Moulin Rouge et Bleue: Color Tone and Use in Baz Luhrmann’s Classic
I wanted to make sure this week that I did something that was accessible to everyone. Streaming services are everywhere, and everyone usually has access to one account or another in some way or form. Since being home something I’ve enjoyed is being able to watch TV without having to log into it things being at least a little free (I’m at my parent’s mercy with the satellite bill here, but free-ish) is important. It’s how people get to see things that they maybe wouldn’t otherwise. It’s one of the reasons renting library DVDs is so fun for me. I’m discussing Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge this week because I’ve found it for free (with ads) on YouTube. I’ve even linked it here. I’ve always watched this movie when I’ve been able to find it. It’s a predictable plot with an insane concept that shouldn’t work, but does in the most outlandish and beautiful way. The fact that I’ve found it for free has just given me the ability to watch it and actually analyze this aspect I wouldn’t have thought of if it hadn’t been my easy turn on entertainment for the past week. Now, if you read the article and want to see what I’m talking about with the colors, it’s possible with no accounts, or praying you have DVR space, or happen upon it on some random time and channel.
I’m mostly focusing on two musical numbers where Luhrmann’s use of red and blue are in opposition. Both colors are all over the film. However the scenes with red warm lighting representing passion, or comfortable and lovely moments for the audience to focus on, versus say rather cold, sad, other-wordly or sinister moments being drenched in blue are the most noticeable in Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, and the El Tango De Roxanne.
Before we get to Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend, a precedent has been set with the way we see warmth and bright colors. When Christian meets Toulouse, and when Christian and the rest of the crew go to the Moulin Rouge for the Can-Can. We are inundated by a warm and bright color palette. Yes of course it’s an outlandish party where the audience is still unsure what to look at when, but it promotes the feeling of heat and passion. The energy of the scene gives the audience what they need, but that they’re still being taken care of by the storytellers of the film.
Now, the Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend number serves as a way to introduce a lot of characters quickly. Most importantly, it introduces Satine. When the lighting shifts to that cool cool bluish grey, and the sound of wind gusting up happens, it’s a shocking shift from what we’ve now become accustomed to for the Moulin Rouge environment. It could even go so far as cooling down and giving the audience chills when they get to see Satine for the first time, like Christian or the Duke may be going through. The other thing to notice with this shift is Satine is elevated above the dance floor. With this lighting choice, and her being above, the audience thinks ‘oh…she doesn’t belong here. She’s above it all, this shouldn’t be her world’. As you watch the film, you see that feeling of difference demonstrated throughout Satine’s character arc.
In El Tango de Roxanne, we have two scenes happening at the same time. Satine goes to see the duke in the gothic tower, absolutely drenched in blue. Unlike Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, it’s a much darker blue, like she’s doing something a lot more difficult and acting a lot more than she had to in Diamonds are a Girl’s Best friend. It continues the precedent of blue as an illusionary color for this world. It’s a place out of reach because it’s elevated, or it’s the deepest we go into despair.
Meanwhile at the Moulin Rouge everyone is gathered in a deep red room while dimly lit in the corners still gives us the feeling of home and comfort. These are the people we are supposed to be cheering for, and probably have been since this scene happens about 2/3 through the movie. It also sets up the heat and passion for the literally choreographed dance between passion and warmth and love against a cold hard profession, that leaves the people involved at best empty shells at worst, used up corpses.
Where we see these two colors in the strongest fight during the tango is when Christian walks out into the red lit street on the ground and we see Satine in another elevated blue space. She’s looking down into this red warm space where all her love and passion is, here home, and the illusion of her being able to love the duke is completely shattered. It makes the blue space even more sinister and chilling because it’s in this sterile and terrifying blue light we see Satine’s sexual assault , it’s where we see The Duke transformed into an actual villain, not simply a cuckolded man with a lot of money and jealousy, and we see Christian’s descent into madness as he goes back to his apartment. It’s a draining number that I think does a great job of pushing the audience into these hard feelings with the choices of these two colors being used to tell the story and convey the emotions as much as the actors show and convey.
If anyone wants just to whip this article out at parties to appear like one may know a lot more about color theory and its use in cinema and art in general, I won’t stop you. I wanted to talk about it so people would notice if they hadn’t looked for it, and I wanted to give everyone a chance to see it for themselves by linking the film above, and here as well.
