Moulin Rouge is, without a doubt, a love story. Jeske's essay, "Families, Friends, and Special Obligations" is about how people have certain, special obligations to family. While they aren't her actual family, Satine definitely has an obligation to Moulin Rouge. She learns that her love - or as she calls it, infatuation - to Christian could cost everyone the investment the Duke made in them. This could be catastrophic as this is literally how they make money and keep off the streets.
Satine herself even resists Christian's love at first. She tells him, "a girl's gotta eat" when he insists love is the most important thing in the world. This brings up the question of what obligations do we owe ourselves? Sure love is powerful and important and wonderful... if you can afford it. Satine's love for Christian potentially interfere's with her job. The Duke's affections for her only complicate things. Suddenly she needs to pretend she doesn't love Christian at all, and she's willing to do this to keep him safe, without a thought to her own well-being.
Another thing I found interesting was Harold Zidler's decision to not tell Satine exactly what illness she has. He says, "The show must go on." It made me wonder whether he's doing this for her or for his company, his show. Obviously if the Duke found out, he'd likely leave them all in the dust. However, as long as Satine and the others didn't tell him, he wouldn't know until it's too late. So, why did Zidler not want to tell Satine? To me, it seems like he did it to protect her. It feels like he's more fond of her than he lets on. Sure, he's very interested in making money. But he and Satine are still very close. So, maybe he thinks his obligation to her is to protect her from the fear of dying.
As a final note, I've never seen this movie and had no idea what to expect. I fucking love it. Bye.
Rachel, I really like that you related the Moulin Rouge to family obligations. I think when you work with people so closely like they do at the Moulin Rouge, you absolutely can feel like family. However, like Jeske addresses even this family does not have voluntary obligations. They still did not choose one another but they do have the obligation to work together to keep the Moulin Rouge open.
ReplyDeleteI love the connection you make between ZIddler and the Moulin Rouge and family! When I watched this movie, I more so thought of Saline's special obligations as being to her life and her career goals. I never considered the fact that the employees at the Moulin Rouge almost substituted for her family. While her goal in life is to become an actress, she also cares for the people she works with and wants their wellbeing as well, which makes her love for Christian that much harder to give into. I think your post very much relates to the Jeske reading, as it displays Jeske's point of feeling obligated to certain people, due to the relationship a person has with them! This is something that was harder for me to pick out when I watched the movie.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most confusing aspects about this movie was the relationship between Harold and Satine. He really does come off as a pseudo-father figure to her and he seems to be trying to find a balance between his obligation to her as his favorite "sparkling diamond" and to the Moulin Rouge and everyone who works there as a whole. As I read your post I started to think about his motivation for hiding the dire nature of her illness from her. I think it might have been because he wanted her to fulfill her long time dream of becoming a famous actress before she died.
ReplyDeleteI'm so so so excited that you loved this movie! It is one of my all time favorites. When I wrote my post I was thinking more along the lines of Christian and Satine rather that the obligations that Satine and Harold have to each other. You can see that they're really close with one another. I think the best scene that represents that is the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" while Zidler and Satine are changing in the middle. He's telling her about the possible benefactor that could lead to her becoming, in her words, "a real actress." Zidler wants Satine to have her dream come true. He's seen her become a star at the Moulin Rouge and he believes that she can do it, he's even helping her accomplish that! I can tell that he has a place in his heart for his "Sparkling Diamond" and always will.
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