Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur

3035571486
CLIT2007
Moulin Rouge! – one-page journal
I find the scenes from about 1:25:00 to 1:34:00 very interesting. Since in shorter than 10
minutes, Satine has a big character change that went from giving up the show and trying to
leave with Christian, back to “the show must go on”. It also starts and end with almost the
same shot, camera pushing into Christian’s window, and Satine entered his home.

After the scene with the “Roxanne” sequence where the Duke was trying to rape Satine,
Satine got help and went to find Christian. Satine told Christian she didn’t want to pretend to
love the Duke for the show anymore, but if she leaves with Christian, the show will end.
Then, to Satine’s surprise, Christian told her he doesn’t care about the show. At this moment,
the 180 degrees rule is broken after Christian said this, to show Satine’s shock, that now she
knows this man will give up his own work for her, and “the show doesn’t have to go on”,
they can just leave together. In this scene, not only the color tone is warmer and looks more
orange than the previous and following scene, but the camera is also circling around the two
actors, it’sd also a close up shot, perhaps to emphasis they were “in their own world”, and
Satine really felt Christian’s love and warmth towards her.

At the same time, the Duke was telling Harold he was planning to kill Christian. Duke’s face
is shot with a very low angle close up, to show his power, and the shot is also slightly tilted
(like a Dutch angle) and the Duke’s face is a bit covered in shadow to show his evilness. And
the music was also building up, until the Duke said he will have the boy killed, the music
became silent, to emphasis the seriousness of that line. At this moment, the Duke’s assassin,
appeared close to the camera, larger than anyone on the screen, moved out of the shadow,
visually telling the assassin’s power over anyone. This scene is also in colder color tones,
filled with blue, to tell the Duke and his assassin’s cold-heartedness.

Then, Harold went to tell Satine that the Duke will kill Christian if Satine doesn’t sleep with
him. Satine’s shocked reaction is emphasized with multiple cuts of close ups. The room has
warmer colors but it’s not brightly lit, because the situation is serious here. Satine argues with
Harold and wanted to leave, and then Harold told her she’s dying of tuberculosis. At this
moment, Satine is perfectly framed inside the door frame, signifying she’s trapped from the
brightness outside the door. Then the framerate is lowered for a while and there’re multiple
fade to blacks, showing Satine understanding there’s no way out, then it became a cold
colored close up shot of Satine, with blue color all on her face, she accepted her fate. Harold
then told her she must lie to Christian that she doesn’t love him and hurt him to save him
from the Duke. A bird cage is framed next to Satine’s face at this point, Satine is like a bird in
a cage, which totally reminds me of a scene from The Ashes of Time (1994) by Wong Kar
Wai.

Then, there’s a sequence singing “The Show Must Go On”, a song by Queen, which is about
Freddie Mercury must continue to perform even with his illness. The story here mirrors the
background of this song, Satine must perform and lie, to save the show and Christian, even
when she’s dying. There’s a shot of Satine singing, with multiple mirror reflections to signify
she needs to maintain her multiple identities, even though she said before she doesn’t want to
pretend anymore. And in her character arc, Satine said she wanted to be a “real actress” in the
beginning, ironically, the drama on stage was actually merged with her real life in the movie,
as if her life is a drama, and now she needs to act in her real life too, to save Christian. While
singing “The Show Must Go On”, Harold is shot from a very high angle, or framed inside
frames, intercutting with people preparing the drama stage, showing they’re “underworld
 Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur
3035571486
CLIT2007
Moulin Rouge! – one-page journal
creatures” that are small, tiny and trapped, and don’t deserve freedom, truth, beauty, and
love… the Bohemian beliefs.