August 28, 2008
Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann
After our class discussion on the idea of power and relating it to the ever told stories of the hero, Christianity, and American supremacy, I thought about the hero story in particular when reflecting on the Moulin Rouge. It was brought up in class how women in relation to the hero stories had been stripped of any sort of power and remained only as the maiden in distress. Well, in Moulin Rouge I saw femininity being used in a completely opposite way. Without the presence of women in Moulin Rouge, the place wouldn‘t be the hot spot that it was, and in the same manner the place wouldn’t be what it was without the male crowd it drew. The women used their costumes and bodily movements to gain all of the power in the place such as in the beginning of the movie when the women were flailing their skirts around and the men were just throwing themselves at their feet, offering them money and jewelry. While I would never condone the way in which these women gained their power in their society, nonetheless that was how they earned their positions. The downfall however is that to gain that power they gave up their freedom in terms of having the ability to love. There was a part in the movie where Ziegler says, “ We are creatures of the underworld, we can’t afford love.” So basically it became a win loose situation, but I would choose love over power any day, and ultimately so did Satine.
Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann
After our class discussion on the idea of power and relating it to the ever told stories of the hero, Christianity, and American supremacy, I thought about the hero story in particular when reflecting on the Moulin Rouge. It was brought up in class how women in relation to the hero stories had been stripped of any sort of power and remained only as the maiden in distress. Well, in Moulin Rouge I saw femininity being used in a completely opposite way. Without the presence of women in Moulin Rouge, the place wouldn‘t be the hot spot that it was, and in the same manner the place wouldn’t be what it was without the male crowd it drew. The women used their costumes and bodily movements to gain all of the power in the place such as in the beginning of the movie when the women were flailing their skirts around and the men were just throwing themselves at their feet, offering them money and jewelry. While I would never condone the way in which these women gained their power in their society, nonetheless that was how they earned their positions. The downfall however is that to gain that power they gave up their freedom in terms of having the ability to love. There was a part in the movie where Ziegler says, “ We are creatures of the underworld, we can’t afford love.” So basically it became a win loose situation, but I would choose love over power any day, and ultimately so did Satine.
1 comment:
Excellent, Melanie! Paul
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