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Luhrmann's Movie Version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
All hopeless romantics get dreamy-eyed and sigh whenever the balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet comes up in conversation. Juliet stands on her balcony, innocently murmuring about her meeting with Romeo while the very subject of her musings eagerly climbs the garden wall and trellis leading up to the object of his love, Juliet. Anyone viewing Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet will be sadly disappointed at first to see that the movie doesn't follow the traditional balcony scene. Instead the clandestine meeting and swearing of mutual love takes place in a swimming pool at the Capulet's mansion. For all that the setting differs, Romeo + Juliet does use traditional Shakespearean themes and ideas even if they appear in a somewhat untraditional fashion.
Luhrmann doesn't want to turn his audience off to his new interpretation so he employs comedy to distract the audience from their preconceptions. Luhrmann does use the balcony, but in a comedic way that makes an easy transition for the audience from the conventional balcony to Romeo and Juliet swimming in a pool. Romeo acts like a monumental klutz after ascending the Capulet's garden wall. While looking up to see Juliet's window, he trips the surveillance lights, knocks over a few things, and generally makes a racket. This is not the lithe and graceful Romeo the audience usually thinks of as seen in Zefferelli's version. After climbing the trellis to the balcony, Romeo and the audience expect to see beautiful Juliet through her bedroom curtains at the top of the trellis, but both Romeo and the audience are caught off guard when instead of beautiful Juliet, the plain-faced Nurse appears and almost causes Romeo to f...
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...l is omitted because Luhrmann wants to keep the "intense, impatient, threatening, explosive" feeling Goldman states Romeo and Juliet has on stage.
Changing a balcony to a swimming pool seems an awkward echo to a classic play. With a little bit of comedy and brilliant usage of symbolism, Luhrmann makes it work. In no way are the themes or intent of the balcony scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet lost. The audience still sees the passionate love between Romeo and Juliet. Due to all the differences updating the play for his film, Luhrmann was smart to change the balcony scene. The traditional scene would have seemed inconsistent with the rest of the film. Despite the omissions of text and change of staging, the audience is still in for a powerful and moving scene.
Works Cited:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New York: Washington Square Press, 1995.
Romeo, heartbroken over his "love" Rosaline, and Juliet, an innocent girl. The two meet by fate, and instantly fall in love. This is where their lives started to go down, even though for them, they thought it was going to be the best thing ever! They split away from each other for the first time, but soon meet afterwards in the orchard, where Juliet's balcony is located. This scene is famously known as "The Balcony Scene". They speak to each other of love, kiss, and then finally- marriage is brought up. This makes everything even worse for them. Skipping a couple of scenes now, Romeo and Juliet are married now (Yay!), Mercutio is killed by Tybalt, and Tybalt is killed by Romeo. This puts their marriage in danger, because Romeo is
However, the largest thing changed was the fate. In the end, when Romeo was about to die, Juliet wakes up but doesn’t have time to stop Romeo from taking the poison; whereas the King production, Romeo dies before Juliet wakes up. The purpose of Juliet to wake up before Romeo dies is to engage the audience and leave the audience with a sense of pity for the two lovers. In this scene, Romeo, crying, says “The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss…” From the quote, fate was highlighted due to the reason that Romeo says that he will seal the doors of breath, meaning that he will kill himself; yet, after he has said this, Juliet’s hand moves, but Romeo did not see. What engages the audience more is the dramatic irony, when the audience knows that Juliet is alive but Romeo doesn’t. This is the major method that the Luhrmann production recontextualises the
Baz Luhrman Attracting a Teenage Audience Right From the Start of Romeo and Juliet Teenagers can relate to the issues of Romeo and Juliet but the way it is performed does not appeal to the younger audience. This is because of the Elizabethan language which is hard to understand, the dress which teenagers are not familiar with and the religious element which is not a large part of society any more. To attract a teenage audience Baz Luhrman changes some of these features; he uses modern dress instead of the typical Elizabethan style, a modern soundtrack and attractive and well known actors/actresses. This makes the production more familiar to teenagers because it uses some elements from their everyday life.
