Moulin Rouge captures the essence of love

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2003)

'Moulin Rouge' illustrates that one of the most important things in life is to love and be loved. The movie is about a young man, Christian (Ewan McGregor) who travels to Paris to write about love. Soon there after, he meets the beautiful courtesan, Satine (Nicole Kidman). In a very Romeo and Juliet-like moment, they fall in love, but are pulled apart by outside forces. Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent), owner of the 'Moulin Rouge', tells Satine to make the Duke (Richard Roxburgh) believe she loves him so he'll invest in the 'Moulin Rouge'. She tries to play both sides, but of course it catches up to her and she's forced to make a choice. 'Moulin Rouge' is directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann ('Romeo + Juliet') and he does anything but hold back on his creative style of filmmaking.
In any movie, color plays a role in how a movie is detailed. In 'Moulin Rouge' certain colors stand out and seem to play their own part in the movie. The color red traditionally symbolizes love and death. The use of the color in this film is emphasizing the search of love for both Christian and Satine. It also foreshadows the inevitable death of Satine. Red is the first color the audience sees, when the curtain rises, and also the last color the audience sees, when the curtain closes. Throughout the movie, red is used elaborately in costumes and setting. The décor in both the elephant dressing room and the Moulin Rouge is mostly red and the majority of the costumes are red or red tone. Even the title, when translated, means red windmill.
Probably the strongest thematic element would be the music. 'Moulin Rouge' is a musical, telling the story through music and dialogue. The use of music is unique in that only one song (`Come What May') is an original song specifically for 'Moulin Rouge'. Songs such as `Your Song', the various songs from `The Elephant Medley', `Come What May', and `Roxanne' all reflect the theme of love.
There are many movies that try to capture the essence of love. Some succeed, some fail. 'Moulin Rouge' has definitely succeeded. Throughout the movie, the bohemian's belief in truth, freedom, beauty, and love is echoed constantly from the beginning with Christian to the bohemians reciting the line in a song at the end. As they say in the movie, the greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.