Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet

1. Romeo + Juliet
Dr Steve Gaunson
Textual Crossings
RMIT University

2. Baz as adapter
• 2013 The Great Gatsby
• 2008 Australia
• 2001 Moulin Rouge!
• 1996 Romeo + Juliet
• 1992 Strictly Ballroom

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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

6. • 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)

7. 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)

8. 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).

9. 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?

10. 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).