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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:

Related Films:

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