The Red Curtain

(for a change of pace, since this is about media and not just politics, I'm realying a conversation I just had with my mother. Mom wrote that she had seen Moulin Rouge, recently, and that while she found it eyepopping it also seemed fantastical and grotesque. I decided to post my reply here because, well, I haven't talked about postmodernism in meida in a while).

I agree with all those statements regarding Moulin Rouge. I enjoyed it a lot for what it was--a postmodern musical take on the tragic French melodrama or the 19th Century. It was certainly fantastical and grotesque but so was a lot of French Melodrama. It's a genre that doesn't get a lot of revival or attention these days, so I found that part interesting. This sort of thing is what was going on onstage and offstage at the same time in the threatre (Think La Boheme and Camille) and I find that fascinating.

Luhrman is visually amazing, but he is probably the only flm directgor to come out of the high-concept postmodern theatre scene and make it. Wellm maybe that guy who directed American Beauty. Taken all together the three films in the Red Curtain Trilogy (this, Simply Ballroom and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) are great examples of postmodern cinema--extremely clever and witty, visually exciting, extrmely deep in terms of imagery and texture but not so deep otherwise. But more deep then the stuff from that other big postmodern director, Tim Burton (compare this to Burton's new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and you'll probably see a lot of similarities: though I think Luhrman's work is better).

You should have seen the La Boheme Luhrman directed on Broadway Wow! What an explosion of action and color, what a cool concept and an interesting modernization of the settings. That was fantastic!