The Greatest thing you’ll ever learn to love and be loved in return
Baz Luhrmann's film Moulin Rouge adapts the ancient Greek Orpheus myth to the context of early 19th century France. The film celebrates Bohemian ideals through reshaping the archetypal story of The Orpheus Myth to illustrate the importance of love through music. Within the classical context, freedom is achieved through music and through love, both of which offer the individual emancipation from the confines of a materialistic and hierarchical society as shown by Baz Lurhmann in Moulin Rouge.
A timeless ideal adopted within the Orpheus myth is the damsel needing rescuing; Satine in the
Moulin Rouge parallels Eurydice’s. Both characters are imprisoned in the underworld. In the Moulin Rouge Christian has the ability to bring Satine out of her cage through his selfless love which is conveyed through his voice. This is seen in the in Christian rendition of Elton John’s classic “Your Song” which appeals a modern audience. Christian captivates her with his music, his voice similarly in the Orpheus myth lit up Paris just as Orpheus was able to "stones on the earth with his music". He takes Satine's breath away as she drops her shoulders the red blanket fall from her shoulders covering her. Christian music uplifts her and takes her up onto cloud 9 the setting reflects the cliché of love, spinning in each other’s hand in the city of love taking her out of a place of incarceration and protecting her in the outside world symbolised through the pink umbrella. Similarly in The Orpheus Myth, the sounds of Orpheus’s music bring Eurydice out of her incarceration. Allow both damsels break social boundaries in order to seek freedom through love.
“El Tango de Roxanne” is a gripping scene contrasting love, performed by the Argentinean it is tango version of Sting and the Police’s “Roxanne”. The tango is a very passionate and sexual song at this point Christian and Satine are madly in