Romeo and Juliet Essay The media piece I am writing about is Romeo and Juliet. It was directed by Bag Alarming and was made in 1996. In the film ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Alarming uses a mixture of sound and visual techniques to make a Shakespearian play appeal to a modern audience successfully. The original plays written in 1595 and Alarming has put the play into a modern perspective for the days of 1996.
In the story there’s two rivaling families, The Capsules and The Montages, the two families vendettas had lived for a long time and the two rivals children, Romeo Montague and Juliet Caplet, fall in love and get aired, they find that they can never be together, Juliet pretends to take her own life but none tells Romeo and he kills himself as Juliet awakens, she too kills herself.
Alarming uses several key scenes to appeal to a modern audience such as, the petrol station scene, the ball scene and Meretricious death scene This first paragraph is about the cast of the film, the cast has been well chosen for the film with Leonardo Did Capri as Romeo, he was already famous for other film roles and brought a wider audiences attention to the film. Juliet was played Claim Danes who wasn’t as famous as Leonardo Did Capri at the time but she makes film more dramatic as she wasn’t as well known and can show people how good and actress she is. He effect of casting these two young, attractive Americans was that a younger audience would want to see the film and a larger audience was created. The prologue begins with an old T. V. In the middle of the screen with static on it, the camera then begins to zoom into the centre of the screen making viewers focus on the television, a news report then comes on with an American reporter and an image of a broken wedding ring behind her, the ring has Romeo and Juliet initials on it, the broken ring symbolizes a broken legislations within the story, the reporter then says; “Two households, both alike in dignity.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge, break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean, from fourth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star crossed lovers take their lives. ” This is repeated twice more in a booming males voice, with flashing images of fight scenes and havoc from different parts of the film, some of the words the narrator says are flashed up on screen so that viewers can understand what’s happening. The prologue is made to kick like an action film with parts f the above quote on newspapers, there is loud operatic music in the background.
The use of these things helps a modern audience understand how dramatically vile the vendetta between the two rivals really was because t. Vs. and newspapers are identified easily as people use them everyday. In the petrol station scene, The Montague boys are introduced, the song “The Boys, The Boys” is playing in the background and they are shouting and driving erratically, as they go to the petrol station, Romeos cousin, Benevolent, gets out of the car and the camera freeze frames on his face and gives his title and relation to Romeo. O show viewers whoso related to who and what side of the vendetta each character is on. The Montages then begin to make rude gestures toward some nuns as The Caplet boys roll in to the garage. Table, Juliet cousin, gets out the car and western style music begins to play the camera then freezes on Tables face and gives his title and relation to Juliet. The Caplet boys and The Montague boys then eye each other up and the camera cuts to western zooming on Table and Benevolent eyes, Alarming does this to give a dramatic effect to the audience about how tense the atmosphere is between the two families.
The camera then cuts to a creaking sign saying “add more fuel to your fire” this tells the audience that there is going to be a fight between the families. As the two families begin to fight it becomes obvious why Alarming chose the setting of a petrol station because its flammable like the rivalry of the two families and is used everyday by the modern day viewers. In the party scene, Romeo meets Juliet for the first time, before they met Romeo and the Montague boys met up at the beach with Mercuric, Romeos best friend, who appears dressed as a woman, Mercuric then gives Romeo a pill before going into the Capsules fancy dress ball.
The camera begins to spin and blurry to show that Romeo is stoned/high. Alarming uses this camera method to let the audience try to relate to what’s going on with Romeo, as the camera begins to spin faster Romeo lifts his head from a basin of water and throws his mask away to show that he isn’t hiding himself anymore, as he looks at the fishtail, Juliet appears on the other side of the tank and Romeo immediately fell in love with her. At this point , the song ‘Young Hearts” is playing and Juliet is pulled away by Nurse to see her mother.
As Romeo leads Juliet away from Paris the song “Kissing You” begins to play and the couple egging to kiss in the lift, this shows the audience that the film is about the true love of the two “star cross’s lovers”. As Juliet leaves Romeo with her family, they realize that because of their families feud they can never be together, at this point the camera looks down at Romeo making him seem vulnerable and up at Juliet showing that he realizes he can never have Juliet.
The costumes in this scene speak for all the characters personalities, in the Caplet family, Table is wearing a devil costume showing he is slick and a troublemaker, Juliet mother, Gloria, is dressed as Cleopatra showing she has tots of power over Verona. Juliet father was dressed as Julius Cesar which shows he is the ruler overran, Juliet was dressed as an angel, showing that she is pure and holy, the man she was supposed to marry, Paris, was dressed as a spaceman to show he had his head in the clouds, then there was Romeo dressed as a knight in shining armor to show he is brave.
All the costumes worn at the party reflect greatly on the characters personalities. Alarming uses this method to easily identify the characters to a modern audience. In Meretricious death scene Alarming uses the method of pathetic fallen, this means the weather mimics the mood or atmosphere of the film, in his death scene, Mercuric is stabbed by Table, as he dies he places a curse on both families as their vendetta has caused his death.
In the beginning of this scene there is an extreme long shot of the beach, Mercuric is in centre shot standing under storm clouds, this shows something is about to happen to him. The Caplet boys appear wanting to see Romeo, Mercuric goes on to mock Table, a fight then begins between Romeo, Mercuric and Table in a derelict theatre, it all destabilize quickly as Table stabs Mercuric with a stab f glass, at this point Alarming uses pathetic fallen toyshop that its a dark moment within the film as the storm begins to rage through Verona.
Alarming uses this method also to show Romeos anger toward Table by using Pathetic Fallen again making the weather deteriorate. The use of this method is to show the modern viewer how Romeo sees thighs and how he is feeling. My Conclusion. Learns aim with this film was to use a variety of visual and sound techniques to make Romeo and Juliet appeal to a modern day audience. Alarming has had great success with this as he has made a modern day audience enjoy Shakespeare works centuries after it was written by using techniques such as ‘Pathetic Fallen’ and ‘Extreme Long Shots’.
As a member of a modern day audience, the audio and visual techniques added a sense of understanding and some areas of the film relatable, which made me enjoy the film further. The film taught me that the weather and music can really dramatist a scene, never to fight in petrol stations and that love can be found anywhere. In some ways Shakespeare love story is still relevant in such ways as you can fall in love with anyone and that nothing can stop true love.
