"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return..."

"Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!" 

Moulin Rouge is one of the most prominent romance films in the industry, just like Casablanca. Both films are very similar, but I'll get to that. 

First, to discuss the film and the reading. In Diane Jeske's "Families, Friends, and Special Obligations" she says that we are more likely to do things for others that we choose on our own. We are more voluntary when it comes to favors our friends ask of us than we are our own family. When it comes to our family, it's more of an obligation than an actual favor, we feel as if we are supposed to do it for them rather than doing it because we actually want to. However, that's not saying we don't care for our family less than our friends, just that we don't get to choose our family, but we get to choose our friends. 

In respect to the movie, Christian goes against his family and continues to write, even though they tell him he's a fool for believing that anything will ever come of it, but he leaves anyway. He comes to a place that's known for its wild and exotic scene, the women are beautiful and willing, but there is one that is very well known that they call the "Sparkling Diamond." She's especially beautiful and the star of the Moulin Rouge, but she, as well as Christian, has never known love. She has only ever known the men wishing to bed her. Once Satine, aka the "Sparkling Diamond", and Christian meet there is an incredible and strong connection between them. They fall in love. However, there is an evil at play: The Duke. He has gained the deed to the Moulin Rouge and wants Satine's hand as well, because this is the only way that he will pay for it to become the most extravagant theater ever seen. So Satine and Christian must hide their love. They are willing to go to the greatest lengths just to hide their love. Which, in my opinion, relates closely to what Jeske is saying. It feels more natural for Christian and Satine to be together and to do whatever is necessary to keep it that way, no matter what the cost is to them.

Now, relating all of this back to Casablanca I can already see so many parallels. Ilsa and Rick fell in love in a time that they both weren’t looking for it, but needed it. However, they weren’t meant to be. Come to find out later, after the two fell apart many years earlier, Ilsa was married. But that didn’t stop them from loving each other. They just weren’t able to act on it like Christian and Satine. At the end of the movie, we see how much Rick really cares for Ilsa when he sends her and her husband away to America to avoid being captured by the Germans. I can safely say, in my opinion at least, that love is a strange but very strong thing, and I think Jeske captures that. We may love our families, but it will never be like the love we have for someone else.