"We are told that in Chios men were rent in pieces as a sacrifice to Dionysus; and since they died the same as their god, it is reasonable to suppose that they personated him. The story that the Thracian Orpheus was similarly torn limb from limb by the Bacchanals seems to indicate that he too perished in the character of the god whose death he died."(The Golden Bough, 439-440)

Concerned as I am with Orpheus and the endurance of his myth, but mostly for the sake of my own petty pleasure, I thought I would do a blog here about the film Moulin Rouge(Baz Luhrmann, 2001) and how it stands as an adaptation of the Orphic story.

Luhrmann's movie is a story within a story(featuring a play within a play within the story within the story--a frame narrative!--) told by a poet with a genius gift for song, Christian(played by Ewan MacGregor). The way in which his creative power is expressed is through late 20th century pop/rock songs. The film's nominal setting is Paris at the beginning of the 20th century(a faint hint of the millennial, perhaps?). Shortsighted critics have complained about this being "unrealistic". They misunderstand--it is a unabashedly a created world, but a created world made accessible and immediate by the use of familiar songs.

The Eurydice to Christian's Orpheus is Satine(Nicole Kidman), chief courtesan at the Moulin Rouge nightclub, which serves as the Underworld(with Jim Broadbent's impresario Harold Zidler standing in as Hades). The tradition of Bohemian fin de siecle literature is acknowledged here as well--Dumas fils' La Dame Aux Camellias is a clear precursor, as are the films Camille and Children of Paradise--. As in the Greco-Roman story, our artist hero loses his true love to death, and is left to tell the story. And it is through telling the story that the immortality that the lovers couldn't achieve literally is reached anagogically. Art is the only form of lasting union that can be achieved("I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secrets of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita." Lightbulbs anyone?) This is an undeniable component of the Orpheus story; even if the greatest artist in the world is only human and cannot live forever, the beauty of their creation can. Or to quote the final lines of the film: "Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And then, one not so very special day, I went to my typewriter. I sat down, and I wrote our story. 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."

Maybe Kari is babbling on senselessly. But I still think that something is here of substance.