Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet beyond the Boundaries of Page: An Analysis of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and its Balcony Scene

Abstract

Whenever a literary work of art crosses the boundaries of page and is transformed in a theatrical play or movie; it goes through a long and complex process of adaptation. What the audience sees and hears on stage or in the big screen is a result of a long journey of work and preparation made by directors and producers according to their conception. Walking in this path, the present paper aims at observing Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, entitled, Romeo + Juliet and released in 1996. The analysis focuses on how Lurhmann constructed the balcony scene, one of the most famous scenes of the Shakespearian playtext. The analysis shows us that Lurhmann’s version is one of the most visually radical screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s text and it is capable of impressing the modern spectators and making them aware of the fact that the human artistic capacity is able to cross unimaginable limits of creativity and transform a literary work of art in a great spectacle.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2012.v2n4p53