Wednesday 25 January 2012

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

In Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', the classic story is taken and modified; to it Luhrmann added many modern elements which of course would not have been around at the time, such as cars and guns. Many aspects of the story are highlighted and exaggerated, for example the Montague and Capulet families, the power they hold, and their feud (we see a shot of the two buildings with the logos of the family names on, in contrast to each other and far apart). Rather than bringing in music for the soundtrack which would have only existed then, Luhrmann got artists such as Radiohead to write the songs, thus bringing in aspects of different cultures and mixing up the style. This may be applied to postmodern as it goes against the conventional aspects of an adaptation of a story such as this.
There are intertextual references in that certain things are reused in the film, such as the use of the 'L'amour' billboard advertisement in the same font with the same colours as the Coca Cola logo. Luhrmann doesn't claim the style as his own, therefore being another way in which it is postmodern. Also, on the advertisement it says 'Wherefore' which mixes the language and setting of the classic story and the modern elements.

In relation to something only being postmodern if the audience is literate enough to understand it, literally everyone will be able to notice the more obvious things in the film such as the inclusion of modern objects, the fact that they speak as though from the Elizabethan era- in an American accent, the use of the dance-like music such as in the scene when they are partying and the wardrobe being quite unlike how it would have been if it was set long ago.

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