'The Show Must Go On': Transgression and the Carnivalesque in 'Moulin Rouge!'

Ripe for critical re-evaluation after two decades, Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical is a whirlwind of excess, crafting a turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris that is both historically inspired and wildly fantastical: a fascinating study in what theorists such as Mikhail Bakhtin and Patrick Fuery have described as the 'carnivalesque'. In its celebration of bohemian counterculture and romantic love, however, the film treats the less privileged member of its central couple as little more than a catalyst for tragedy, as Adolfo Aranjuez discusses.

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Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, Richard Roxburgh, Jim Broadbent, Kylie Minogue, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Patrick Fuery, MTV, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Erik Satie, Charles Zidler, Orpheus, Vincent van Gogh