Empuerto, Dayanara A.

III 14 AB/BSE Literature

POSTMODERNISM

Literary Criticism Prof. Jennie V. Jocson

The Spectacular in the Spectacle

At first glance, Moulin Rouge! looks like ones typical, old-fashioned musical. Set in the Bohemian district of Montmarte, France, we see a story of a woman pulled in opposite directions, one side by the wealthy and influential Duke and on the other, by a penniless writer (Luhrmann, 2001). The woman is beautiful, the Duke is cruel and sadistic, and the writer, handsome and enigmatic, and of course, the woman ends up with the writer. Clich, conventional at first glance, but no one will be able to use these words again after watching the movie. The film offers us postmodernism at its most entertaining. This paper will attempt to tease out tenets of postmodernism and their application to the musical, and unearth the brilliance of Baz Luhrmann as a truly postmodern artist. The film begins in the year 1900, where a depressed and dejected man named Christian sits in front of the typewriter to tell the story about him and the woman he loved, who is named Satine. From this first reference to time, we can see a unique postmodern feature, which is a poioumenon. Defined by Alistair Fowler, the poioumenon is calculated to offer opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and realitythe limits of narrative truth (Fowler, 1989). There is a certain confusion of time: Christian is writing the story in the present, and therefore most of the film is a flashback

to his life in the Moulin Rouge, but there are also flashbacks within the flashback (e.g. the moments when he thinks about his father). What sets Moulin Rouge! apart from other musicals is its usage of contemporary, popular music. The story is set in 1899, but the soundtrack is composed of songs created and popularized by artists like Elton John, Madonna, Nirvana, and the Queen. The mix of music can be described in postmodern terms as a pastiche, a mix of genres and styles in order to create something new. In this sense, the music with in the film conveys a huge postmodern idea, what Roland Barthes called the death of the author (Barthes, 1977). He suggested that To give a text an Author and assign a single, corresponding interpretation to it is to impose a limit on that text. The author is not in control of how his work will be understood and therefore the piece can have different messages or truths for different people. This echoes the key idea of postmodernism, it is a concept about multiple truths, opposing the singular truth of modernism and instead suggesting that each individual has their own truth or understanding of the world. The film does this by taking the songs out of their original style and playing with it to create new meaning. For example, Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit can be heard throughout the film. The band meant for the piece to represent a new grunge era in which the teenage generation could stand out as individuals (Cobain, 1994). The film takes this song and plays it as a dramatic melody to the Moulin Rouge! dance scenes. It is not exactly what Kurt Cobain intended, but the audience can interpret the song based

on their understanding, and the usage of the song in the film is how Luhrmann understood it. The setting in itself is a pastiche. The Montmarte district of Paris is a home to a variety of artists, dancers, singers, and of course, wealthy and thirsty patrons. It is a perfect domicile for the Bohemian revolution, and also a perfect setting for a postmodern creation. The film also possesses characteristics of not just one culture. It may be set in France, but there are a lot of scenes that is comparable to a Bollywood spectacle (e.g. the scene where Christian sings to Satine Elton Johns Your Song).

Indian -the spectacle -the performances

French
-the setting -the temperament

American -the music

Moulin Rouge!

Probably the most obvious postmodern technique in the film is metafiction, which is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection (Heginbotham, 2009) The film tells the story about a writer creating a story, Christian writing the story of his journey with Satine. Like a frame story, it started with Toulouse singing a song about a writer who taught him that The greatest thing youll ever learn is to love and be loved in return. Then the story shifted to Christian typing in the story about a play called Spectacular, Spectacular, and how the story led to another play about an evil maharajah and a penniless sitar player fighting over a courtesans heart.

Moulin Rouge! The story of Satine and Christian and the Bohemian revolution Spectacular, Spectacular

The tale of the evil maharajah, sitar player and the Indian courtesan.

The film has similarities to the most famous Shakespearean play of all time, Romeo and Juliet. These resemblances are a manifestation of the postmodern tenet intertextuality or the relationship between one text (a novel for example) and another or one text within the interwoven fabric of literary history. In both instances, the main characters first met at a party. Similarities of Romeo and Juliet and the Moulin Rouge! The main characters are star-crossed lovers, with a third party involved. Opposing forces are present, one is family feud, and the other is in business and theatre. There is death in the end.

Moulin Rouge! is a musical about romance and love, but in its heart, its far more than that. The film carries on its shoulders various postmodern notions that make it not just a simple audience delight but a formidable academic subject. It does not approach fragmentation as tragic, but instead celebrates it by using various forms of music in new context and by showing how different people with different talent can co-exist, live and learn together; giving us a brilliant example we can imbibe to this world.

Works Cited
Barthes, R. (1977). The Death of the Author. Cobain, K. (1994, January 27). Kurt Cobain, The Rolling Stone Interview: Success Doesn't Suck. (D. Fricke, Interviewer) Fowler, A. (1989). The History of English Literature, p. 372 . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Heginbotham, T. (2009). The Art of Artifice: Barth, Barthelme and the metafictional tradition (PDF). Luhrmann, B. (Director). (2001). Moulin Rouge! [Motion Picture].