Shakespeare's work is well respected and even though he is not alive his work lives on through talented directors such as Franco Zefferilli and Baz lurhmann who did his play justice with their production of 'Romeo and Juliet'.

Name: Rochelle Jones

School: Clapton Girls’ Technology College

Center number: 10406

Candidate number:

Date: Friday 12th March 2003

Topic: Media

Shakespeare’s work is well respected and even though he is not alive his work lives on through talented directors such as Franco Zefferilli and Baz lurhmann who did his play justice with their production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

The scenes that I will be comparing are the opening and closing sequences of Romeo and Juliet. I will show how both directors interpret the same play differently; I will do this by exploring the different camera angles, music, costumes, colour and completely different settings.

Franco Zefferilli recreated ‘Romeo and Juliet’, in the traditional sixteenth century Verona in 1968, while Baz Lurhmann introduces the action as a television news item, this was created in 1997.

Even though Zefferilli’s version was set in the sixteenth century a great deal of the original text was edited, but this factor is not very important because the cast of the film showed their emotions through their body language and dialogue.

Franco Zefferilli opens the scene in the peaceful streets of Verona, Italy, with the servants of the house of Montague’s. Zefferlli shows this by positioning the camera to an over the shoulder shot, he does this because he wants to introduce the audience to the two feuding families. This is then followed by a mid- range shot of a crowd forming, and amongst the crowd is, Tybalt, a troublemaker and a Capulet. The camera is looking-up at a low angle. This was to represent status and power. In the sixteenth century, the colours a person would wear shows how high in society they are. Zefferilli used this skill and it created an enormous affect. The scene is now coming to an end and Tybalt fights with a Montague and the Montague gets hurt. A big close-up is used of Tybalt’s face; this shot was taken to symbolize his satisfaction of injuring someone.

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Baz Luhmann, in contrast, is very true to the original text. Luhmann’s version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a modern version of this tragic love story. Luhmann opens the scene in the noisy streets of Miami. Four members of the Montague family are driving in a flash sports car blaring music extremely loud, while pulling into a petrol station. This is where they bump into the Capulet’s and they start to argue. A low angle shot is taken, where the camera is looking up at Tybalt, I think he did this to show that Tybalt made the first move. This in contrast with, Zefferilli’s, he used the low angle shot to show status instead of confrontation. Because Tybalt made the first move it showed who had the upper hand in this situation he emphasizes the power and status at the same time.

Luhmann creates a magnificent impact in this shot, he keeps the audience in suspense, to make them eager to carrying on watching, to find out what would happen next.

The modern version, Luhmann, created used various forms of technology to create a more effective impact.

Tybalt orders Benviolio to draw his gun. In the original text it says:

‘‘Draw your sword’’

Luhmann did this very effectively, he zoomed in on the gun, which said SWORD and a picture of a sword, and he still found a way to keep the text alive in the film, this shot emphasized the danger and the power that Tybalt had, because he would be able to take someone’s life. This shot showed who had control, which is the Capulet’s. I think Luhmann created this idea to show the audience the fear and the emotions of having a gun pointed to their head. The scene ends with another extreme close-up of Benviolio’s watery eyes.

In both versions of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, both directors kept one thing the same according to Shakespeare’s text and that was the language used.

Zefferilli attracts audiences that follow the works of Shakespeare. This is because the authentic sixteenth century version was recreated.

Meanwhile, Luhmann captivates a completely different audience he rolls action, betrayal, love and death all into one and creates a fantastic film, which all-different age groups could understand. This was a complete crossover from Shakespeare’s traditional audience into the audience of blockbusters movies.

Both directors are very imaginative in the way they used different colours to represent different things. For example, the colour black represents power and status and black represents danger and mystery. Also the colour red presents temptation, love, angry etc. Zefferilli used the same location as Shakespeare to interpretate his perceptions of Romeo and Juliet.

Baz Luhmann, uses slightly different techniques, he set Romeo and Juliet in today’s society in Miami. Instead of using swords, daggers, and horses he used guns and the imagery of gun warfare. This version appeals to a younger audience so they can relate to it.

Franco Zefferilli ends his authentic version of Romeo and Juliet with a mid-range shot of Romeo walking into the church finding Juliet dead. This is followed by a close-up of Juliet wakening up to find Romeo dead, the camera cuts and is followed by an extreme close-up of a dagger. This emphasizes what Juliet is about to do, is she really thinking about her actions? Obviously not because the shot is followed by a close-up of a dagger plunging into her heart, Juliet then smiles before her last breath knowing that she would be with Romeo soon. It is now clear that the love that the two shared would never die.

The scene finally ends by the camera moving at a steady pace, of the two families carrying the two lovers bodies in the now peaceful streets of Verona. The only thing that Romeo and Juliet accomplished after their deaths was to stop the two feuding families from arguing.

Luhmann, on the other hand, ends the modern day version of Romeo and Juliet in Colloquial style. The scene starts with an extreme close up of Romeo’s eyes; this is to show the sorrow and the pain inflicted on him when Juliet is taken away from him. This is then followed by an over the shoulder shot of Romeo holding Juliet. Juliet hand starts to move and she starts to wake up, but by this time it is too late Romeo has already drunk the poison and sees Juliet’s face. Juliet takes the bottle to see if he has left any for her, but he has not. The shot is of a big close up of the gun and the audience now realizes what she is going to do. The shot switches with a two shot close-up of the dead lovers.

Both directors did exceptional pieces of work with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, Luhmann’s version affected me more, bringing tears to my eyes. I now realize that:

“There is no Romeo without his Juliet”