Postmodernism: Brokeback Mountain and the Death of the Author: Moulin Rouge! 19/10/2011

Summary:

An extravagant visual and musical spectacle. Moulin Rouge! is an ode to Broadway and the grand musical era of Hollywood. Featuring unconventional mash-ups of modern pop songs and culture, which embody the key postmodern concept of Death of the Author.

Analysis:

“It's been called 'postmodernist' in the way it compacts numerous contrasting styles and disparate strands, in the manner of a garbage machine crushing everything it receives into a neat package.” (French, 2001)

“Everything about Moulin Rouge!, is in fact avowedly pointless except for spectacle itself. But the spectacle is dazzling... Still Moulin Rouge! Is a quintessential postmodernist film, epitomizing both Guy Debord’s notion of the “society of the spectacle” and Jameson’s view of postmodern culture as flat and superficial.” (Booker, 2007:60)

Booker, M. Keith. (2007) Postmodern Hollywood: what’s new in film and why it makes us feel strange Conneticut: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

French, P. (2001). Moulin Rouge! http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2001/sep/09/philipfrench1 (Accessed 18/10/11)

Release:

2001

Director:

Baz Luhrmann

Screenplay by:

Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce

Produced by:

Baz Luhrmann, Fred Baron, Martin Brown

Genre/subgenre:

Musical, Romance, Mash-up

Country:

Australia, United States, United Kingdom

Cast:

Ewen McGregor, Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, John Leguizamo, Jacek Koman, Caroline O’Connor

Selected Director Filmography:

Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia, The Great Gatsby (in production)

Related Films:

The Blues Brothers, Moulin Rouge (1952), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mamma Mia!, The Singing Detective TV series, Pennies from Heaven TV series, Across the Universe