The Christ Figure in “Moulin Rouge!”

Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge! is a lush and frenetic jukebox musical set in 1899 Paris. It follows a naive young writer’s move to the Montmartre Village to pursue the Bohemian ideals of freedom, beauty, truth, and love. He discovers loyal friends, inspiring opportunities, an intimidating adversary, and the love of his life.

Whether Luhrmann intended it or not, a comparison between the protagonist and the Jesus Christ of Christian theology is virtually inescapable.

The writer is named Christian (a choice that may suggest Christological intentionality on Luhrmann’s part). Christian abandons the security of his respectable upbringing to live among “creatures of the underworld.” [1] He goes there in order to write, to create, to contribute to freedom, beauty, truth, and most of all love. His father criticizes his foolishness, but Christian still ventures into the darkness, abandoning his claim to security and family honour.

In Christian theology, Jesus Christ “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” [2] The theological term kenosis is named after the Greek word for “emptied” and indicates the self-emptying that Christ voluntarily experienced. [3] Just as Christian descended into impoverished obscurity, Christ descended from the splendour of heaven to be human with his creatures. His compassionate condescension was to enable reconciling his wayward people to his Heavenly Father, freeing them from their bondage to Sin and Death, and restoring them to the honour, splendour, and integrity for which he had created them: freedom, beauty, truth, and love. [4]

The scorn of Christian’s father carries another parallel to Jesus Christ. Christian traded the expectations and patterns of his natural father for those of a different live-giving framework. He finds the Bohemian ideals more compelling than the even-headedness and bland security of his natural, physical father. Similarly, Christ lived as a true human, inheriting all the weakness and heritage of the human race but chose to reject the path of sin laid by “the first Adam.” Instead he lived in the pattern of a higher ideal, that of his Heavenly Father. This impeccable commitment to the righteousness of God qualified the perfect, human Jesus to make atonement for all mankind and re-create humanity: “the second Adam.” [5]

When Christian first meets the love of his life, it is the most unlikely romance. Satine, a can-can dancer and highly coveted escort, is “The Sparkling Diamond” of the Moulin Rouge. [6] She is the epitome of luxurious harlotry and the main object of the patrons’ base desires. She craves legitimacy and freedom but sells herself with abandon in order to save herself. She is like Israel, Yahewh's chosen nation whom Christ pursues. [7] Just as Satine longs for freedom and beauty, so too are Israel and the nations created for freedom from bondage and reflecting the compassion and virile splendour of their Creator. [8] Further, just as Satine is blind to the truth that she is meant for love, so to are Israel and the nations turned in upon themselves, blinded by the lies that self-reliance is more profitable than the love and faithfulness of their Creator God. [9]

In Moulin Rouge!, Christian’s main adversary is The Duke, an investor who develops a lurid obsession with Satine. He promises riches and security for the whole Moulin Rouge company in exchange for having her for himself. As the story progresses, even Satine’s love for Christian is threatened by her fear of destitution and indecision about succumbing to The Duke.

In the gospel story, humanity is seduced by mammon, strength of our own making, and the power of Sin that promises security independent from God. [10] Contrasted against Christ’s true, deep, endless and self-giving love for his people, Sin and Death’s pursuit of humanity is fixed upon the aim of consuming and destroying them, even as they pleasure them. Humans who experience the transforming grace of Jesus Christ (Christians!), are still vulnerable to the seductive cries of Sin and Death. [11] We are still rife with indecision about our chosen lover.

As The Duke tightens his snare around Satine and she begins to cave, Christian experiences acute jealousy. His love leaves no room for her to be shared with an abusive and malevolent user (or any other man for that matter). He writes a song for her as a constant reminder of their love, a piece of himself woven into the show they are producing. He begs her not to sleep with The Duke, attempting to persuade her with the integrity of his love for her.

As Christian grieves Satine’s choice to go to The Duke, the company of the Moulin Rouge jeer at him for ever loving a woman who sells herself. They cast their whole community in the role of unreliable, uncouth, unreliable, even barely human pariahs. Even the director of the establishment uses a similar line of argument to persuade Satine to abandon Christian and give herself to The Duke in hopes of saving them all.

In the heat of the moment, as The Duke paws at Satine, she catches a distant glimpse of Christian. She softly sings the key lyric of the song he wrote for them, and she relents from her surrender to The Duke. He is outraged and rages against her, attempting to have her anyway.

