The opening overture begins with a pitch black screen which cuts to very small TV. Changing via remote control, eventually the sixties set is tuned in to Romeo and Juliet’s world. Suddenly, the prologue is read as a news bulletin, showing the connection and relevance between the story and our contemporary world. The camera zooms into the screen to draw emphasis to the prologue’s last, “Is now the two hours traffic of our stage” and we are literally absorbed into the world of Verona.
Excitedly, flashes of the rough, urban landscape authenticate the world of Verona. “IN FAIR VERONA” bursts onto the screen repeatedly, forcing us to swallow the drama of this film. A wall of choral music slams the ear, elevating excitement to an almost intolerable degree. We see the divide in the city, displayed with the Capulet and Montague skyscrapers, situated at either side of Main Street, and the Statue of Christ uniting the two in the centre. Then a still caption of “IN FAIR VERONA” provides a sense of passion and once again accustoms us the style of Renaissance English decorative.
The focus now shifts to “library” footage of life around the city, establishing a sense of history behind the current chaos. With various shots of the police force and helicopters, Luhrmann suggests that Verona is under constant patrol and surveillance. Shots of a riot and a man being rescued express the tragic proportion of the violence endemic in this town. The rapidity of all these shots raise tension and my excitement.
The prologue is then repeated as a voice over and accompanied by shots of headlines such as “Ancient Grudge”, each coupled with pictures of the rival family trees, with Romeo and Juliet portrayed as children, perhaps suggesting they are the only innocent ones in this tale. Police rush out of a helicopter as the prologue continues and we see the Montague and Capulet couples looking extremely grim. Following this, two still captions engage the screen, “A pair of star cross’d lovers” and “Take their life”, the tragic outcome of the action stated defiantly.
Now for Luhrmann’s final intention as we are introduced to characters through action shots freezing and captioned with names to establish their presence in Verona Beach and their importance in the film. Rapid fire shots show us the printed lines of the prologue once again to really help us get to grips with the language. This is followed by a montage of key moments from the film and then a still of “William Shakespeare’s Romeo +Juliet” announced that we had really arrived.
I paused and thought to myself, if the first two minutes were this good, how supreme would the rest be? This is a must see film, so grab your popcorn and your bag of tissues and buy this DVD now.
