Baz Luhrmann and Zefferelli's Portrayal of the Opening of Romeo and Juliet
"Romeo and Juliet" is a tragic love story on a background of hatred
and animosity. It is definitely one of Shakespeare's most well known
plays, arguably the most well known. The fact that this play is so
well known has presented problems to directors who wanted to try and
stage or film "Romeo and Juliet" - there is more pressure on them to
create something unique and original. The challenge has inspired
several directors. Among these directors are Baz Luhrmann and
Zefferelli, who both felt motivated enough by this play to turn it
into a film. Some aspects of the two resulting creations were very
similar, but in other ways very dissimilar, and the two directors
approached their task in very different ways - and this is what I want
to study.
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The opening of a play is very important. It makes the reader decide
whether he or she wants to read on, gives us our first impressions,
and most importantly, it introduces the characters and sets the scene
for the rest of the play. So, when writing the opening of "Romeo and
Juliet", Shakespeare takes care of all these points effectively.
Shakespeare's main aims in this opening are evidently to build up
tension and ambience, present the reader with an atmosphere of
animosity and hatred against which Romeo and Juliet's love is doomed
to fail. I think that he is very successful in this. Scene 1 begins
with servants from the rivalling families fighting, which seems more
trivial and vaguely comical. But when some of the higher status
characters enter th...
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... depressed, and what a background for young love, we think.
I think that both directors were inspired by this play - and with good
reason - and each wanted to interpret it their way and somehow make it
their own. They used very different methods, Zefferelli choosing to
make a traditional film in period, giving a classical interpretation
as close as possible to how it would actually have "happened", and
Luhrmann preferring to update the play, drawing in a younger audience
and making it something today's teenagers could better relate to. This
is a play that could withstand any number of interpretations and
re-interpretations. You cannot really say that one of these
interpretations is "better" than the other because they are so
different, but I do think that both directors succeeded awesomely in
what they set out to do.
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music changes to show that she is sad. We then get a close up of
Interpretation of the Balcony Scene by Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. “Romeo and Juliet” is a famous love story written by William Shakespeare. The. Two interpretations were made of this text into a film by the two directors, Baz Luhrmann (1996) and Franco Zeffirelli (1968). The films use different types of media to portray the characters and the overall context of Shakespeare’s play.
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form of a dry narrator relating the story of the Montagues and Capulets over a
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.
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.
said by the chorus. This means it is an idea of a group of people
‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a tragic play about two star crossed lovers written by Shakespeare in 1595. The play is a timeless teenage tradgedy. “The play champions the 16th Century belief that true love always strikes at first sight,” (Lamb 1993: Introduction) and even in modern times an audience still want to believe in such a thing as love at first sight. Act II Scene II the balcony scene displays that romantic notion perfectly.