what's wrong with that? / I'd like to know.” She thus starts a song which she knows to have an argument which starts off against love songs, yet which ends up in favour of them.
As they near the end of the medley, their interchange becomes more and more integrated. They sing in increasing unison the lyrics from David Bowie's “Heroes.” The lyrics are about living love “just for one day,” which is appropriate to the story, since Satine has a terminal illness and they won't have long to spend together. At the end of the medley they're singing the same words in harmony, Satine's higher voice floating above Christian's lower voice, highlighting the female-male opposites as well as the attraction of these opposites. They then sing Whitney Houston's line, “I can't help loving you” in three parts: Satine sings “I,” they both sing “can't stop loving,” and Christian sings “you.” The final lyrics they sing are from Elton's John's “Your Song,” which Christian sang earlier in the film to Satine the first time he expressed his love for her. At that time, she was moved, yet she didn't enter into a medley duet. Also, she was under the illusion she was conversing with a rich Duke. This time, she knows who Christian is, and she initiates the same Elton John song: she sings “How wonderful life is,” and he then completes the line by singing, “when you're in the world.”
The setting of the scene also unites the pair by creating a romantic atmosphere, which encourages intimacy and freedom. The lights of Paris (often referred to as 'the city of love') sparkle in the distance and the night-time setting suggests the couple’s intimate seclusion from society's notions about either high-class prostitutes or bohemian writers. Christian moves freely on top of the elephant that holds Satine’s bedroom, suggesting to Satine that they're free to do what they want. He demonstrates to her that no one can stop them when, after she yells for him to get down, he remains on the dome of the elephant’s head. Her life as a courtesan is beneath them, and for now they're close to the heavens and stars, breathing in the fresh air of the vast Paris sky surrounding them. The words, the music, the romance of Paris at night, combined with aspects of the setting such as the heart-shaped doorway that implodes into glittering fragments, all suggest that Christian's emotion will outweigh Satine's practicality in the end.
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Scratch Outline
All You Need is Love
The unity of their romantic world is created by the lyrics, which are increasingly integrated, and by the setting, which suggests intimacy and freedom.
Luhrmann uses increasingly integrated lyrics to unite the pair, who literally and metaphorically start off on different notes yet end up on the same note.
As they near the end of the medley, their interchange becomes more and more integrated.
The setting of the scene also unites the pair by creating a romantic atmosphere, which encourages intimacy and freedom. (83 words)
