“What’s the story?”

Summary

“…a story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But above all things, a story about love. A love that will live forever.”

Moulin Rouge is told to us in flashback by our hero, Christian, as he fulfills the promise he made to his dying lover to tell their story. When we first see Christian, he is sunk in despair over her death (“Nature Boy”) but he sits down at his typewriter to tell their story. It begins with Christian’s arrival in Paris, one year ago.

He has turned his back on the bourgeois existence of his father, and come to Paris to live in a garret and be a penniless writer, to write about truth, freedom, beauty, and that which he believes in above all else, love. But as he sits down to write, he realises that he has a problem common to many writers—a lack of inspiration. In other words, if he wants to write about love, he must first fall in love.

Fortunately, inspiration falls through his ceiling at that moment—no, not love, but rather an unconscious Argentinean (who will lead him to love, in a somewhat roundabout way). The narcoleptic Argentinean has come from Toulouse-Lautrec’s studio upstairs, where rehearsals are underway for a play for the Moulin Rouge—“something very modern, called ‘Spectacular Spectacular’”.

Christian is recruited to take the place of the unconscious Argentinean, and astounds the bohemians when he solves their artistic differences over the lyrics with some of his modern poetry—none other than “The Sound of Music”. Thanks to his lyrical genius, he becomes the new writer of the show, and is taken off the Moulin Rouge where, in order to get the job, he must win over Satine, the star, and Zidler the owner, with his modern poetry.

At the Moulin Rouge, however, he is mistaken by Satine for the wealthy Duke whom she must convince to invest in the show that will at last make her a real actress. He immediately falls in love with her during her number (“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”) and their brief dance together, and a meeting is set up for a ‘poetry reading’ later that night. Satine has a dark secret, however—as she makes her exit she faints, falling off her trapeze, and backstage we see her coughing blood into a handkerchief.

She keeps her rendezvous with the ‘duke’, meeting Christian in her boudoir, a red room in the belly of a giant elephant. While Christian attempts to astound her with his modern poetry, she tries her best to seduce him so he’ll invest in the show, until finally Christian breaks into “Your Song”, and sweeps her off her feet and into the stars in the night sky above Paris.

After Satine professes her love to him, the bubble is burst when she finds out that he is not a duke, but a poor writer—and at that precise moment the real Duke turns up. While Christian tries to stay out of the way, Satine seduces the Duke with a reprise of “Your Song”, and before she manages to get rid of him, he has fallen in love with her.

After the Duke leaves, Satine faints in Christian’s arms, and when the Duke returns for his hat he finds them in a rather compromising position. Satine, with the help of the bohemians who had been spying on the goings-on, manages to convince him that Christian is just the writer, there for an emergency rehearsal. Zidler returns to check up on things, and together they successfully pitch their show to the Duke, managing, with an elaborate song-and-dance (“The Pitch”), to hide the fact that they’re making it up on the spot. In fact, the story of “Spectacular Spectacular”, as conceived by Christian, is a mirror to the love triangle between him, Satine, and the Duke, only transferred to India, and taking place between a Hindu courtesan, a penniless sitar player, and an evil maharajah.

Later that night, while Christian is trying to write the show, he can’t stop thinking about Satine—and Satine, alone in the elephant, can’t stop thinking about Christian—but, she reminds herself that she can’t let herself fall in love because it would get in the way of her dream, that “One Day I’ll Fly Away”. Christian climbs up the elephant to ask her if she meant it when she said she loved him, and when she responds that she’s a courtesan, and so she can’t fall in love with anyone, he is appalled. With the help of some wonderfully sappy love songs (“Elephant Love Medley”), he soon convinces her that she can, and should, fall in love with him, and they share their first kiss.

It seems the Duke has more business sense than it seemed at first, however, for he insists Zidler sign a contract that promises Satine to him exclusively, with the deeds to the Moulin Rouge as security against her infidelity. With no choice, Zidler agrees, and preparations for the show commence.

Christian and Satine begin their love affair in secret while the Duke tries to woo Satine with a supper in the Gothic Tower—rather unfortunately for him, however, she is always far too busy working on the play with the young writer. The Duke finally reaches the end of his tether, and threatens Zidler, saying he’ll walk out unless Satine has supper with him that night. When Zidler goes to confront Satine, he discovers her and Christian kissing behind a pillar and tells her that she must end the affair and have supper with the Duke that night.

After Zidler leaves, Satine thinks of her love for Christian (“Gorecki”), but she is then seized with a coughing fit and faints, with the result that she keeps her appointment with neither the Duke nor Christian that night. Zidler manages to convince the Duke not to leave with the lie that Satine is at confession because he makes her feel “Like a Virgin”, but Christian begins to feel the first stabs of jealousy. Later that night the doctor reveals to Zidler that Satine is dying, but Zidler, desperate for the show to go on, keeps this from Satine.

