Shot Composition In Moulin Rouge

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Shot Composition in Moulin Rouge In 2001, Australian director Baz Luhrmann released Moulin Rouge! in a dramatic recreation of the musical genre. The movie was nominated and won several awards including three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards. The film was also selected by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2001. The film was a unique take on the musical genre, and used several unconventional techniques in the production of the movie. Luhrmann, influenced by the art of Toulouse-Lautrec, used his experience to create shots with distinctive movement, unique symmetrical composition, and intricate visual themes. Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) shows great artistic influence in its shot composition and content. A big influence in Luhrmann’s direction of the film was his studies of the art of painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This French painter, printmaker, and draftsman created several works focusing on the performances at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. These paintings often portrayed the club’s Can-Can dancers, male clientele, and various courtesans and performers. Baz Luhrmann studied these paintings and posters and used them as inspiration for the atmosphere and interior design of the Moulin Rouge in his film. This can especially be seen in Toulouse- Lautrec’s pieces At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance (1890), La Goulue Arriving at the Moulin Rouge with Two Women (1892), and At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing (1892). These paintings give insight to the interior of the Moulin Rouge around the time of the turn of the century. The pieces show a Moulin Rouge that is full of wealthy, well-dressed patrons and fun-loving performers with their faces covered in makeup. The similarities between the paintings and the Moulin Rouge as depicted in the film are easiest to see in the opening musical sequence when Christian first arrives at the Moulin Rouge
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