Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

*Sigh* I haven't been doing very much writing in the last week or so, despite feeling the urge. Why? Well, part of it is that I've been reading a lot more recently. (btw, Red Thunder by John Varley is pretty good. I enjoyed it, even if I felt it lacked some of the emotional weight that I usually enjoy so much in his writing.)

But the extra reading is only part of it. A lot of it, I think, is my dilemmas about what to work on. I don't have anything submitted at the moment, and I feel like I should, but they aren't ready.

My rational side looks at the situation and says: "Well, the reasonable thing would be to go ahead and put one more coat of polish on them, send them out, then work on the new stuff while you are waiting to hear back about the others."

"Yes," agrees my emotional, creative side, "that would be the reasonable thing. But I don't wanna! I want to work on the new stuff! That would be the fun thing."

Unfortunately, so far, the conflict has meant that I'm stuck in the middle. Thus, I'm not doing the reasonable thing or the fun thing! Not to mention all the crits I owe. Ugh!

Anyway, just as a sort of status update:
Short Stories:

• Disconnected - Needs dramatic revisions, but it's emotionally charged and personal, thus tough to work on.
  
• vmpire Laundry - Needs one more coat of polish and perhaps a few minor revisions.
  
• Pool Rules - Needs a little more polish at least, and potentially needs more revisions. Also, consider sending out just the rules as a flash piece?
  
• The Hunger - Maybe a few tiny tweaks, but essentially ready.
  
• The Oven (working title) - Unwritten, but partially outlined and percolating.

• Nina Kimberly the Merciless - One more good once-through draft, I think, to tighten and polish only. Note: too long for YA markets. Consider querying agents?
  
• Nina 2 - Unwritten, but partially outlined, lots of good ideas.
  
• Nina 3 - Unwritten, but have general plot idea.
  
• Call It A Gift - Chapter 1 is written, but may need a little more work before I go on. Or perhaps I should just forge ahead?

Okay then, it’s morning now, and I’m exhausted from being up too late. ^_^

Regardless, I’d like to return to the topic that I introduced last night.

To begin, allow me to spend a moment simply discussing what I love so much about Moulin Rouge, then I’ll address the issue of comparisons/competitions in a separate post.

Moulin Rouge is simply overflowing with style. Few movies are bold enough to be so up front, so insistent, largely because it makes any missteps all the more apparent, and it has the potential to turn a forgettable mediocrity into a laughable embarrassment. It takes courage to really stick your neck out on the line with such a dramatic, vivid, style. The sets, the costumes, the cut-cut-cut editing that usually I hate, but find perfectly appropriate here, the movie first knocks me off balance, then allows me to fall into its waiting arms.

From the very beginning, with its tiny, energetic conductor, Moulin Rouge lets you know that you aren’t in for a conventional film. Then, with frenetic cuts, hallucinations, loud music blending a dozen different songs into a lunatic tapestry, the movie casts a spell on me, and I sit watching with a huge grin on my face.

And I won’t spend too much time on the music here, but I found the blends of pop-music, so cheerfully anachronistic, to be a joy. Songs that I had heard on the radio, but never really listened to now had characters and context that I cared about, and it filled the previously trite (no offense to anyone here) romantic lyrics with a meaning that I had never seen there before.

Also, just as a brief note to those not already aware, there is a second volume of the soundtrack with more songs and the wonderful end-credits music on it. I highly recommend it to those of you who enjoyed the first volume.

For some, the first third of this movie is too much. So in-your-face that it becomes off-putting. *shrug* I can see that, I guess. To be sure, it’s a lot more that the general movie audience is used to. For me though, it almost perfectly mirrors Christian’s (Ewan McGregor) own first visit to the famous nightclub. It’s loud, confusing, a little scary, but also exiting, exhilarating and more than a little drugged-up. It’s a journey into a world he’s never seen before, and though it’s understandably disorienting, he is filled with the joy of discovery. His father warned him so strongly against this place that he is practically giddy at the prospect of finding out for himself. I love the energy in that first night at the club. I love how the rapid-fire cutting keeps me from getting a really good look at anything. There is so much to see, that to linger for more than a second on anything is to miss out on something else. I think it’s wonderful.

Then it progresses into a series of well-played misunderstandings, double-entendre's and slapstick. “It's quite long and I'd like you to be comfortable. It's quite modern what I do and it may feel a little strange at first, but I think, if you're open, then you might enjoy it.”

And of course, from there begins the love story. Even though she is essentially a prostitute, and even though it’s directly implied (but not shown,) that Satine (Nicole Kidman) and Christian sleep together, the love between them has a wonderfully innocent feel to it that I really enjoyed. So different from the oversexed sitcom romances that are so common on TV these days. The love-song medley is transcendent. I tell you this, up until that scene, I had been enjoying the movie a great deal, but when Christian sings: “We should be lovers, and that’s a fact!” the movie had finally solidified it’s grip on my heart. (Not to mention my total crush on Ewan McGregor.)

Then, inevitably, (we’re told in the first scene after all,) comes the tragic end.

***Spoiler Warning***




For me, it was made all the more tragic by their apparent success just before the end. I felt sure that the Duke, when trying to shoot Christian, was going to accidentally hit Satine instead. When Zidler punches him out and knocks the gun all the way to clink against the Eiffel Tower, I cheered. It seemed that love had indeed conquered all obstacles and that we were going to get a happy ending after all. Of course, I had forgotten about Satine’s illness.

During her final scene, my eyes begin to mist up, but it is after she dies, at Christian’s heartfelt cry of despair, that the tears really began to flow. That cry is not a macho actor faking out a couple of tears. It's not an angry scream disguised as sadness. It is the wordless, irrational, non-understanding despair of someone who, just when he felt the most happy he had ever been, now sees it all being taken away. It is despair. I saw this movie four times in the theater and cried every single time.

Just like classic tragedy, the characters were imperfect. Good, but with flaws that lead to their downfall. Satine’s history as a courtesan, Christian’s initial dishonesty (posing as a famous writer to impress her,) then both of them in hiding their love and lying to the duke. They were not perfect, and they paid a price, but the price by far surpassed what they deserved.

Of course, it is actually Satine’s illness that brings the tragic end, not the duke, but I believe the principle is the same. Call it fate, call it karma, call it God, (though I don’t believe God really works like this,) but Christian and Satine could not be allowed a happily ever after. However, they were allowed one perfect moment, and the forever reward of having known true love.

***End Spoilers***

I could go on and on. Did I mention that I like this movie? ^_^

But that’s essentially why Moulin Rouge is one of my all-time favorites.

Just as a point of ego, some of my other favorites include: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Amadeus, Never Cry Wolf, Casablanca, His Girl Friday, and Magnolia.

Maybe at some point, I’ll write about those too. If anyone has any interest.

*looks at watch* Gee, maybe I oughta get back to work...