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 …show more content…
When suddenly Baz Luhrmann nineteen minutes into his work presents a drag Mercutio dressed scandalously in a ridiculous white wig and wearing red lipstick to top it all off, it seems he has no regard for the original Romeo and Juliet. In his portrayal of a character as crucial as Mercutio, Luhrmann crosses the fine line between the individual possessing eloquence and profuse wit Shakespeare creates, and a downright maniac. Before entering the Capulets’ mansion Mercutio’s acclaimed Queen Mab Speech in Act One, Scene Four, displays the aforementioned eloquence and vivid imagination of the character. Specifically, Mercutio claims, “Oh, then I see you’ve been with Queen Mab/...True, I talk of dreams,/Which are the children of an idle brain,/Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,”(I iv 53, 97-99). Anyone with a rational mind does not expect Mercutio to deliver his lines about dreams being merely the result of the anxieties and desires of those who sleep while holding ecstasy and jumping agitatedly. Luhrmann offers an insane Mercutio in his take on Romeo and Juliet and all it achieves is a massacre of the brilliance of the dialogue. The unconventional director stages the exchange to end with Romeo accepting a psychoactive drug inducing him in a euphoric state, then shattering any proceeding potential romantic mood. …show more content…
Mercutio’s character first appearance in the film leaves mouths gaping and the audience does not get a breather between the drag queen’s dreadful introduction and the frenzied guests of an erratic costume party. A shrill sound, leaving viewers wanting to cover their ears, comes from Mercutio as he performs "Young Hearts Run Free" by Kym Mazelle, a disco song. This upbeat song accompanied by the atrocious dancing fails to tastefully precede the slower paced "Kissing You" by British singer Des 'ree. The ballad is set in the key of A minor and the record uses a simple instrumentation consisting only of piano and string instruments. The melody according to the music critic, Ann Powers from The New York Times, “overdoes the melodrama”(Powers 4). Said atmosphere in no way suits the visuals Luhrmann constructs. Lamentably, “Kissing You” is on the other end of the musical spectrum in comparison to Mazelle’s "Young Hearts Run Free", thus, both collide in disharmony. Given these points, when the young lovers meet at the party and the emotional melody is performed, heads struggle to assimilate the abrupt shift. Now, the scene where the lover’s affection stems loses the beauty of the sentiment and belittles the attributes Shakespeare’s script is notorious for. All in all, Baz Luhrmann leaves much to be desired as his lack of sophistication when shifting setting is painfully
from Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War, to Richard III of Shakespeare’s play. A prominent,
Chloe Fleming investigates Baz Luhrmann’s capability in embodying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in his own modern film adaptation and praises the hell out of it.
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.
Context is the key to understanding ideas and language in both William Shakespeare’s play and in Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Elizabethan theatre was more of an oral, than visual experience for the audience. The actors had to express all their emotions that were obligatory, to tell information about the character or plot and to show social classes and hierarchy, between the Capulets and Montagues. Though Luhrmann was able to convey the message of hierarchy and social status effectively through costumes, properties and camera angles. As for the men of Verona, they are portrayed as violent, dominating and conquering especially towards women who appear to be like pawns in a men’s chess game.
Baz Luhrmann utilizes, William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to make his film more understandable to a modern audience. Through Luhrmann’s eye for attention to detail he is able to make a successful adaptation between the 1597 play and modernized film. In the film Baz Luhrmann uses various sorts of cinematography to make this change more clear to the audience. In the film Luhrmann uses multiple props, costuming and different settings to make the film more accessible to a modern audience.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try to emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is done through upgrading of the setting, the renewal of props and costumes, the use of water symbolism and the reconstruction of the prologue, whilst preserving the original Shakespearean language. Out of the two, it is Luhrmann who targets Romeo & Juliet to a younger audience to a much larger extent than Zeffirelli.
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.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo and Juliet is compelling when communicating the main ideas of the play by providing the audience with a modern translation of the play using the motifs in the film which correlate to the play.
The environment surrounding the star-crossed lovers in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet can influence audiences who may interpret the scenes in different ways. The audience can be greatly affected in their interpretation of the story by the mise-en-scene, costuming, and the hidden symbolic meaning. This great piece of literature was edited in two unique and intriguing forms, one Zeferelli directed which was filmed in 1968, and the modern version produced in 1996. The different scenes throughout the length of the party were the most influential to me in that I saw how different these movies were directed, and the different meaning I experienced from watching these movies. Focusing on the environment of the scenes and the costuming helped me in my interpretation, because I found hidden symbolism in these two qualities.
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.
The subject of death is one of the most prominent elements found in both modern and traditional literatures, and it often plays a significant role in the development of the plot. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is no exception to this norm. In this play, a pair of star-crossed lovers finds themselves married despite an ancient family feud. As the play proceeds as a story of love, the reader quickly realizes through Shakespeare’s subtle usages of foreshadowing and dialogue that death is inevitable for the two young lovers. In a later film interpretation of the play, director Franco Zeffirelli also tries to capture the inevitability of Romeo and Juliet’s death by using sounds. Since the film version of Romeo and Juliet effectively portray
Have you ever wondered what that sensation on your nose is while you sleep? Well there is a good chance that Queen Mab, a fairy that makes you have dreams, has found herself on your nose. Such a fairy has made a dream come to poor Romeo. When Romeo tells his friend Mercutio about his dream Mercutio tells him about the fairy know as Queen Mab. In a long and drawn out story of play on words Mercutio sarcastically tells Romeo this to make him forget about the Rosaline and cheer him up. This speech can tell you a lot about Mercutio.
Scene 4 Act 1:Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio, and other members of the Montague house go to the Capulet feast. They are all wearing masks to hide their identity. They talk it over and decide to stay for one dance. Because Romeo is still in love with Rosaline, Mercutio teases him about being a hopeless lover. Mercutio then starts a long tale about how fairies deliver dreams to humans as they sleep.