The next day, Satine tries to end things with Christian, but he convinces her to stay by writing them a secret song that they can sing whenever things get really bad to know they love each other, “Come What May”. He writes this secret song into “Spectacular Spectacular” as well, and while they are rehearsing it, Nini, a dancer jealous of Satine’s success, points out to the Duke the similarities between the plot of the play and the situation in real life. When the Duke demands to know why the show can’t end with the Hindu courtesan choosing the maharajah, Christian can’t stop himself from yelling out, “Because she doesn’t love you!” confirming the Duke’s suspicions. Satine manages to save things by seductively suggesting that she and the Duke have the long-delayed supper in the Gothic Tower, and this time, despite Christian’s objections, she keeps the appointment.

While Satine goes to the Duke, the others have nothing to do but wait in the dance hall downstairs, and the tension builds. The Argentinean breaks into a dance “from the brothels of Buenos Aires”, “El Tango de Roxanne”, a dramatic parallel to what is happening upstairs between Satine and the Duke, and Christian.

Christian leaves the dance hall, and Satine, on the balcony of the tower with the Duke, looks down and sees him in the garden. Seeing him there breaks her resolve to go through with it with the Duke, and she refuses him. The Duke then looks down and sees Christian, and his worst suspicions are confirmed. He has reached the breaking point, and finally erupts in a jealous rage, determined to have Satine as his once and for all. As the tango downstairs reaches its climax, Chocolat, a clown from the Moulin Rouge bursts in to save Satine, knocking the Duke out cold.

Satine runs to Christian’s garret, and they resolve to leave that night. But when Satine goes to pack her things, Zidler is waiting for her, with a message from the Duke—if the show doesn’t end his way, and Satine doesn’t sleep with him on opening night, he’ll have Christian killed. Satine is still determined to leave, and she is almost out the door when Zidler stops her with “You’re dying”. She is trapped now, and realises that she was “A Fool to Believe”; Zidler convinces her that the only way to save Christian is to convince him that she doesn’t love him.

“The Show Must Go On”, so Satine goes to Christian, and in a magnificent performance manages to do just that, leaving Christian hurt and confused. Toulouse sensing that something is wrong and that Satine still loves Christian, tries to console Christian, but only succeeds in filling him with doubt.

Christian, desperate to know if Satine truly loves him or not comes up with a plan: he will pawn his typewriter and use the money to pay Satine. If she refuses, it will mean that she really loves him, but if she accepts it will mean that she was only acting all along.

He sneaks into the Moulin Rouge, where the first performance of “Spectacular Spectacular” is taking place, but is immediately spotted by the Duke’s manservant, Warner, who goes to tell Zidler. Toulouse overhears their conversation, and suddenly everything becomes clear. While Toulouse tries to find Christian to warn him, Warner is trying to find Christian to kill him, and all the while the play is continuing on the stage, where the Hindu courtesan accepts a diamond necklace from the evil maharaja (“Hindi Sad Diamonds”).

Christian attempts to disguise himself in the Argentinean’s penniless sitar player’s costume, and desperately chases after Satine backstage, trying to get her to accept the money, while Satine desperately tries to get him to leave so he won’t be killed. Just as Warner is about to shoot him, the doors open and Christian and Satine find themselves onstage.

Zidler, playing the evil maharajah, attempts to keep the show going by pretending Christian is the penniless sitar player in disguise, as Christian finds himself acting out for real the scene he had written for the play. “Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love,” he says, throwing the money at Satine’s feet and walking down the aisle out of the Moulin Rouge. Satine, still trying to save him, can do nothing.

But just as the penniless poet is about to leave the kingdom forever, Toulouse, the magical sitar who can only speak the truth, remembers his line: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” Christian pauses but doesn’t turn around; Satine, however, suddenly realises just what it is that she is doing, and starts to sing “Come What May”. This does bring Christian back, and the two lovers are reunited in a joyful finale onstage, a “Coup D’Etat”. The Duke makes one last desperate attempt to have the show end his way, but Zidler punches him, sending the gun flying out the window.

The curtain falls on a happy ending onstage, but backstage another ending is unfolding. Satine is seized by a coughing fit, and dies in Christian’s arms. With her dying breath, she makes him promise to go on and tell their story so she can always be with him.

It takes Christian months to find the strength, but one day he sits down at his typewriter and writes their story, the one we have just witnessed.

This story is about truth, beauty, freedom, but above all, love...This story is about truth, beauty, freedom, but above all, love…