Perspectives | Why Is "Moulin Rouge!" Postmodern

"Moulin Rouge!" Poster

Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 Australian–American jukebox musical, romantic, comedy film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It tells the story of a young English poet/writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine. However, why this film is postmodern?

1. Pastiche - The pastiche consists of several sceneries copied/referenced from several famous movies. The scene with Christian standing in front of the Moulin Rouge yelling: “SATINE!!!” is a direct reference from the “STELLA!!!” scene from the movie “Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) or when Christian came up with the lyrics at the start of the movie: “the hills are alive with the sound of music” comes directly from the film “The Sound of Music” (1965) and several others. Only to mention a few reference movies: “Aladdin”, “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Peter Pan” etc.

2. Mash-up - Director of the drama-musical “Moulin Rouge!”, Baz Luhrmann, utilizes various well-known songs breaks them down and mixes them together. All the songs in the movie are basically mash ups of different songs and therefore allow the movie of not getting into trouble using copyrighted music.

3. Hyper-reality - The world that “Moulin Rouge” endeavors to create strains its credibility that under normal circumstances it would seem to be too phony. Not only the scene with the little fairy (“Tinker Bell”) appearing and Zidler flying around the Moulin Rouge singing with joy, but also when Christian and Satine start dancing in the clouds makes the audience question the story’s reality. However, Baz Luhrmann’s very inventive way of beginning the story makes the audience right from the start that this movie is hyper reality.

4. Non-linear narrative - The way this story is told is similar to a more modern title “The Great Gatsby”: A person who was involved in the past events is telling the audience the story he/she witnessed. Therefore the protagonist Christian who fell in love with Satine and whom the story is evolved around is retelling his past. The movie starts off with Christian in the future who is about to write and retell the story. Throughout the film the scene is constantly changing between the future Christian and the past Christian which indicates with the addition of the flashbacks in his narrating a narrative without chronological order.

5. Mix of Style - The play “Spectacular, spectacular” is supposedly set in the distant past in India, but the costumes are a cross over between ancient India and an elaborate Bollywood performance. To top it off the song they are performing is a mix between Bollywood pop also known as “Indian-pop” and the famous song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”, sung by Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.  Not only this scene but also various other performance scenes are consciously and openly draws on a number of different cultural references and mixing them creating an entirely separate piece. This postmodernist style is further represented by the fact that the performance occurs on a stage. Traditionally a theatre performance is a form of high art, but in this case a mix of several styles, genres and cultures occur.