Fuller & Moulin Rouge

I was always fascinated with the way modern music and cinematography blended together with the time period of Moulin Rouge. I think Baz Lurhmanm has a very distinct way of making his movies that is refreshing and easily recognizable due to its unusualness. I enjoyed reading Fuller’s interpretation of the music and lyrics in Moulin Rouge, particularly when he states:

             “it suggests that when multiple cinematic mini-myths- Julie Andrews singing ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music’, say- are montaged together in a new arena, their meanings change and they come to comprise an irreducible supermyth that’s a fount for future myths.”

This is particularly interesting because I now realize what was so intriguing to me about the music in Moulin Rouge- it was the familiarity of the songs placed in unfamiliar settings. It gave the songs new meanings based on the narrative of Moulin Rouge, and I think that takes the viewer out of their comfort zone a little bit. It keeps them attentive.

I also enjoyed the interview with Luhrmann because it gave me better insight on his intentions when making the film. He stated that Moulin Rouge did an archeological dig through the history of the musical, and that it was his intent to reinvent the musical in cinema. I think that he has succeeded in that because he has presented typical songs of popular culture in an atypical manner. The blending of time period is chaotic but interesting. My favorite quote was when he said that “the stories don’t change but the way you tell them does.”