Jesus’s love for his people is charged with a similar passion and devotion. He lays down his life in order to save them and reconcile them to God in a loving devotion that is faithful and undivided. Scripture underscores the absurdity of His grace in dying for us “while we were yet sinners.” [12] Despite the severe brokenness of humanity, our Maker still regards us with tender affection and as children worth reconciling and restoring. [13] Even if we are unreliable, uncouth, and unfaithful, he loves us and bridges the gap with his own faithfulness and love. To help his frail and faltering people, Jesus even leaves a piece of himself. The Lord’s Supper is a ritual of recollection and nourishment that help Christians catch a most potent ‘glimpse’ of Jesus even as they are in the throes of temptation, suffering, and inconsistency. [14] Similarly, Baptism is given as an act of participation in Christ, the Scriptures are given as a testimony to his person and work, and His Spirit and the Church are given as an enduring incarnation of his presence with us. [15]

Christian seeks to give up everything for Satine. He tells her they can leave what they have built and run away together. He came to the Montmartre Village to write and be part of the Bohemian Revolution, but he offers to lay that all down to save her and love her forever. When she realizes The Duke has plotted to kill Christian, Satine gives up the thing most dear to her (Christian) in an attempt to save his life.

In the end, Satine dies on stage as the curtain closes on their show Spectacular! Spectacular! At the moment of her death, Christian’s grief is unbearable. As he sobs, Baz Luhrmann spends a significant time on the faces of the company of the Moulin Rouge. This hardened group is moved. One of them is loved. It cracks the door open to the idea that they too could be loved, specifically loved without merit, bargain, or exchange.

If the Christological comparison is intentional, Satine’s death inverts expectations though it does call to mind the death-to-self experienced in union with Christ. [16] It is only through participating in his death that resurrection is possible. [17] After Satine’s passing, Christian preserves her memory. She will, in a sense, live forever in his novel. While poetic, it is cold comfort compared to the life everlasting Christ offers through reconciliation with the Father. [18]

When the crowd of pariahs watch Christian grieve over her, they see themselves in her, just as the nations are called to see Yahweh’s compassion through his covenants. They are invited to come to Him. Jesus clears the obstacles for all nations to come to their Creator and be loved just as they have witness Him love His chosen people. [19]

Whether Baz Luhrmann meant to portray Jesus in the character of Christian, Moulin Rouge! paints an evocative and moving portrait of the human yearning for love, redemption, and deliverance that is ultimately purchased by Jesus the Christ. If this kind of broken human love can be moving, how much more moving is the flawless and all encompassing love of Christ. [20]

[1] Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge! (Bazmark Productions & 20th Century Fox, 2001), 1:31:28.
[2] Phil. 2:5-8; cf. Ps. 113:4-8; Jn. 1:14; Heb. 2:6-9, 14-18. All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version unless otherwise attributed.
[3] Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2012), 182.
[4] Phil. 2:5-8; Jn. 3:16; 5:30; 6:38; 11:25; 14:6; I Corinthians 15:20-28; I Thes. 4:14.
[5] Jn. 1:12-14; Rom. 5:12-21; II Cor. 15:20-28.
[6] Luhrmann (2001), 4:12.
[7] Is. 54:11; Jer. 2:12; Hos. 4:12; Ez. 16:28-33; Mic. 5:2; Lk. 19:10; Rom. 9:3-5; I Pe. 2:9-10.
[8] Gen. 12:3; I Chr. 16:23-24; Ps. 22:27; Is. 49:6; Matt. 28:19; Lk. 2:31-32; Rom. 16:26; I Jn. 2:2.
[9] Ps. 2:1-6; Dan. 9:5-9; Jer. 29:32; Hos. 13:16; Rom. 1:21-23; 3:23.
[10] II Sam. 24:1-10; Is. 3:16-24; Lk. 16:9-13; I Tim. 6:17-19.
[11] Rom. 7:14-25; 8:22-23; I Cor. 10:13; Js. 1:13-18.
[12] Rom. 5:6-8; cf. Lk. 5:32; I Tim. 1:15.
[13] Lk. 18:10-14; II Pet. 3:9; I Jn. 4:9,10.
[14] Jn. 6:51-53; Lk. 22:17-20; I Cor. 10:16-17; 11:26.
[15] Jn. 15:26-27; Ac. 1:5-8; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6; Col. 1:18.
[16] Lk. 9:23-25; Jn. 12:24-26; Gal. 5:24-25; Col. 3:3.
[17] Rom. 6:4; I Pet. 3:21.
[18] Jn. 3:16; Rom. 6:23; I Thes. 4:14.
[19] Jn. 14:6; Rom. 5:1-5; Gal. 3:13; I Pet. 3:18.
[20] Jn. 7:9-11.

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