Wherever you go, whomever you meet, a love story will always follow. A love story is the most trite but also the most beautiful story. Have you ever heard the line, ‘The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.’? It is a famous line from the song ‘Nature Boy’ in the movie, Moulin Rouge. Moulin Rouge is a melodramatic romantic musical movie that was released in 2001 and then re-released in 2014. Many may not think that they know about Moulin Rouge but once you hear the popular soundtracks from the movie, they might feel familiar to you. Other songs from Moulin Rouge with popular lyrics include; "Gitchi gitchi ya ya da da" in ‘Lady Marmalade', and the Elephant Love Medley which includes portions of ‘All You Need Is Love / I Will Always Love You / I Was Made for Lovin' You’ and many other love songs. This great movie with its love songs, famous lines about love, and fantastic dancing has won critical acclaim. Now, let’s enter the fantasy of ’Moulin Rouge’.
Christian, the main male character, is sobbing while typing, ‘The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love, loved in return.’ What happened to him? Christian first came to Paris the year before, in 1899, longing to write about truth, beauty, freedom and love in the poor city. But he had never been in love. One day, he met a painter named Toulouse and his Bohemian friends who lived upstairs. They decided to make a play together and went to the Moulin Rouge, a famous dance hall in Paris to gain the attention of the Moulin Rouge’s manager, Zidler. However Christian sees and immediately falls in love with Satine, who is the ‘glittering diamond’ at Moulin Rouge. Unknown to Christian, Satine is a very beautiful and worldly courtesan. That day, a duke who is a sponsor of the show came to make Satine a real actress. However, Satine mistook Christian for the duke because of trick by Toulouse. She invited Christian to her room to tempt him into giving more support, but he only focused on singing and reciting poetry for her. She was immediately charmed by him but noticed that he was not the real duke but a writer. The real duke came into the room and nearly doubted Satines sincerity. Luckily Toulouse and his Bohemian friends’, who had been secretly watching through the windows, pretended to have prepared a play for the duke. In fact, they made the plot of the play on a whim in front of the duke. The duke liked the play and decided to invest in it. Later that night, Christian and Satine couldn’t sleep for thinking about each other. Christian visited Satine and sang the ‘Elephant Love Medley’ and finally they were sure of their love. However, the duke tried to monopolize Satine, instead of helping to remodel the Moulin Rouge. Meanwhile Christian and Satine were secretly making love on the excuse that they were practicing lines as a writer and an actress. Sadly they were caught by the duke and Zidler, but not before they made a love song called, ‘Come What May’. This song meant they were assured of their love. They also put this love song in the play. The play Spectacular Spectacular is a story about a beautiful courtesan from India who tries to tempt a neighbor's great king in order to rescue her country but to falls in love with a poor sitar musician by accident. The story was very similar to the relationship of Christian, Satine and the duke. So the duke ordered the end of the story be changed to a beautiful courtesan falling in love with the great king and omitting the love song. Satine spent time with the duke only because she wanted to keep the original ending. Christian’s extreme anxiety and jealousy is expressed in the song, ‘Roxanne’ and a tango dance. Christian and Satine couldn’t end their love, so they tried to give up everything in order to leave together. However, Zidler told her that she had pulmonary tuberculosis and if she didn’t break up with Christian, the duke would threaten him. Satine concentrated on practicing the play after inevitably saying goodbye to Christian. The day of the play, Christian told Satine that he would pay her for pretending to love him so far and left. But at that time, Toulouse cried out, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.” Satine sang their love song to Christian. Christian sang together with Satine, stepping toward Satine on the stage and the play was a complete success. After the play, Satine died. Shortly before her death, she told him, “Please write our story. Just promise me. Then, we can share forever.” Cristian finishes ‘The eternal love story’.
The twenties is a precious time of youth. It’s the perfect age in which to have a sincere and ardent love. I want to recommend Moulin Rouge to fellow students. Even though it's an old movie, the love story doesn’t follow the current trend. Moulin Rouge’s ending seems like a tragic love that doesn't allow them to be together, but it is an eternal love story. Through the story of the movie, you can find out the answer to the title, ‘What is the greatest thing while people live?’ It’s love. The power of love is incredible in the movie. Pure and sincere Christian changed Satine who had believed that she couldn’t fall in love. Moulin Rouge is an attractive movie because we can be fascinated not only by the love story but also by the Bohemian’s freedom and musical elements. Only people who have seen this movie will know that love makes the world beautiful.
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