{"id":3666,"date":"2005-09-28T17:25:27","date_gmt":"2005-09-28T21:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2021-09-12T10:59:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T14:59:39","slug":"moulin-rouge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3666","title":{"rendered":"Moulin Rouge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someday I’ll try to get my act together enough to write a full post about my primal response to Moulin Rouge<\/i>. I touched on it here<\/a>. I know I’m always saying this movie or that movie “changed my life”, and if that makes you roll your eyes (and I know that’s the case with some people out there) then this place REALLY isn’t for you. I am dramatic, yes, but I am honest. When I love things, I really really love them. This has been the case since I was a kid. I get swept away<\/i>. I am suggestible, not in a naive way, but in an open way. Things GET to me. I let them IN. And that’s what happened with Moulin Rouge<\/i>. With distance, my response to it seems a little bit confusing – I mean, the movie is fine, but it doesn’t warrant the response. I have never – and I mean NEVER – had such a response to a movie. I was in a bad bad way when I first came across it. 2002 was a suicidal year for me. And that film helped me keep going, helped me hang on. Literally. My poor roommate. She had to deal with me watching it once a day. I’d finish watching it, and then start it up again. This goes beyond watching<\/i>. It’s something else. <\/p>\n

My response to it was so powerful and irrational – beyond the intellect – that that’s why I haven’t really written about it yet. When one of the songs comes up on shuffle, I can feel that initial response in my body all over again. The throat-tightening sensation of hope … hope coming alive again … after disappointment … after giving up, really … The knowing inside that this too shall pass … knowing that life will go on … And even a heartache like THIS one will pass. Not go away. But will pass.<\/p>\n

I know the criticisms of the film. I agree with a lot of them. It’s a headache, it’s too flashy, too many quick cuts, some of the humor doesn’t work … But in the end, that doesn’t matter. My heart, my soul, responded to that movie, not my critical thinking brain. Moulin Rouge<\/i> helped me to hang on during a very very dark period.<\/p>\n

Wild, too, how the memory is so powerful, I still feel it in the soundtrack. So often when you have those primal first-impression responses to a piece of music, a book, a movie, whatever … it’s not sustained when you re-visit it years later. Whatever magic or power the piece originally had has faded with time. I am no longer in the place I was in in 2002, and so I no longer hold onto Moulin Rouge<\/i> as a life raft, but I can still feel the power in this story. Maybe the intensity of it all comes from it being a fable, and not realism. <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nI look at this promotional photo and I still feel it. I see such joy, such perfection<\/i>, how he’s looking at her and supporting her – she can rest easy, he’s got her. She is supported enough that she can fully allow herself to feel and express her joy. I see in it hope that love is possible. I know it’s crazy, but that’s what I see. Somehow, all of that is encapsulated in his face. I look at his face and I feel hope.<\/p>\n

Some things are just magic and you can’t explain why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someday I’ll try to get my act together enough to write a full post about my primal response to Moulin Rouge. I touched on it here. I know I’m always saying this movie or that movie “changed my life”, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[385],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170813,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/170813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}