How does Baz Lurhmann remind us that we are watching a movie?

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How does Baz Lurhmann remind us that we are watching a movie?

Moulin Rouge is described by Baz Luhrmann as audience participation cinema.  This means that the audience can get involved and that emotions are usually exaggerated.  This has the same idea as Bollywood movies, which is where he got his inspiration from.  This type of cinema is part of Baz Luhrmann’s trademark and he purposely makes films that are fantasy rather than the ideal Hollywood technique of reality.  He breaks the Hollywood rule, just as Satine breaks the rule and falls in love.  For example, in “Romeo and Juliet”, Luhrmann used the Shakespearean language to heighten the film.  In “Strictly Ballroom” he used dance to portray the emotions and story line.  In “Moulin Rouge” he uses the fact that everyone bursts into song and dance as the main distraction from reality.  Also he used music because you hear it on a different level than dialogue.  You can make any simple words effective just by adding music to it (for example Elton John – Your Song).  Baz Luhrmann uses these techniques: music, camera angles/editing, lighting, colour, costume/characterisation and set design to remind us that the film is meant to be viewed as a fantasy.

 

At the end of the 19th century in Paris many new technological advances had been made but there had also been an increase in alcohol abuse.  There were many alcoholics, prostitutes and overcrowded living conditions.  Tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases were spreading fast.  There was a demand for racetracks, circuses, operas, brothels, cabarets and balls.  Bohemians were very much involved with this.  They were all artists experimenting with different artistic genres.  It became a drug and alcoholic culture, with absinthe as one of the favourite beverages.

Montmartre became the centre of this new age.  The Moulin Rouge opened in October 1889 as a music hall owned and run by Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler.  It was a huge success.  “Moulin Rouge” portrays every aspect of Montmartre at that time, with almost every emotion possible.  For example love (between Satine and Christian), jealousy (Christian was jealous of the Duke), hate (between Christian and the Duke), anger (the Duke was angry at people “touching his things”), excitement (of the Moulin Rouge) and so on.

Music has to be the most important thing in the film that distracts the audience from reality.  The film begins with the tuning of instruments and then introduces the audience cheering.  This immediately gives you the sense that you are watching a play.  The 20th Century Fox music is played and then it goes straight into big dramatic, theatre-like music playing a medley of the Sound of Music, Roxanne and the Can Can.  This gives you all the emotions of the film right from the beginning.  The Sound of Music brings comedy and happiness, Roxanne brings you the dark side of the film and the Can Can brings you the excited parts.  Then the music stops and you hear Toulouse singing.  He has a lonely, sad voice and there are only some quiet violins in the background.  This makes the audience feel sad.  It is a massive contrast to the beginning already, which prepares the audience for a fast moving story-line and many different emotions and unexpected things are to happen.  His voice gets louder as he shows you to where Christian is and wind noises are added to make you feel like you are flying to where he is.  Although the song was not written about Christian it represents his theme. When he finishes singing the dramatic music is added again.  You see Christian typing and there is only a piano that occasionally plays a chord.  This gives you the feeling that he is sad.  Whenever you get flashes of inside the Moulin Rouge there is distant cheering.  As the film winds back you hear a distorted accordion which sounds like a piece of music being wound back and then you hear French singing when the film is being played forward.  This demonstrates that you have gone back in time.  When Christian mentions children of the age, a child’s tune is being played which sounds like it’s from a trinket box, which emphasizes his statement.  There are cartoon sounds when he begins typing which accentuates Christian’s father’s idea of him being silly going to write in Montmartre  

Circus music then introduces the Bohemians and stays with them while they introduce themselves.  You hear a lullaby when the narcoleptic Argentinean is sleeping.  The music so far complements what people are like and how they are feeling.  Christian goes into a sudden burst of song when he is on the ladder, which grabs everyone’s attention (including the characters’).  There is a break and then it carries on with a full orchestra, showing how great Christian’s talent is.  There is happy bouncy innocent sounding music until Christian talks about love and it suddenly goes very romantic and serious.  This confirms how tender a subject this is to him.  

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There is a sound like an explosion when they all drink the absinthe and the Green Fairy starts singing.  They join in and harmonize beautifully even though they look terribly drunk.  This gives you the impression that you are drunk with them and hear the singing as beautiful too.  Again the audience feels as though it is participating.  It is an upbeat version of the “Sound of Music”.  There is laughing and screaming as the fairy turns evil and she introduces you to the Moulin Rouge.

You go into the Moulin Rouge and the song “Voulez- vous coucher ...

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