Hollywood has developed many Shakespeare plays into motion pictures, but this does not always reach success. Hollywood does this to increases their cultural standing reputation, and also making more money in the process, with the already made script provided by Shakespeare. Two individual directors directed the two motion pictures, Australian director Baz Luhrmann, who had success in the early 90’s “Strictly Ballroom”, a kitsch domestic drama, which achieved landmark critical and commercial success. Kenneth Branagh a British actor, director and producer who is internationally recognised as one of the leading actor-director of his generation.
Despite the fact this preview trailer of “Rome + Juliet” is a Shakespeare play produced into a motion picture, we see the “+” sign in between the Romeo and Juliet, this indicates that the title is a fashionable adoption of its definition, a slang recognition, which teens use a lot, in language as well as writing. So by looking at the title we know this is more of a radical version of the play, aimed at teens in particular. I think that the music used in this trailer works on two levels, one that suggests that the film is for both sex’s/audiences, the clips back this up. In the trailer we get fast and furious action scenes with rock music, this targets the male audiences in particular, a typical male would be more interested in this than a romance trailer.
Whereas most female audience prefer a romantic theme, in this case Des’ree is used. This like the fast and furious scenes has a perfect match with music. The second level in which music is used with the trailer is what category of music is used, so the trailer has taken a popular kind of music aimed at teens, who are the biggest audience going to cinemas, and this has resulted in rock music. But because the film is entitled “Romeo + Juliet”, its traditional that the trailer should have something romantic to associate with the title, and Des’ree is well received.
“Romeo + Juliet” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. DiCaprio made his film debut in “This Boy’s Life,” and his performance in his next film, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?,” merited an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Danes won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy nomination for her work on the highly regarded television drama, “My So-Called Life.” She went on to garner praise for her portrayal of the frail, winsome sister, Beth, in Gillian Armstrong’s feature film “Little Women.” These awards gave the actor and actress more recognition and opportunities in their acting career, and this has offered them roles in a famous play developed into movie. DiCaprio and Danes play convincing roles, but what makes them a good choice in casting is because they are young and attractive, this appeals to the youth audience, and draws interest to a range of people, such as fans of the actor/actress, but even supporting cast can also draw in crowds. But the movie centers DiCaprio and Danes, together and separately, are more compelling and more passionate than any previous movie pairing of “Romeo & Juliet” DiCaprio has an edgy intensity and a sensitive side, while Danes (the best teen actress since Jodie Foster) captures Juliet’s wide-eyed innocence and her iron determination.
The costumes and clothes used is a very clever choice as well as an ecletic mix, it is linked with the story line of the movie, neat trick of having the rivals wearing different designer labels, Dolce & Gabbana for the Capulet boys, Prada for Romeo. During the ballroom scene in film and trailer we see the knight in shining armour look, and the damsel in distress angelic appearance, this is used to keep a traditional Shakespeare theme, as most of the film is a mix of modern day 90’s clothing.
The colour and design of the trailer, is split into two sections, the rapid action scenes, and the blue romantic fish tank scene. The fish-tank scene portrays the love between Romeo and Juliet; the fish tank represents the barrier/family that become of the two. Whereas the rapid flashes of clips which contain action, violence, is unlike Shakespeare, but has been adapted by Baz Luhrmann so that the modern elements are blended almost seamlessly in to the original script.
Dialogue, and captions, keeping the original script was essential since it is written poetically, and no one in there right mind would change the words of a poem since that would defy the whole point of it. In the trailer little dialogue is used so that the audience is kept interested by the structure of the trailer. Audiences in these days think that language used in Shakespeare’s plays, are boring, and hard to understand, but this film is aimed at the youth market, so what makes the language successful in the movie is how it is adapted with the 90’s surroundings. Though most of the rich poetry is kept intact the words onscreen are elevated, because they describe the story very briefly, but yet very detailed too, along with footage to support it. “From age to age, One classic story, Is as timeless, As love itself, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Dialogue spoken by DiCaprio has a since of poetic, but modern English expression.
The editing and montage, gun fire scenes replace sword plays, Verona beach replaces the city of Verona, gang violence replaces family rivalries and other elements like the taking of hallucinogenic drugs and the drag act appear convincingly with the original dialogue as if they were always meant to be there. Looking at the trailer, though I have seen the film before the trailer, I pick up a lot of the story line, not to mention that it is based on a well known play by Shakespeare, but even for a person who has not seen the film, should more or less know that it is a love story brought into the modern society of the 90’s, but what is kept unclear is the language used in the film, when I first saw the film I didn’t expect the film to have all of the poetic language intact with the film, but it does work well, and because the film is set in the 90’s I think it is much more easier to understand.