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.
The major difference of camera angles is in the significant scene—the balcony scene. In the 1968 version, the director retains the balcony scene in its movie. It uses low angle to show Romeo’s vision, how he looks up to the balcony on the tree. And it uses high angle to show Juliet’s vision, how she looks down to the tree on the balcony. The use of low angle and high angle emphasize the distant between Romeo and Juliet. Besides, it also indirectly shows that Juliet is from a wealthy family and Romeo is socially inferior towards her. However, in the 1996 version, the director replaces the balcony scene with a swimming pool scene. Romeo and Juliet talk to each other in the same level of vision. The use of eye level implies that they are equal in terms of social
He uses close ups of Romeo and Lord Capulet. The close up of Romeo is
Baz Luhrmann's Production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Julie in Baz Luhrmann's production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", our expectations are swept aside and a modern film appears. When I sit down to watch one of Shakespeare's plays, I expect to see medieval clothes in a rural setting with plenty of poor people. I also expect the words and acting to blend together harmoniously. Instead Baz Luhrmann chose to set the opening scene at a beachside, gas. station.
He uses many camera angles and film techniques to show the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to a modern audience. Baz Luhrman’s use of Camera angles to convey an audience into his invited reading is second to none, He has managed to change the overall gist of the traditional Shakespeare version of Romeo and Juliet while still retaining the story line to suit a modern teen audience. An example of this is when Romeo is arriving at the Capulet party with a mask on and the invite in his hand after taking an ecstasy pill. Baz Luhrman uses a close up shot and slow motion camera movement to emphasise the fact that Romeo is disorientated because of the drugs. The tablet changes the context from a 70s or 80s to a modern 90s when ecstasy was very common and in ‘trend’. Baz Luhrman has efficiently dressed the real life characters to relate to their Romeo and Juliet meaning. Romeo is dressed as a knight in shining armour to resemble his brave courteous soul by being Juliet’s ‘savour’. Juliet is dressed as an angel to show her innocence and beauty. The antagonist Tybalt is costumed as the devil to resemble the evil that he brings to their relationship and lets the audience know that he is unwanted or bad. The song playing during the party is a well know pop/love song. Baz Luhrman uses it to show the upbeat personality of the characters and the atmosphere of the party.
As I reflect on this autobiography project, I feel that I found some reasons for my thoughts and behaviors. I do not follow many of the strict values like religion; I seem to follow the path of the males in the family. My adjustment to blindness was both helped and hindered from both my parents. My father encouraged me to explore and not to be discouraged by failure or defeat, while my mother kept strongly encouraging me to improve my life. As I eventually get married and start my own family, I will understand the importance of expressed emotions and how my upbringing influenced my roles in the present and future families.
Riviere, A. Assistive Technology: Meeting the Needs of Adults with Learning Disabilities. Washington, DC: NALLD, 1996. (ED 401 686)
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.
Assistive technology is often used by individuals with a learning disability. A learning disability “describes a neurobiological disorder in which a person’s brain works or is structured differently” (Lee1). A person’s abilities can be severely affected from a learning disability. They may listen differently, talk differently, write, spell, organize, and work with school subjects in a different way. Learning disabilities also affect people’s individual and personal lives to a great extent. According to the National Institutes of Health, one in seven children has a learning disability. The disability manifests itself when the child shows difficulty in reading, writing, spelling, and conversing with others. The added time they need to process information may make them seem less intelligent then others around them, but this is not the case. Individuals with learning disabilities are just as smart as anyone else; they just need to learn in a different way. The earlier a learning disability is noticed and detected, the earlier a child may be able to learn how to deal with or compensate for it (Lee 1). This is where assistive technology comes into play.
‘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.
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.