Megan Robinson: Cinematography in Romeo and Juliet (1996)

Like most people, I had to read the play of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare when I was in high school. It was interesting but never really got my attention. In high school, we also watched a little bit of the old movie. I’m not sure which one or when it was released but it was in black and white. Regardless of which one it was, it was pretty boring. Then in 1996, the new modern day Romeo and Juliet came about. The director Baz Luhrmann didn’t try to completely change the play. He kept the original language but made it much more visually pleasing and a little easier to understand.

The director and co writer Baz Luhrmann, co writer Craig Pearce, the cinematographer Donald McAlpine, and everybody else that had anything to do with making this movie, did a great job modernizing Romeo and Juliet. They used Verona Beach as the setting of their movie, they gave their characters modern clothing, and they changed the swords into guns. They had a complicated task of not only modernizing the movie but making it to where the modern world could understand what was going on because they kept the language the same as the original play.

The use of media in this film really gave it a modern feel. In the opening shot, they used a simple television set and a newswoman to deliver the prologue. They also used the media to introduce the story. The prologue was repeated as they show the war between the Capulets and the Montague’s.

Punctuating throughout the film helps the people of today understand the ideas of William Shakespeare and the new ideas of the crew of this film. In the scene at the gas station the camera zooms in on the guns and shows that they are branded Sword. When a character says they are drawing their sword the camera is zoomed in using fast tracking and you see the gun. It helps the audience decode what is actually going on. With action and camera shots it gets the audience use to the Elizabethan language. By showing the giant religious statues between the Montague and Capulet business buildings and by showing characters with crosses around their necks, it shows the major connection of state and religion.

Some of the camera shots in scenes such as Mercutio and Tybalt’s fight were hand held camera shots. The camera held by mainly Donald McAlpine was used for close up action shots. He used the shots in the fight scene to give the audience a sense of violence. Moving the camera around quickly and following the actors closely really gives the audience the feeling like they are right there in the fight. He also did the hand held shots for scenes such as the gas station and the singing performance of Juliet’s father.

The best camera shot in the film was the elevator shot. When Romeo and Juliet have their first kiss it really had to look and feel special. Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes were put in a room that was only 6x4 feet in size. The little room was the elevator. Baz Luhrmann wanted a circular pattern for the camera to go around the actors as they had their private moment. The room was too small to fit the cameras in and have the circular pattern so Donald McAlpine had the walls made so that they would rise up. The camera spun around the room as each section of the wall was raised up for the shot. It looked difficult but the actors and McAlpine really made it work.

One thing that really fascinated me about the balcony/pool scene is that they kept the idea of the obstacle keeping Romeo and Juliet from being truly intimate. The water was used as the obstacle in the film and the balcony was used as the obstacle in the play. Water, even though people can be somewhat close in it, still pulls and pushes when a person tries to move. So, even though Romeo and Juliet are very close they still have to communicate mainly through words.

The movie Romeo and Juliet’s cinematography really captured the modern idea of the film and helped the audience adapt to the language and be able to enjoy such an old story. The use of music was also very important in this film. Some people might wonder why they used so much pop music in this movie. While watching the commentaries of the film I found out that Shakespeare also used pop music in his plays. Another interesting fact about this movie is the hard job they had editing the movie. Apparently while shooting movie they had problems with the weather. At one point there was an actual hurricane coming when they were shooting the fight scene of Mercutio and Tybalt. They had to use a set at a studio to do some of the shots and they had to match up the clouds in the sky using fake clouds so that it still looked stormy.

Overall, the production of this movie is really great. The crew and cast did an excellent job of modernizing a play written in the late 1500’s or early 1600’s. I have seen this movie several times but I never thought about what when into it to really make it so good. I was really amazed at everything I learned.

Romeo and Juliet. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Leonardo Dicaprio, Clare Danes, and John Lugeizamo. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 1996.