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Baz Lurhmann’s creation of the film Romeo and Juliet has shown that today’s audience can still understand and appreciate William Shakespeare. Typically, when a modern audience think of Shakespeare, they immediately think it will be boring, yet Lurhmann successfully rejuvenates Romeo and Juliet. In his film production he uses a number of different cinematic techniques, costumes and a formidably enjoyable soundtrack; yet changes not one word from Shakespeare’s original play, thus making it appeal to a modern audience.
Lurhmann sets the film in a fictitious border city between the United States and Mexico. The city is called ‘Verona’ so it maintains its original name from the play. It is extremely built-up and urban just like New York or London so that a modern audience can relate to the film and understand where the film is set. In other modern films, a big urban city is usually the setting where there are big gang rivalries and Lurhmann makes this clear by showing that the Montague’s and Capulet’s are the big two families in the city and they are not to be reckoned with.
Lurhmann takes lines and words from the original play and uses them in completely different contexts. When Tybalt is in the petrol station, he draws his gun and the camera zooms in on the name of the gun which is ‘sword’. Benvolio says, “Draw thy sword”. Instead of the characters taking out large swords which would be have been used hundreds of years ago, Lurhmann takes the name of a gun and calls it a sword thus making it easier for a modern audience to refer to. By using a gun and not a sword, Lurhmann relates to the modern audience even further because there are hardly any sights of swords in this modern era yet you hear about guns every day in the news. A g...
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...and calm resembling the way Romeo is feeling. The clothes that Romeo is wearing also shows that he tries to cut himself off from the gangs because he is dressed in a suit with a half open shirt showing he is cool yet more mature than the other members of his family.
In conclusion, Lurhmann uses a lot of modern filming techniques to make Romeo and Juliet appeal to a contemporary audience. By relating certain aspects to situations in modern society, it makes the audience understand the ideas behind the original play and he simplifies the complicated old English of Shakespeare by adding exciting and dynamic visuals. Lurhmann tried to create a modern version of Romeo and Juliet and he was completely successful in his aims. Lurhmann defied all odds by making his film appeal to a modern audience and not only is this film very clever, it is a must see for any film lovers.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers who have to risk their lives in order to demonstrate their love and will to stay together, regardless the feud between their families. By the end, the death of Romeo and Juliet finally bring the reconciliation to these two families. It is fate that the two most shall-not meet people fall in love and it love that eventually won against hatred. Since then, there have been many different versions of Romeo and Juliet, whether it was for film, stage, musicals. These different recontextualised adaptions change the original play by many ways, some modernise the language, environment, props as well as changing the original characteristics of some characters. Out of all the different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, two stood out the most. One was the Romeo and Juliet (1996) and directed by Baz Luhrmann and the other one was Romeo and Juliet Broadway (2013) play version,
Romeo and Juliet presents an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families whose children meet and fall in love. Markedly, the meeting scene depicting love at first sight continues to be praised by today’s critics. Romeo and Juliet then receive the label of star-crossed lovers whose tragic demise is written in the stars. In fact, Shakespeare 's work is well received and its numerous adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and notorious stories. The cinematic world brings to the screens a disastrous approach by Baz Luhrmann to do the play justice. A glance at Baz Luhrmann’s productions allows audiences to assume he delivers movies which are unlike those of any other filmmaker today, or perhaps ever. Therefore, blending a delicate
“The most filmed of all plays, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with its universal themes… remains uniquely adaptable for any time period,” (Botnick, 2002). Directors Franco Zeffirelli (1968) and Baz Luhrman (1996) provide examples of the plays adaption to suit the teenage generation of their time. Identifying the key elements of each version: the directors intentions, time/place, pace, symbols, language and human context is one way to clearly show how each director clearly reaches their target audience. Overall however Luhrman’s adaptation would be more effective for capturing the teenage audience.
music changes to show that she is sad. We then get a close up of
Baz Luhrmann's Success of Making Romeo & Juliet Accessible to a Modern Audience. In this essay I am going to write about how successfully Baz Luhrmann made his film Romeo and Juliet accessible to a modern audience. Baz Luhrmann uses Shakespeare's authentic text, combining it with a modern setting. This combination attracts the off spring of the modern.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a film that converts Shakespeare’s famous play into a present-day setting. The film transforms the original texts into modern notions, whilst still employing Shakespearean language. Compared to Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann’s picture is easier for a teenage audience to understand and relate to because of his modernisations. Despite the passing of four centuries Shakespeare’s themes of love, hate, violence, family and mortality remain the same regardless of the setting.
...e tragic celebration of young, forbidden love told by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, has been tailored for many motion picture adaptations. The most famous of these adaptations are Franco Zeffirelli’s version and Baz Lurhmann’s film produced in 1996. These two films applied Shakespeare’s most well-known work as a basis for their motion pictures. Both films had similarities, but the differences were much more apparent. Ever since William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been debuted, it has and forever will be an artistic influence for playwrights, directors, and other artists.
How Baz Luhrmann Uses Props, Iconography, Costumes, and Settings to Create His Own Version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare’s best loved tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, has been portrayed in theatres and on film in many different ways. But none have been quite like Baz Luhrmann’s imaginative and unconventional adaptation. He has brought aspects of the plays Elizabethan origins and transfused them with a modern day background and created, what can only be described as a masterpiece. I believe that his use of Props, iconography costumes and the settings he has chosen has helped him to make this film such a great success. The settings of each scene have been specifically chosen to create a desired affect.
in the way he speaks in a sly voice. He is the perfect actor to play
An Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
He uses close ups of Romeo and Lord Capulet. The close up of Romeo is
One of the most celebrated plays in history, “Romeo and Juliet”, was written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. It is a story about two lovers that have to meet in secret because of an ongoing family feud. Tragically, because of their forbidden love Romeo and Juliet take their lives so they can be together. In 1997, a movie was adapted from the play “Romeo and Juliet”, directed by Baz Lurhmann. However, as alike as the movie and the play are, they are also relatively different.
Translated across many forms of media, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has long gripped the hearts of audiences around the world. Its many adaptations have made it readily available in a range of forms. Baz Lurhmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet is one example of film bringing the story of Romeo and Juliet to a new generation. Originally met with hesitation, Lurhmann’s film was deemed a pop culture remake of the classic story. The trailer released for the film followed suit, flashing images of violence, guns, and heart-throb Leonardo DeCaprio, in order to grab the attention of the audience. In most cases, people do not realize that behind these scenes lies subliminally transmitted emotion. Through the instrumentation
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two adolescents—Romeo and Juliet from two hostile families fall in love with each other. This prohibited love ultimately turns into a romantic tragedy, in which they commit suicide for each other. Both Franco Zeffirelli’s (1968) and Baz Lurhmann’s (1996) versions retained the dialogues written by William Shakespeare in their movies. However, these two movies are directed in their own unique ways, which have several distinctive differences.
His first appearance in Act 1 Scene 1, after the lengthy sequence of the Montagues and Capulets battling in the streets, depicts him walking with a flower, strikingly peaceful in contrast to the preceding scene. Zeffirelli also chooses to include Romeo 's complaint against the brawling, “O me, what fray was here? / Tell me not, for I have heard it all.”2, a position he holds unwaveringly up until Mecutio 's emotional death scene. Robert F Willson implies that Romeo is given “the identity of a kind of chorus, commenting on the madness and destructiveness of war. […] An American audience of young rebels cannot