There has been a high amount of criticism thrown ...

There has been a high amount of criticism thrown at Moulin Rouge’s hyper-kinetic editing style, but what most people seem to be unaware of is that several sequences in the film don’t adhere to the ‘Hollywood universal’ of continuity editing (this is, editing the film in such a way as to make the editing almost invisible) in favour of montage editing (editing the film in such a way that the editing becomes very obvious, and the graphic differences between the shots are highlighted (http://www.geocities.com/talentedprotegee/analysisframes.htm). When used effectively, as think it is in Moulin Rouge, this sort of editing is very good at demonstrating emotions and feelings, over the plot and individual characters. The whole film isn’t edited in this way, because in a narrative film this would be counter-productive, also frustrating for the audience, but there are two significant sequences that are done this way: the sequence from the time Christian first arrives at the Moulin Rouge to the time Satine appears; and the “El Tango de Roxanne” sequence. These two sequences are songs, which make the montage editing more understandable to the audience as this is the style in which music videos are edited, so we’re used to seeing it in the context of a song, or music video. (http://www.geocities.com/talentedprotegee/analysisframes.htm) this form of style which adheres to Baz Luhrmann’s characteristics, because he did the same technique in ‘Romeo and Juliet. He uses a device to direct the medium. In Moulin Rouge he uses song, as opposed to in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ he uses iambic pentameter.
Luhrmann (2001) maintained that a goal when making this film was to tell the audiences of today what the Moulin Rouge would have felt like to patrons in 1899; therefore we have an updated version of “Can-can” through ‘Fatboy Slim’, instead of the brass-band original; the extremely bright lighting to convey the feel of the first light bulbs; and the brightly coloured costumes that draw on the iconic fashions of the past hundred years. (Mogador, 2001, pp12). We also have the sequence edited in a consciously confusing, overwhelming way where snippets of all the different things happening all collide with each other attempt to convey to the audience what it must have felt like to be there. Also this story is being narrated to us by Christian who has just arrived in Montmartre, had his first taste of Absinthe, and been thrust into the world of the Moulin Rouge; completely overwhelmed, this is what it appears like to him. (This is also similar to the scene in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ where Romeo takes the drugs, then goes to the Capulet’s party, where he is completely overwhelmed by people and musical numbers.) (Luhrmann, 1996, 43minutes). This sequence does not advance the narrative in any significant way; it serves solely to introduce us to the underworld of the Moulin ...