Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today I want to talk about a movie that I have loved with all my heart since it first burst onto the silver screen in the summer of 2001, Moulin Rouge!
Though not expressly Steampunk, this story takes place during the late Victorian era and is rife with anachronisms: two main components of the steampunk genre. This movie is truly a study in juxtaposition: comedy and tragedy, camp and drama, fantasy and reality, modern and historical.
Created by Baz Luhrmann of Romeo + Juliet fame, this film tackles love and loss amidst an anachronistic medley of pop songs sung by the incomparable Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.
It was Paris in the summer of ‘99— 1899. The Bohemian Revolution was just beginning. This subculture arose out of a desire to spurn society’s conventional norms and expectations. Even as a queer teen living 100 years later, this message spoke to me on a deep, personal level.
Like Steampunk, the Bohemian subculture is rooted in anti-establishment literature, art, and music. With a focus on the idealization of creating art rather than earning income, this parallels the steampunk ideals of craft and invention versus mass production. Thus, with the ‘starving artist’ trope becoming front and center, our two love interests meet amidst creative pursuits born from abject poverty.
Christian, having turned his back on his father’s religious zealotry, arrives in Paris as a penniless poet with nothing but a typewriter and a dream. Satine, a sex worker who dreams of acting on the stage, mistakes him for a potential investor and tries to seduce him. Let the bohemian shenanigans begin!
Our endearing bohemians espouse four ultimate ideals: Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love.
This will come into direct opposition with the materialistic world of the Duke, Satine’s possessive investor. The ultimate conflict centers around the choice between sacrificing some of your values to achieve your dreams, or giving up on your dreams to live a life adhering to your core values.
What makes this film stand the test of time is not just the incredible performances, award-winning costuming, or ingenious cinematography. It’s the notion of sacrificing everything for your art, up to and including your very life, while experiencing that all-encompassing first love in the process. Immersing oneself entirely in artistic expression is one of the most human things we can do.
And so, 25 years later, I ask you: “Does anybody know what we are living for?”
With Love,
Avery
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