Baz Luhrman's
Baz Luhrman updates the classic Shakespeare tale of "Romeo and Juliet" to good effect in his film. This is done primarily to grab the attention of the audience who may otherwise be put off by 'boring' set pieces. Without changing the story, he updates the characters and themes to suit the 21st century, and in doing so manages to better relate the story to the audience. One particular scene is the ballroom party at the Capulet mansion, and we will be looking in detail at this to see how the setting draws the audience in and how Luhrman uses this scene to relate Romeo and Juliet's lives with the audiences'.The ballroom scene starts off with Romeo taking some sort of pill, Ecstacy presumably. When Romeo enters the actual ballroom he goes in with his cousins and he flashes his ticket at the bouncer in a very stoned way, prompting the bouncer to look down at him as if to say "Oh good another stoned person." The costumes people are wearing reflect the tastelessness of the fancy dress ball with everyone wearing very glitzy, tacky costumes. Gloria Capulet is dressed as Cleopatra, Fulgencio is dressed as a roman god, The Capulet boys are dressed as skeletons, except for Tybalt, who is wea
The lighting is heavy in the ballroom with strobe lights, spotlights and fairy lights. The strobe lights make the ball look party like and modern. The spotlights pick up things Luhrman wants us to notice such Fulgencio's pants on the stage. The fairy lights are just there for decoration around the ceiling and doors. The camera angles are mostly medium long shots showing the ball with all the people there crammed into one shot to make it look busy and popular. There is a very long shot when Mercutio is dancing at the top of the stairs, this is a very long shot to show the huge painting of the Virgin Mary as well as to show his dancers and the crowd watching him dance. This particular party scene enables the audience to feel as though they may have attended a party similar to this one, perhaps even knowing a couple like Romeo and Juliet. When William Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet" it would have been performed in a very different way than it is in this film. Baz Luhrman had to update this film as otherwise it wouldn't have appealed to the younger audience and he would have made less money from ticket sales and such like. He has changed almost everything to make it into something young people can relate to such as guns, cars, sex, parties and drugs. The only thing he has kept the same is the dialogue. I think he has done this as he intends viewers to follow the story more by the pictures on screen more then the dialogue. The point is that, without having changed the story at all, the modern rendition changes the story c
Some common words found in the essay are:
Juliet Juliet, Romeo Juliet, Mary Romeo, Baz Luhrman, Juliet Romeo, Romeo Juliet's, Fulgencio Capulet, Virgin Mary, Cleopatra Fulgencio, Gloria Capulet, fish tank, romeo juliet, tybalt wearing devil, wearing devil, virgin mary, strobe lights, fairy lights, painting virgin, gloria capulet, baz luhrman, wearing devil horns, painting virgin mary, ballroom scene,
Approximate Word count = 1043
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
