Romeo And Juliet Film Analysis

Is love at first sight really true? Have you ever been in a situation in which, you loved someone but their families would never accept you? Well this is the case in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In class we were told to analyze Act 1 Scene 5 of three film versions of Romeo and Juliet. Out of all the renditions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the film produced by Franco Zefirelli outlined the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet magnificently from the directors choice of cinematography which introduced Juliet to Romeo beautifully, the costumes which almost looked original and lastly the choice of soundtrack when Romeo saw Juliet for the first time.

The cinematography in Franco Zefirellis version of Romeo and Juliet were created

Even though at that particular moment there was a lot of zooming in and out for both characters faces, especially Romeos due to his awe after seeing Juliet, it was not as fast paced and felt very soothing to watch. The close ups on Romeo in this scene showed us viewers his love struck emotions after seeing Juliet. I don’t feel the other directors did such a good job in introducing Juliet to Romeo in such a dramatic manner. When I was watching the camera shot when it was focused on Juliet, it almost felt like the backlighting was completely revolving around her, so basically the use of lighting increased her presence in a dramatic way. When Baz Luhrman tried to in capture this scene the shots were very detailed, we as viewers could see Romeo under the influence of drugs, when Romeo finally encounters Julliet through the glass of the aquarium, the camera started zooming in on both protagonists to show their love struck emotions, but everything seemed way too fast and that took away from the famous

Before Romeo steadied his eyes on Juliet, the music was very fast paced and uplifting, but when Juliet appeared the music became soft and pleasant to hear. The director did this on purpose, cause before Romeo set his eyes on Juliet he seemed to be very confused and disoriented, because of all the commotion that was taking place at the Capulet’s party, but when Juliet appeared from almost out of nowhere, all his attention was on her. Thus the music also changed. Without this dynamic change of music we as an audience won’t know how to feel, when Romeo sees Juliet. We wouldn’t know if we had to be joyous or sorrowful. Also this music played is very symbolic because it is played when Romeo and Juliet first met, as well as when they both died in peace. Luhrman decided to incorporate a more 90s type of music to engage the audience watching the film, this may have brought more attention, but the originality was not there. Bhansali decided to use traditional Indian instruments to incorporate his love for his cultures background and like Zefirelli the music was very uplifted before Romeo gazed at Juliet, but when their two eyes locked, the music became very soft and pleasant to hear. So basically the other directors did not have such a good sense of soundtrack, because once again it felt more modernized like someone digitally processed it, but when the song was played during Zefrilli