Romeo + Juliet = ?

With the release of Elemental, a new unconventional retelling of Romeo and Juliet, we thought we’d look back at some of our favorite adaptations of the classic Shakespeare story.

Author

Tyler Clark
June 12, 2023

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the Film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

With the release of Elemental, a new unconventional retelling of Romeo and Juliet, we thought we’d look back at some of our favorite adaptations of the classic Shakespeare story.

Letʼs start with our most faithful adaptation and, in many people's opinion, the definitive film adaptation of this work.

Today we will be discussing the wonderfully weird world of Baz Luhrmann with Romeo + Juliet.

Luhrmann the Mad Genius

Baz Luhrmann is a much-derided figure within film landscapes.

It feels like every 3-5 years we’re having the “is Baz Luhrmann good at making movies debate” whether itʼs him in his bag with works such as The Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge or material he struggled with like Australia.

Then you have odd cases like Elvis where he crushes the first half but kind of falls apart when he’s asked to tell a conventional story in a conventional manner. But I would say this is a film that is somewhat inarguable in itʼs excellence.

From its restrained editing (by Luhrmann’s standards) and its sweeping score to his stylish post MTV cinematography and his insanely rich color palettes, it highlights his very singular style and feels unlike any other you've ever seen.

Stick to the Script

What makes Romeo + Juliet interesting is not what they change, but what they keep the same.

Namely, the dialogue remains unchanged from Shakespere’s original text.

Luhrmann is very clearly trying to communicate the evergreen nature of the writing. By setting it in “modern” times he’s showing off the timeless nature of the emotions with which Willaim Shakespeare was pulling from.

There are genuine moments that will make you gasp even with dialogue that is so… Steamy?

It does sound quite strange to say about a text written in the late 1500s but it all reads as so charged to this day. And the way they mix in that swooning score is absolute magic with lines like “Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged”.

Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like it's 1591

Let’s close by talking about today’s scene and why it’s the perfect intro to this film, specifically, the looks given to DiCaprio and Clare Danes.

The clip adapts the scene from the play in which Romeo and friends go to a costume party hosted by their family rival Capulet.

The costumes are done by designer Kym Barrett (in her first credit), the designer behind some of the best dressed films in modern Hollywood history including Jordan Peele’s Us, Shane Black’s The Nice Guys and the Wachowskis' entire output.

And the looks are so brilliant. Our leads come dressed so classically, feeling like they’ve been plucked out of the Elizabethian era: Romeo the knight in shining armor, Juliet the angel.

Meanwhile, you have every other character wearing more contemporary or at least more kitschy outfits. The most extreme example is Romeo’s romantic rival, Count Paris, (portrayed by Paul Rudd) who is firmly planted in our modern world dressed as an astronaut, showing a complete dissonance between himself and Juliet.

Heavy handed as it is, at the end of the day it's Baz being Baz and it works plain and simple.

Subtleties for the birds, man.

Today’s Scene

Stream It

If you want to watch  Romeo + Juliet at home, you can find it here.

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