Use Of Cinematic Verisimilitude In Hollywood Musical Moulin Rouge

The Hollywood musical is known to evoke a spirit, charisma, mystic and glamour of the American way of life. They are known to carry underlying messages with deeper meaning to life in an optimistic context like hope, hard work and motivation. These are fundamental characteristics of either a classical or revisionist Hollywood musical narrative. An integral part of the Hollywood musical is team work-a cohesiveness that comes with the charm and spirit of the Hollywood musical- i.e. the ability to breach social tensions; to bring people from different races, class to work together etc.

Moulin Rouge written and directed by Bez Lurham is a Hollywood musical that takes on a Bohemian revolutionary ideal of beauty, freedom, truth and love. The freedom to love and be loved back in return; which is a characteristic of the classical Hollywood musical narrative of a utopian life (an ideological construct of escapism i.e. the viewer is caught in a fantasy). We see and understand the story through the lens of the protagonist Christian and his undying love for Satin, the star of the Moulin Rouge. Through the film, the viewers do not only enjoy the formation of the onscreen community of singers and dancers working together. The viewers become part of that community.

This essay will discuss how the Hollywood musical Moulin Rouge uses cinematic verisimilitude, the appearance of reality including sound orchestration to maintain the relationship between audience and performers to achieve a sense of liveness, immediacy and presence. In theatres, it is the liveness of the stage musical that makes for a progressively quick and personal experience for the audience. By liveness we make reference to how it distances or removes the musical from the stage to a more realistic setting. In the film Moulin Rouge set in the late nineteenth century, we see Christian in the Moulin Rouge club with hopes to have a non-public audition with the “Diamond lady” Satin. The Moulin Rouge is well known for late night delight and desire.

The use of technology has contributed in creating liveness in theatre. We get a feeling of liveness inside the Moulin Rouge with the singing and move execution. The scene contains overstated execution with tasteful, dramatic cosmetics and outfits, and non-diegetic music i.e. the songs performed were pre-recorded and mimed by the onscreen characters-a characteristic of revisionist Hollywood musical-. One thing that is particular to the classic Hollywood narrative is the call to attention of the onscreen and offscreen audience. This is the director’s intention to give the offscreen viewer a more personal and immediate experience which we refer to as ‘breaking the fourth wall’. This is achieved when certain characters within the film look or sing directly to the camera. It gives for a near first-hand address like they would have in a live theatre performance. The club night life delight is led by the charismatic Harold Ziddler. In this scene, the moulin Rouge was decked as a 90’s gentleman’s club even though it is still a theatre, we see severally as Harrold Ziddler and the crew sing into the camera. One can almost tell that the offscreen audience is being invited to join in the action as they sing the hit song “here we are now”. This automatically shapes the viewers approach in relating to characters and plot in which they appear-the idea that medialization of live events is a means of making events respond to an audience desire for intimacy-. In this moment, the onscreen and offscreen audience are caught up in the energetic singing and dance performance, acrobatics, overhead swinging, and other daring stunts. We get an understanding from this with the help of first person POV camera movement (making reference to this will be when Harrold Ziddler hovers over the city back into the moulin rouge. Also, the lust and wonder that glows in Christians’ eyes as Satin and the crew dangles their shinny outfits in his face during their performance).

The viewers do not just enjoy these theatrical acts of a live audience community, but they become part of that community. Hence, it becomes a two-way thing i.e. the onscreen audience response in amazement is as a result of the performers engaging them with thrilling stunts, questions, random floor member participation in an act. The use of technology such as beautifully designed props, big lights, fans, fireworks etc. creates a sense of liveness in the minds of the viewers which the film captures brilliantly. Through these moments, the film Moulin Rouge was able to maintain intimacy, and connection between the audience and performers. The films construction have the potential to contest our motions of the boundaries of opera, and to invite us to engage with these limits in ways that may constitute a transition in the very terms of opera trademark emotional, immediacy, through a mediatized performance that ceases to try to evoke the metaphysics of presence (Elizabeth Hudson; Moulin Rouge! and the Boundaries of Opera, The Opera Quarterly, vol. 27, Issue 23, 1 September 2011, pages 256-282). Whilst the film Moulin Rouge takes on an opera like pattern, it also explores emotional and empathetic responses from the onscreen audience. The film does so by imploring an emotional identification or connection with the characters and their circumstances.

We can also say that the audience’s response in the film taps into the emotional states of the audience through the use of song and music which brings me to the use of sound orchestration to maintain communication between audience and performers. As mentioned earlier, Moulin Rouge takes on an opera like pattern. It incorporates an orchestral director in the opening scene of the film. This gives the audience a certain expectation that there will be the presence of a band to accompany and interpret certain gestures that will be seen in the stage performance through the use of non-diegetic music. A scene from the film to further buttress this will be the Bollywood stage performance. Just right in front of the audience we see a full orchestra as Christian walks down the aisle discouraged and disappointed at Satin. We notice that the orchestras tempo increases, and decreases based on the characters (Christian and Satins) emotional state. The presence of musicians on stage gives the onscreen audience a sense of authenticity to the music and the performance in general (Taylor, Millie. “Experiencing Live Musical Theatre Performance: La Cage Aux Folles and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Popular Entertainment Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, ser. 2010. novaojs.newcastle.edu.au/ojs/index.php/pes/article/view/11).

By their skillful playing and musical harmony, they already captivate the attention of the audience. The music more or less accompanies and interprets emotions, motion and possibly the intent of a character. It could be suspenseful, mystical or even romantic. The more reason it appeals to the emotions of the audience. The presence of the musicians on stage to accompany the live performance also creates an expectation for a surround sound experience-this produces an experience of co-presence at a unique moment, intimacy, cognitive empathy and emotional contagion that remains important in the continuing popularity of live musical theatre in entertainment.