Zefferelli’s film was made in 1968. He beleaguered his edition of Romeo and Juliet to adults and teenagers of that time. He may have beleaguered this audience because of the setting style of his version of Romeo and Juliet. His version of Romeo and Juliet is set in the past time, the time of the play, in an Old Italian city. We see people going about with their daily activities, however in their long-gone day’s lifestyle, and dress, and they have dusty dirty streets. The Capulets wore bright colourful colours; orange and yellow, which looked similar to that of clowns.
Luhrmann’s edition of the Romeo and Juliet was made about 30 years later in 1997. He made his version of Romeo and Juliet more fascinating and more attention-grabbing, as it was modern the superiority of the picture is more enhanced and the characters acting intensity is more realistic, this edition of the film attracts more new audiences. His target audience were younger, people living in the advanced world, in actual fact; teenagers.
As his edition on Romeo and Juliet was modern, it was to attract a modern audience by setting the scenes in today’s world and using modern stars like Leonardo Di’Caprio as Romeo and Clair Danes as Juliet. Any beleaguered audience would be more fascinated in watching the film because of the famous main stars that play the main role in Romeo and Juliet. In order to appeal to this age group, his edition of Romeo and Juliet was more violent, sexual, and faster moving, and he used pop music from the modern world.
In Zeffirelli’s edition of Romeo and Juliet, the Prologue is spoken by an adult male. The way the Prologue is spoken is very slowing, almost boring and is revealed through a picture frame. The picture frame has an old Greek key pattern around it. The film begins by showing images of the city in Italy. The city is an old deserted and dusty place which gave very bad impacts on how the film starts. Then a man starts to say “Two households both alike in dignity…”
This tells us the two families, Montague and Capulets, both want the same things; dignity, power and respect. After the man has said the Prologue, old, ancient-looking lettering comes up. It looked dilapidated and inappropriate to use. The writing looked handwritten in “serif” style writing and it was white, therefore it was easy to stand out and easy to read. The prologue continues while images of the town are being shown.
The images give us a visual explanation of what the prologue is saying, so that we can picture it and imagine it as he says it. Because if we can picture and imagine it, we will also see it as if we are actually there, in the town. And when we picture things, the brain processes it faster, we tend to understand it faster and our imaginations take over. This is why we ask questions and create doubts in our inner mind, which makes us think of what would happen.
The man continues reading the prologue softly and peacefully, music is being played in the background by medieval instruments. This was all said very slowly, paced, very serious and it was all said the same time as the music is being played.
The way the Prologue is spoken didn’t have the immediate impact on me because in the suppliant, it shows an old desolate place from the olden days which did not interest me to keep watching the film. I personally hate old films, and I do not like Shakespeare.
In Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet, the Prologue is spoken by an African-American woman. The Prologue is presented to us in three diverse ways, firstly, as a news broadcast, secondly, as a man’s voice with more drama than Zeffirelli and thirdly, by the sequence of the text that appears on the screen.
The Prologue shows a TV screen with a pitch black background. The TV screen shows the news being broadcasted, whereas in Zeffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet it is set in the olden days and then women were not allowed on stage. Being the fact that women were seen as the weaker sex then, and all they expected of them, were to be housewives.
If you have read the book “A View from the Bridge”, there is a similarity between it and “Romeo and Juliet”. When Catherine was trying to get a job and Eddie wasn’t quite comfortable, when she got a job because she was going to earn more than him, and much less was expected from a woman then.
Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet was spoken like the news; the news reader did not hurry through it. The woman’s tone of voice was tranquil; as everything that came on the news is real. I got the idea that everything being broadcast is true therefore it got my attention straight away. It made what happened seem realistic to me. The TV screen is far away, so it looked small. It gradually gets closer to us, as the story gets more and more into our mind's eye. As I watch the woman broadcasting it is as if the woman’s voice is getting louder and louder. It seems as if you are the camera and you are getting closer to the TV screen to see what is written above the newsreader’s shoulder. (This is our imaginations taking over, it’s like we are actually there at the scene because we picture it).
Luhrmann also shows us the Prologue in other ways such as when the man is speaking and the text comes up on the screen. The text is flashing on and off the screen very quickly, as he tries to make points about the mood, which was vicious and obsessive. This tells us the play is over a short period of time and that the whole lot happens very quickly, and the fast cuts also show us the mood which he creates, (Pace and Atmosphere).
The type of music that Zeffirelli uses is very dawdling, soft and old-fashioned, which is being played by old, medieval, instruments. Zeffirelli chooses this style of music so it ties in with the scenery of the play. The music sets a quiet mood as if something dreadful has happened or is about to happen. In the first scene of Zeffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet, they show us a busy market place, with people laughing and mocking about, then later there is fighting and violence going on, which was totally opposite to the mood that was created by the music. (Zeffirelli suddenly changes the “atmosphere” in slow or quicken the “pace” of the story).
In Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet they use very shrill choral music, but very theatrical. He chooses to use this so we can get the idea that the play is set in the modern world and he wants to have the idea and use of drama. The mood that the music creates is vicious and obsessive, so he uses this music to tell us that they’re fighting and yet love is going on. In the first scene they show us the violence in the garage. There they started shooting at each other. He uses a variety of modern violent music to get this through to us noticeably.
At the end of the Prologue in Zeffirelli’s edition of Romeo and Juliet, Zeffirelli ends by showing us the sun. He may have ended by this to maybe showing us that in the end the two families stopped fighting and saw the light, that all this quarrelling doesn’t seem to be relevant, but at a price of someone’s death. He may have shown us the sun because it is supposed to take place in very hot summer weather in the Old Italian City. The very hot weather is important to this play, because sometimes the hot weather frustrates people and makes them much more feasible to fight.
The title and graphics in Zeffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet is black and white at the beginning of the film which just shows us that the film is from the olden times and is set in the distant past. Then they show insipid colours and murky dust as if a war had just been fought. The lettering is outmoded and the words are in old English. It has the sun scenery behind it which symbolises the way of living in the distant past. The other writing that comes up on the screen looks as if it is dilapidated and is handwritten.
He makes the lettering look old by mixing the upper and lower case, which gives us the feeling that the play is old. He chooses this lettering so you get the idea that the film is set in the olden days because of the worn- out lettering and the style of the text.
In Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet the print that is used is white on black and in modern font, with serifs. They showed the writing at the important parts of the Prologue. Some parts were recurring so you get the idea in your head that it was important, and for impact, like “In Fair Verona”. At the last bit coming on the screen he used, red ampersand, and the “t” that looked like a gravestone, which is meant to give you a message of the plot ending, that Romeo and Juliet are dead.
