We are introduced to the movie by a newsreader on a TV, the newsreader acting as Shakespeare’s narrator. Themes of the original play are still important here, love versus family hatred, youth versus age, transcend the four hundred year gap. In this opening sequence of the film we are introduced to the main characters and to the feuding Montagues and Capulets.
Filmed in Mexico City, Vera Cruz, Los Angeles and San Francisco the natural sunshine gives the Verona, Italy feel. Luhrmann’s ideas are emphasized here in the over saturated colours, clothes and sounds of the movie. This is the second film of Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Red Curtain Trilogy’, (the others being Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge), a concept by which the director wants the audience to feel like they are watching a play on a stage, so they know not everything is real. Not all viewers would be familiar with the language of Shakespeare so the mise en scene as well as the actors’ movements are very important to make sure that the audience knows what is going on within the dialogue.
The Baz Luhrmann directed ‘William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet’ tells the Romeo and Juliet story using Shakespearean Language set in a modern day environment. Scene Analyzed: The Opening Sequence of the Baz Luhrmann directed ‘William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet’ (1996) from the Introduction to the end of the Garage scene, or The Prologue.