Disclaimer – Moulin Rouge isn't mine...obviously
I'm a girl scared and alone. I must have had a mother and father but where they are now I don't know. I've been on my own for scarcely ten years. The orphanages have given up on me. They gave me more charity than I deserve they say, a mere piece of bread and a rock hard cot with a rag for a blanket. I am one of God's bastard children. It was a mistake for me to be born. As I turn sixteen I face my first night on the streets.
He sees me crying on the curb. My dress is tattered beyond repair and smells worse than the street. I have no shoes. I haven't eaten for a week. "My poor little sparrow, why are you crying?" I look and he seems friendly but I wouldn't know any better. I've never had any friends. He tells me of the beautiful, warm place and I found myself walking with this stranger. We stop in front of a large gate. "Welcome my dear to the Moulin Rouge."
I'm a pale boy with skinny legs. The other boys tease me because I would rather read poetry than play football. He never says it but I see the disappointment in my father's eyes. He wishes that I were stronger, more masculine. "None of this poetry rubbish" he says. I have no direction. I'd rather die than take over the family business. The mediocrity of it all is suffocating.
I want to fall in love. I'm a bohemian born into privilege. I believe in truth, beauty, freedom, and most of all love. "Always this ridiculous obsession with love," he fumes. I have to run away. I pack my bags and go to the train station. I'm destined to be a poor writer. I can be free.
I am a goddess. I am decorated with diamonds and fine silks. There I learn how to dance and sing and how to make men give me whatever I want. I make them believe what they want to believe, no matter how repulsive they are. They adore me. I am the Queen of the Underworld. The Sparkling Diamond. I am a star and one day I will be an actress. Theaters will be packed with my fans who love me. I want to be Miss Sarah Bernhardt. And I will use this Duke to get there. He is my ticket out of here.
My bohemian friends take me to the Moulin Rouge. There I will me Harold Zidler. I am to be their new writer for their modern, bohemian play "Spectacular, Spectacular". First I must convince Miss Satine. This place is amazing. Girls dancing, music everywhere and hundreds of men waiting to be pleased. My father's voice keeps haunting me but the Green Fairy pushes him away. I find myself drinking more and being drawn into the underworld. Then the Diamond appears.
There she is. I can't do this. She's absolutely beautiful. What have I gotten myself into?
There he is. I have to do this. He's not that bad looking. It's now or never.
"I believe you are expecting me."