Soooo…let’s talk about that wonderful, painful, horrible, uplifting and life-affirming feeling. Love. It’s awful. But it’s also the best possible magic we can ever experience in our lifetime. For anyone out there who has experienced it, or wanted it, or almost had it…Moulin Rouge is your movie. It’s certainly my kind of movie. I’ll never forget after watching it I remember thinking, “this is what love looks like”, and I didn’t really know what I meant at the time. Because if we think about it, how often do we SEE a feeling? A feeling is something that’s personal and individual and relative and…yours. It’s entirely unique. But when I saw Moulin Rouge, man, it really felt like…this is what love should always look like and feel like - all of it. From the excitement of the newness, to the challenges of jealousy, to the just awful experience of losing it…and then finding it again…especially with the one person you’ve been wanting to experience it with.
The problem with this video series is that I can only show one scene. The whole idea here is “THIS scene…”, so I had to figure out which scene from Moulin Rouge to present and break down. I was very close to showing the final scene - the Come What May ending, which I just absolutely adore because of how big and confrontational and magical and epic and even character-defining it is. That’s the whole point of a movie ending - to show our characters finally doing something that they have always been too scared to do. What’s so special about Moulin Rouge, at least from a screenwriting standpoint, is how Ewan McGregor’s character doesn’t technically change throughout the story. He goes through major challenges, of course, but it’s all rooted in him believing in one thing - believing in it so much and being so steadfast in that belief. He believed in love and that the one person he DID actually love, deserved it even more than he did. So really the character that goes through the change and evolution in Moulin Rouge is Nicole Kidman’s character. And yeah, you can argue that because at the end Ewan’s character gives in to failure and gives into his darkest fear - giving up on love and allowing Nicole’s character to “win”, so-called (and I’m highly summarizing…you should really just watch the movie again)…but yeah, he gave in to giving upon the end which does show that he changes, BUT it was Nicole’s character who needed the experience of being loved - the right way, the true and genuine way - in order to evolve and change.
So THIS scene that I’ll be showing…and yeah we’re finally getting there, is the scene where Ewan McGregor comes to Nicole Kidman’s character for one of the first times - she’s a showgirl (to put it lightly - we all know what her character actually did to make a living)…but Ewan is completely himself in this moment, and Nicole is completely herself in this moment, but from the perspective of being entrenched in who they are, again…completely. Nicole’s character had never experienced anyone genuine before, much less anyone who could love her for her, and because of who Ewan’s character is - a truthful, relatively meek but genuine person - her eyes and heart open to what might be possible. By the end of the scene, which sadly isn’t in this edit, she admits, “I can’t believe it. I’m in love.”She literally says “I can’t believe it”. So it’s another reminder for you writers out there - BELIEF belief belief…it’s so important for every character you develop. And so Moulin Rouge is very much the kind of story that presents a main character who changes everyone else around him. It’s the Forrest Gump affect, if you will.
Without Ewan McGregor’s character coming into the lives of all of the people in this story, everything would have remained the same. He isn’t thinking this. He isn’t coming into this thinking he is going to change the world or make everyone better, to say the least, he’s technically not even TRYING to. He just and very simply believes in love…and he sees it in Nicole’s character, and it’s the first time anyone has ever seen her that way. So…this scene is what launches us, the audience, and therefore the characters, into the adventure of what love feels like, of what it can do, and what it looks like. This is what I always think about when love is referenced - either when I feel it or if I know someone else does. Love is supposed to look and feel like this, and not only on screen. So…this scene…from Moulin Rouge. Let me know what you think - about this scene, this song, or even about love. Enjoy.
—Max Timm and The Story Farm
This Scene...from Moulin Rouge