Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet

my problem briefly stated is/was (guess i'd have to rewatch to see if it still holds) that the cleverness of the setting (s. beach, you see) was an obstacle rather than an illumination, ie luhrmann et al have to spend most of their energy convincing you, shot by shot, line by line, that their conceit works...the DO YOU SEE moments where they (frinstance) item-zoom the brand name on their guns (SWORD) when whoever says "put up your sword," totally laborious.

meanwhile, the principals (who have trouble with the english language on good days) are left to fend for themselves. it's like luhrmann spent all this energy building a pretty facade on a structure he a) thought was too boring to stand on its own, and concomitantly b) thought would always just be there to hold him up, no matter how mealy-mouthed and cursory it was read.

i think the ahem oedipal target of R+J is not Shk himself but the even worse franco zeferelli version; it's not a "subversive reading" but an attempted rescue!

xpost yeah that helped out too didn't it. actually that reminds me! i haven't seen moulin rouge either.

i don't consider the attitudes/characters/plot to be un-modern, or dead. ..and my problem (restated) is that if u do ur lost at the outset. quit fucking abt and just DO the PLAY man, quit stepping on your own feet!

the best Shk productions i've seen have been very pared down but more importantly take place in no-time, costume etc might have some internal consistency but don't refer to anything specific, certainly not anything as useless as the modern day; the language is done at full speed (and this is a conceit itself) as if it weren't no thing; if a joke can be played for today's valences then fine, if not, just keep going forward. "two hours traffic" is no joke; there really was no dead time in these at all, hardly any time to insert anything.

g-off, did you see almereyda's "hamlet" w/ethan hawke? i thought this was an extremely successful "updating" of shakespeare on film.

I did actually get this impression of R+J: a lot of the signifiers are explicitly modern but recognisable everyday reality is not one of them: it feels much more like taking certain aspects of contemporary life and exaggerating them into some sort of dream world.

I loved this film when I was 14, too: hearts, Greg, for this thread. Also you SO need to meet Ria asap, she was obsessed as well: you can talk to each other about R+J and Gareth.

Oddly, this time around, I didn't like the priest as much.

Um...I kinda thought that was the point.

i think i had to watch the zeferelli r&j more than once in high school, and with a STERN WARNING abt the TEEN TITTY each time.

1. Thematically resonant/modern, today (Othello, Troilus!, R&J, Hamlet, to some extent A&C and Lear, not really the comedies or histories, definitely not Titus)

2. Dramatically, resonant/modern, today, as films judged against films, in terms of how the story is actually told. (Othello, Comedy of Errors, probably nothing else?)

3. The cultural artifacts around which western culture is built (The "great tragedies" and R&J, and to some extent Ceasar and Anthony, less else than one might think).

xpost bbbut this "very specific R. idea of italy" would not have been conveyed in any physical sense in the orig productions! so what do we do to be faithful? (not being stroppy with you here; it's an interesting question)

doing shakespeare in contemp (or even 19th cent) theatrical conventions (the proscenium, lights, sets) is as much an adaptation as doing a film really.

I think one way (and this is not at all a conclusive answer) people have sensibly-ish dealt with the "very specific idea" is by 'diffrent-historical-period'-style adaptions (eg Ren. audiences know Italy is full of poisoners and creeps, where is the equivalent to the imagination of now?) (haha Italy), and for me the strength of BL's R&J is that it addresses this in a very very clever way - ie saying that what we need to equivolate is as much the sense of Italy as strange magical, a place of dream and intrigue and legend experienced only onstage, as the sense of it being violent, full of poisoners etc...

*but not costume! but these were all anachronistic as well ie no togas in julius caesar etc.

you are the donk of baz luhrmann

Strictly Ballroom is actually pretty good.

i'm quite amazed to hear that Luhrmann is not gay.

He was, one understands, gay before the marriage. And still declines to identify as straight.

He was, one understands, gay before the marriage. And still declines to identify as straight.

Actually I find this radically defensible.

Which means I am all the worst qualities of gay males without any of the good ones.

Baz is the Tom Robinson of Aussie auteurs

i like the idea that there is a difference between people who saw this and knew what florida was, so that it felt like a "modernizing" production, and people who saw this but really had no idea about florida and so the setting was as imaginary as Verona had been to shsksp's contemporaries

I know where Florida is, motherfucker.

Strictly Ballroom is actually pretty good.

cosign, easily my fave of his movies

Moulin Rouge! has some great set pieces but doesn't hang together for me.

