Romeo + Juliet

Dr Steve GaunsonTextual CrossingsRMIT University

Baz as adapter

• 2013 The Great Gatsby

• 2008 Australia

• 2001 Moulin Rouge!

• 1996 Romeo + Juliet

• 1992 Strictly Ballroom

Canonical adaptation

• What happens when we don’t have to read the original?

• Should we read the original play? • Are plays meant to be read or performed?• How does one add something new to R & J —

when the dialogue cannot change?

Faithful adaptation?

• The opening scenes of the film include the Prologue and Act 1, Scene 1 of the play.

• Fans are not mistaken for the subject

• But equally it plays differently• It introduces a mixture and

mixing of genre• Baroque

Unlike Shakespeare casting — Hollywood casting

Claire Danes• 1996 To Gillian on Her 37th

Birthday • 1996 I Love You, I Love You

Not • 1995 Home for the Holidays • 1995 How to Make an

American Quilt

Leonardo DiCaprio• 1996 The Basketball Diaries• 1995 The Quick and the

Dead 1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape

• As Leitch argues — R + J plays around with adaptation through its own play of adaptation.

• Doesn’t faithfully apply to one particular mode

• Is this distracting? Does it work? Does it give a deeper understanding of R + J?

• Was Baz attempting a similar thing in The Great Gatsby (same star also)

1. Its extreme reluctance to change Shakespeare’s exact words, despite heavy cuts throughout, indicates it as a celebration of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

2. It makes many adjustments to its source. Compressing many lines and speeches and even a few virtually complete scenes (e.g., 4.5). In addition, it expands

Shakespeare’s death scene and seeks to correct it by having Juliet awaken just in time to see Romeo poison himself, giving the doomed lovers time for one last living embrace. Plays with pace also (MTV editing)

4. Luhrmann’s creation of a visual track and a sound track pointedly at odds with Shakespeare’s poetry separates the dialogue from the rest of the film, which assumes the status of a neoclassical imitation (plays with genre), not of Shakespeare’s

play but of Shakespeare’s language.5. Despite his modern-day production, Luhrmann

seeks to translate the spirit of Shakespeare’s play for a modern audience through revision (i.e. neon lights to substitute for candles).

6. Luhrmann is notorious for his colonization of his sources. Auteurs prints their own distinct stamp on the film. Think how this films relates to Baz’s other movies through pace, style, marketing, and casting.

7. Constantly questions itself through its deconstructions (think Adaptation also). Makes direct reference to itself as a deconstruction of Shakespeare. Casts unlikely Shakespeare actors. How would they play Romeo and/or Juliet? How would one shoot this play as a genre mashup?

8. The film is filled with examples of both parody and pastiche. Moments before Romeo accosts Juliet at her balcony, he trips over the swimmingpool gear. Later, he falls on two separate occasions into the pool, once taking Juliet with him.

9. Luhrmann is fond of secondary imitation. Adaptations of adaptations. The pool itself, however, is faithfully copied from the 1936 MGM Romeo and Juliet.

10. Luhrmann’s films depend more than most on a dense network of allusion. Allusion to other films, periods and references. Think of the music. And billboard references (product placement).