Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Concentrating on The Presentation of Character Setting and Sound
Examine What Seems to You to be Significant Features of Baz Luhrmann’s
Style of The Opening Scene of
Romeo + Juliet
Baz Luhrmann has a reputation of making excellent films and is known
for his camera always moving. He likes doing close-ups, zooms and slow
motion shots . As he has grown more secure of his position as a
director, and has got a higher budget, his camera and editing have
merged into a sort of helter skelter style that blends the emotional
and poetic in ways that appear new and revolutionary. Luhrmann says
that there are three basic things about his films: the story line is
simple, the world created in his films is one of a heightened reality,
there is always a specific device driving the story whether it be song
or dance etc.
Luhrmann did the prologue so he could show the audience the current
story of what’s going on and what the story is about. He needed to
have strong images because at that point most of the audiences ears’
won’t be in tune with the Shakespearian text. He repeated just so
anyone who missed it the first time would hear it this time and people
that heard it before would understand it more thouroughly. The
prologue is probably one of the most important parts of the film as it
is a summary of what is happening and what happens throughout the
film.
Luhrmann manages to juggle multiple story lines in a manner that keeps
the audience involved, using his trademark moving camera and using
music to move the plot forward. His hopes for this film are to “Put
Shakespeare back on the billboards of Times Square”. He wants everyone
to appreciate Shakespeare and never wants him to be forgotten. The
fact that all of Shakespeare’s plays are timeless helps Luhrmann and
he uses this to his advantage.
The most vital person of any film is the director. The director makes