I suspect I wd prefer the Ethan Hawke Hamlet (which really is good)

― Dr Morbius,

omg gtfo

It is!

it is pretty good

Leo as Gatsby in 3D, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1655573/baz-luhrmann-considering-3d-great-gatsby.jhtml

I suspect I wd prefer the Ethan Hawke Hamlet (which really is good)

― Dr Morbius,

been wanting to see this for so long, really must get round to it

that Baz Luhrmann can get anywhere near The Great Gatsby seems like a terrible thing

Leo as Lassie.

all i needed to know about this film was: benny blanco from the bronx =/= tybalt from verona ... and i was not disappointed.

this movie isn't good but leo and claire are both gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrgeous and do good jobs; every time the movie takes a fucking breath to let them hang out and speak actual full lines it's better than the zeffirelli. pete posthelwaite's good too i seem to remember.

oh and yeah leguizamo.

i still wanna play tybalt. peace?

leguizamo kills it

will never really be able to separate "this movie" from "seeing it at age 11"

or from "wearing the CD soundtrack out in 6th grade"

cast of upcoming adaptation by carlo carlei

Hailee Steinfeld ...
Juliet
Paul Giamatti ...
Friar Laurence
Ed Westwick ...
Tybalt
Douglas Booth ...
Romeo
Kodi Smit-McPhee ...
Benvolio
Christian Cooke ...
Mercutio
Lesley Manville ...
The Nurse

chuck bass at tybalt is kind of inspired, he will be "good" but not good, or good but not "good" or whatever

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ4NzExMjA4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjE3NDMxNw@@._V1._CR0,0,1365,1365_SS99_.jpg Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY2OTEwMDUzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODU1NTQwMw@@._V1._CR0,0,333,333_SS99_.jpg What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ4NzExMjA4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjE3NDMxNw@@._V1._CR0,0,1365,1365_SS99_.jpg I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY2OTEwMDUzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODU1NTQwMw@@._V1._CR0,0,333,333_SS99_.jpg What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee: Have at thee, coward!

have never seen this film, but Baz's Gatsby is gonna make it look good.

I saw R&M at the Public Theatre about 25 years ago w/ Cynthia Nixon, Peter MacNicol and Anne Meara (aka Ben Stiller's mom) as the Nurse.

i love leguizamo inordinately. this isn't a terrible film, it's just one of those things made more terrible by a cohort of its fanbase

the production & costume design on this movie is crazy good

i love leguizamo in it, and also harold perrineau's mercutio, though despite all this i'd say simply ballroom is the only luhrmann i really like

Leguizamo claims to be 47

HAHAHAHA

I love him. I feel like 47 could be right, no?

I know people who did downtown improv with him in '79, and he was out of high school

52 if he's a day

if only yer taste in politics and baseball teams were as good as yer taste in films, morbz ;_;

i despise baz lurhmann's films generally.

moulin rouge shares honors with napoleon dynamite as the worst "good" film that i turned off well before the halfway point b/c otherwise i would've hulk-smashed the DVD player.

at least i made it through romeo + juliet ... and was rewarded with radiohead at least.

"rewarded"

Douglas Booth ...
Romeo

That's just good twink-casting right there.

"rewarded"

― wolf kabob (ENBB), Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I thot we were agreed on politics, Eisbaer? fuck em all

Just wanted to share this glorious pan of ELVIS
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/elvis-review-baz-luhrmann-1234728121/

Watching this for the first time in foreverrrrrr and

- had forgotten how good the opening brawl is
- I always remember how great Harold Perrineau’s Mercutio is, Leguizamo’s Tybalt also incredible
- soundtrack remains on point, Talk Show Host for that initial scene with Romeo is so great
- I have NO memory of this sauna with Juliet’s father and Paris
- you really get the textual sense of “These are two stupid and overly dramatic teenagers” in this adaptation, I was laughing at Romeo scribbling in his diary while sulking on the beach
- what was going on with Juliet’s mother and Paris like

Luhrmann's first couple of films are really good including this one

Leguizamo same, sadly misapplied talent

WHY UNCLE, TIS A SHAME is a fucking banner of a line

Also, “give me my sin again”

Banger *

MAKE A MUTINY AMONG MY GUESTS?

Also love how Leguizamo delivers the 'peace? Peace?' line.

Seen this so many times through teaching the text that I have no distance from it at all. Love it. I must say 'the boys the boys' a couple of times a week.

Yeah that’s a superb delivery and the pause & crunch is insanely great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux2FgZizcrc

So great, lurzman struck serious gold here, everything else he’s done has been completely not my thing at all, this is so weird and dreamy and sensational

Yeah, he’s such a hacky vulgarian, no idea how he had it in him to make this.

otm to everything in the revive except nv's lament for leguizamo who has had imo a very interesting time of it

he may have continued to be really good in stuff i'm not interested in tbf

what a great film
ages well
time to rewatch