Romeo and Juliet- Media Coursework

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Maryam Rehman                                                                                                             English coursework

A comparison of two film versions’ treatment of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Act1 Scene 1

The two films of Romeo and Juliet I will be studying is Baz Luhrmann’s film in 1997 and Franco Zeffirelli’s in 1968 The Act 1 Scene 1 focuses on the beginning of the films and the comparisons between them. Franco’s Zeffirelli’s film won an academy awards for best cinematography and best costume design. Baz Luhrmann’s film received an academy award nomination.

At the beginning of Zeffirelli’s film It starts straight with the prologue and the music is very calm, the camera zooms slowly towards the sun, and the narrator speaks in a slow deep voice this gives an impression of quite a hushed atmosphere to the scene. This is very dissimilar to Luhrmann’s film Where It starts with a newsreader telling us of Verona. The music then starts and is very tense and the narrator speaks out the prologue as the words are in bold on the screen. As the narrator says out the Prologue there are fast snapshots of the Chaos and anarchy in Verona. It also includes the Quote “A pair of star cross’d lovers take their lives”. This is shown at the end and the prologue then stops and the Film begins.

In Zeffirelli’s the scene after the prologue goes straight to a high angle shot of the city of Verona and a low angle shot of the Church this symbolises the importance of religion in Verona. It is very sunny and this makes it more realistic as Verona is a very hot place. There is a pan shot of Benvolio with his friends as he walks through the marker square, there are many people around them wearing elaborate clothes and there is a lot of noise in the back. There is a medium shot of when Mercutio and Tybalt get into a argument when Tybalt bites his thumb at Benvolio There is a close up of both their angry expressions this makes us understand how they feel. There is a low angle shot of the ringing of the bells before the fight begins, this signifies them all getting there weapons. When they draw there swords and fight there is a pan shot of all the action, as everyone begins to fight.

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There is a High angle shot of all the commotion. When the prince arrives the camera focuses on the feet of the horse and there is then a close up of the prince, the music stops as he tells the Montague’s and the Capulet’s of the Disturbance of Verona. There is then a Long shot of the Prince riding away into the distance. The scene changes and there is a close up of Lady Montague and Benvolio talking about Romeo They are in the shade and the light is very Limited there is also no music, this gives an effect ...

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