Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Baz Luhrmann has succeeded in bringing Shakespeare to a young more modern audience. He has done this by using techniques such as mise-en-scene, montage and various genres. These are used in relation to the themes of the play, which are destiny, love, violence and death. The cinematic techniques help to capture the interest of modern audiences while retaining the original language by using up to date resources.

The opening scenes make us aware that the film is a modern day version of the film. For example, at the very beginning, a black lady newsreader is reading the prologue. This is different to the original play, because in Shakespeare’s time, a white man dressed as Shakespeare would have read it. The television that the female newsreader is in at the beginning of the film is seen as just a little black dot with a tiny white dot in the centre of it to begin with. The camera then zooms in on it. The prologue is then repeated with pictures to help the a...