A Comparison of Two Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet by Zefferelli and Luhrmann

A Comparison of Two Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet by Zefferelli and Luhrmann

One is by the more authentic director Franco Zefferelli and one is by

the more modern money-seeking director Baz Lurmann. The major

differences between the two movies Romeo and Juliet who were made by

Franco Zefferelli in 1968 and Baz Luhrmann in 1996, are that they were

interpreted in different ways because the historical and social

context of the two films which may have influenced the two directors

to portray their movies the way they did. . Zeferili’s interpretation

was to make an authentic traditional movie which was based on the

original era it was set in which was the medieval ages. The other

interpretation by Baz Lurmann was a very modern approach, which was

more profit based, in which he sets the film in the futuristic urban

backdrop of Verona whilst he still uses original Elizabethan language

aimed at a younger audience. Each director achieves his aim by using

different techniques, props, and special effects that I will be

discussing in this essay.

When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet he did not include a lot of

stage directions in his script. This meant that the director of the

movie had to interpret the movies the way they had pictured or thought

it should be. Both of these directors had different ideas on how to

illustrate this story to people in film form as they have approached

it in different techniques and at different times meaning their

audience intended was different and their culture and social and

historical context...

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...portray the sonnet and was used by Zefferelli to make it more

realistic and to was inspired by his own culture and similar movies

that he made. While Romeo and Juliet are reciting the sonnet Juliet is

laid on a dark background to make her stand out. Also Zefferelli is

using shots to show both faces. They kiss but then the nurse pulls her

away and Romeo asks who Juliet is. The nurse replies that she is a

Capulet and Romeo is heart broken. As Romeo is leaving Juliet also

finds out that Romeo is a Montague and she is terribly upset and the

music changes to show that she is sad. We then get a close up of

Tybalt and we see that he is angry by his facial expression as he

looks at the camera. Zefferelli adds this shot to give us some extra

information about the story and this tells us that Tybalt knows about

Romeo and Juliet.