Romeo And Juliet Comparative Essay

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“Romeo & Juliet” is a famous love story written by William Shakespeare. The play features two star-crossed lovers who are madly in love with each other, trying to make it through the afflictions of the Capulets and the Montagues, their feuding families. Franco Zeffirelli directed the first film in 1968, and then was later recreated by Baz Luhrmann in 1996. Both directors have focused on different elements, differentiating in technical and visual features. Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann both depicted the story of “Romeo and Juliet” from different perspectives, therefore resulting in two entirely different outcomes. I will be discussing the similarities and differences from the well-known balcony scene featured in the two films. The…show more content…
The film versions of Romeo and Juliet benefit from skills such as camera angles, and editing to bring more meaning and anticipation for the audience. The changes in the Zeffirelli film are made to serve the meaning of love, whereas the Luhrmann adaption possesses more of the original Shakespeare to accentuate the catastrophic nature of the story. In Zeffirelli’s film, Juliet confessed her love on the balcony; an adequate amount of attention is to her breasts. This feature shows that Franco’s focal point is the physical features of the love between the two. In Baz Luhrmann film, there is indeed no balcony. Romeo and Juliet meet at the same level. Luhrmann’s pool setting shows symbolism, the use of water is common whenever Romeo and Juliet are shown. For example, they both first spot each other through an aquarium at the Capulet feast. Their reunion is once again made when Romeo scares Juliet and they both fall in the pool. The use of water symbolises purity in their love, this is absent in Zeffirelli’s adaption. In both films, the directors show that no one else can see Romeo and Juliet together in the Capulet residence, but the lord himself. This was more recognizable in Luhrmann’s version. When the nurse calls Juliet within her room, Juliet does not come in right away. So when the nurse looks through the window and
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