Playtime at the Moulin Rouge

At the Moulin-Rouge during the fin-de-siecle, there existed entertainments as diverse as sideshows, singers, dancing and the "games" of sex-for-sale and sex-as-spectacle, all of which encapsulated varying forms of play. I hope to answer a number of questions pertaining to the concept of playtime at the Moulin: How were the attractions at the Moulin Rouge represented? How do these forms of play intersect? How have representations of these forms of play changed over time, and why? To further illustrate the forms of playtime at the Moulin-Rouge I will refer to depictions of the Moulin in art and film, ranging from the works of Toulouse-Lautrec to contemporary representations of the venue as seen in Francophone and Anglophone films. Through these representations of playtime, I shall examine ideas including the power-play of the Gaze, gendered play, and gender roles within "playtime". Other ideas to be considered are of vicarious play and participation, and memory and play (the enduring fascination of the Moulin-Rouge in the public imaginations and its depiction). I am also interested in what these forms of play and their representation can tell us about prevalent ideologies of Parisian and Montmartrois culture of the late nineteenth century, and the similarities between the fin-de-siecle and twentieth centuries.