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 has 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 age. That is the reason why Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet has been successful. It has made a profit of 11.133 million dollars, reached the top of box-office and has been awarded quite a lot of Oscars. The opening scene of the film shows a newsreader reading Shakespeare's original prologue. At this point the camera zooms in as the newsreader reads the prologue in a news form. This is effective because the screen then seems to focus on the newsreader more and so the audience pays more attention to it. This creates a concentration without any distraction for the audience to focus on the picture and make them listen or see the prologue. It is presented as news to make the audience think it is factual and important. It is also shown as breaking news, which shows the impact of the two feuding families. This is a very good film technique used by Baz Luhrmann because it makes it more dramatic. There is also a picture behind a newsreader which shows a broken ring. This ring symbolizes Romeo and Juliet's broken relationship. Pulling apart a metal by force is very hard, likewise, the broken rings tells us that the lovers have been violently pulled apart. I think that it was a good idea to do this because it grabs the audience's attention effectively and it seems important. This is a good use of symbolism to relate that the violence is so severe that even love cannot calm it down. A bit later on the camera shows a statue of Jesus starting off with a medium close-up shot and rapidly zooming out to show two skyscrapers on either side. One of the skyscrapers is Capulet and the other one is
Context has greatly influenced how Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in the 1500’s to how Williams Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet was produced in 1996 by Baz Luhrmann with a more modern intention.
The positions of the stories in the apse show the importance of the figures represented in the images. Christ's placement the center of the apse holding a book with his left hand provides a direct relationship to the Bible. His right hand held up in blessing illustrates his divine power towards the people, who receive the sacrament on the altar below him. Christ is also surrounded by stars, wh...
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
gesture a “mysterious” smile crosses her lips. These closing lines signify the Christian belief that Jesus gave holy communion, his own flesh and blood, like Rosa of Sharon gave her milk.
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.
costumes, the actors and the way he has cut the script all add up to
William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," set in 16th century Verona, Italy shares differences with Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," set in modern day Verona Beach. These stories contain the same characters and conflict, however major and minor discrepancies are galore in the story lines of both formats of William Shakespeare's creation. Some major inconsistencies occur, such as Mercutio dying at a beach, portrayed as a hero, instead of being at a bar, looking like a fool, Friar Lawrence's letter is successfully sent to Romeo by mail carriers, however he does not have the opportunity to read it, unlike in the play version, where Romeo does not get the letter from Friar John, and is told the news by Balthazar, and nobody being at Juliet's tomb to stop Romeo from reaching Juliet, unlike in the play, Paris was there to pay his respects to Juliet. In addition to the major inconsistencies, minor ones are included throughout, such as Romeo and Juliet first seeing each other through a fish tank, then kissing in the elevator, not the dance, the famous balcony scene occurring in a pool, not on an actual balcony, and Juliet pointing a gun at Friar after she points it to herself, threatening to commit suicide. These inconsistencies probably occurred in the play to add a modern and entertaining twist to the Shakespearean classic, leading to the same denouement in both versions of "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet."
Magazine Review of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet Imagine that you are writing a review of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and
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.
The first scene is a television which automatically brings the modern feel to the film. As the camera gives the sense of the television moving slowly towards us we suddenly break into a quick speedy montage showing the story and some of the characters. The introduction to the play is repeated, once on the television by the news reader and again during the opening montage. This may be to create effect or perhaps to show the importance and publicity this story had. The scene in the petrol station focuses on the rivalry and hatred of the two families, The Capulets and the Montagues.
They also had an argument on how long ago they both went to a masked
Imagine you are going to direct this scene for a class performance. Explain how you want the parts of Juliet and Lady Capulet or Lord Capulet to bring out the tension of the scene, including comments to show how you want the audience to respond to the argument. This play Romeo and Juliet is set in the Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare was writing and producing plays. This particular play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, is set in Verona, Italy. It is here; we meet the wealthy families of Capulet and Montague families.
As I walked into the first gallery, I saw a wood sculpture that stood in the center of the room. This carving depicted “the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist with Angels holding instruments of the Passion”. It was painted oak and very appealing to the eye. It stood approximately 15 feet in the air. The origin of this sculpture is unknown, but it was found in a Belgium church. This kind of sculpture usually stood at the entrance or at the center of the alter in the church facing the congregation. This image of the suffering Christ relates to the Christian ideas of suffering and Christ’s salvation of all mankind.
The Lamentation, or Pietà, is a common Christian narrative that depicts Jesus Christ’s family mourning over his body after he has been crucified. Many artists choose to interpret it and paint it in their own way, which is why I decided to use it for this paper. The Pietà, I found, is more of a detailed version of the Lamentation that is mainly only Mary mourning over her son. In general, the Lamentation includes Mary and other religious figures—“full” Lamentations include The Three Marys, John the Apostle, Joseph, and various other people such as angels and donor portraits. As time went on, some scenes became continuous narratives, showing other subjects adjacent to the Lamentation in the Passion of Christ. Meanwhile, others expanded in terms of their scenery and other specific details.