His background alone, lends to his directing style in that he has history as a dancer, actor and choreographer. This is seen in his work by the exact placement of the characters and the exact movements and of course the dancing. In doing some research, his movie Bringing Down the House was a box office hit bringing in $31 million on its opening in theatres.
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy. It is the tale of two young adults falling in love while their families clash against each other. They go behind their families’ backs to marry each other. However, the pressure of the feud between the families is too much and they end up dead. There are many factors that lead to Romeo and Juliet killing themselves, but Capulet and Montague and the stress that they put on their children caused them to kill themselves.
Over the fifteen weeks of the first semester of film school, we were taught many interesting types and styles of early world cinema which were extremely informative and influenced the filmmaking style of the whole class and made us better filmmakers instantly. One such ‘ism’ which inspired me the most was German Expressionism which is a unique characteristic of Weimar Cinema. In this essay I am going to talk about the history of this ‘ism’, its impact on cinema, some significant works and how it inspired me and influenced my filmmaking style. German Expressionism is one of the earliest artistic genres to influence filmmaking, and one that ostensibly prepared for some other cutting edge artistic styles and techniques. It is an artistic genre
Romeo will be representing Russia, which largely follows a communistic belief system, and Juliet will be from America, which is celebrated for it’s freedom and is very contrasted to Russia in the modern day. The historical and social conflict of these two countries will demonstrate the external conflict between the two lover’s “families”.
Whenever most people think of love at first sight, they imagine a Disney movie with a young main character falling in love and living happily ever after in the end. However, the play, Romeo and Juliet, presents two star-crossed teenage lovers, members of rival families, who do not have a Disney ending but rather a catastrophic one. Following Shakespeare’s love of tragedy, the ill-fated relationship results in six deaths, including the lovers, but the question of who is most responsible for these casualties has fueled debates for centuries. Romeo is the most blame worthy as he is unable to control his anger, makes assumptions, and has ill-fate more than any other character in this play, putting himself at risk and causing others to be killed. Romeo cannot control his anger which leads to Tybalt’s and Paris’ death.
Our image of Weimar cinema is to a large extent the product of two accounts that emerged in the aftermath of World War II. Siegfried Kracauer 's provocatively titled From Caligari to Hitler (1947) reads the films produced during the Weimar period as manifestations of a kind of collective unconscious, displaying a uniquely German preoccupation with authority and a desire for submission that foreshadows the willingness of Germans to submit to real-life dictator Adolf Hitler. Lotte H. Eisner 's The Haunted Screen (first published in France in 1952) offers a complementing notion of a German predilection for brooding introspection by anchoring the artistic imagination of Weimar era filmmakers to the tradition of German romanticism. In a tightly
Each director tells their honest opinion of how they see life. Bergman confesses his doubt of god and Fellini, through a series of almost entirely autobiographical themes, expresses his confusion of life. Through their different choices of film style might lead audiences to believe that they are different, Bergman and Fellini’s core themes of their respective films are massive and applicable to everyone who see
This premise states that a director has to develop a personal signature or personal style that is identifiable across all his or her films in order to be considered as an auteur. This is displayed by showing recurring, themes, motifs and habitual characteristics of style in their films. The third, and last premise, focuses on the “interior meaning” of the film. This refers to the relationship between the director and his influence on the interior meaning of a film. In order for any director to be labelled as a true auteur, he or she has to successfully tick off the above mentioned three premises of criteria in their films.
This could explain why the director changed the weapon to a pistol in the movie. In act 2 this would be when Romeo sneaks out to see Juliet outside her window this is another difference. Juliet says, “By whose direction found’st thou out this place?”
Film-theory is in some aspects a very fickle research field. It concerns itself with a relatively new technology and as an academic field it does not exactly stand on its own. Like literature, academic research in film has to be a combination of various other research fields to give appropriate answers to the issues and questions of film studies. In a way, experts within film studies have to develop theory from a variety of other fields, such as psychology, sociology, economics or statistics to name a few. That is, if they want to produce theory that can be generalized for film study and as such it seems a gargantuan task.
Baz Luhrmann’s films are known their ability to make a watcher feel as if they are part of the show. Between his use of camera angles, shots and the use of a narrator, it’s no wonder he is able to keep viewers on the edge of their seat. But how does Baz Luhrmann pull off this spectacular feat of his? This is probably explained best by referring to Baz Luhrmann’s films and how he himself has evolved as a director.
Baz Luhrmann is widely acknowledged for his Red Curtain Trilogy which are films aimed at heightening an artificial nature and for engaging the audience. Through an examination of the films Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby, the evolution and adaptation of his techniques become evident. Luhrmann’s belief in a ‘theatrical cinema’ can be observed to varying degrees through the three films and his choice to employ cinematic techniques such as self-reflexivity, pastiche and hyperbolic hyperbole. The cinematic technique of self-reflexivity allows a film to draw attention to itself as ‘not about naturalism’ and asks the audience to suspend their disbelief and believe in the fictional construct of the film.
Throughout the years, the auteur theory slowly ensconced itself as an essential key to film analysis, providing a specific guideline to evaluate a director’s film. One of the most
Baz Luhrmann is known world wide for his eccentric and flamboyant film-making style. Luhrmann’s signature bright colours, fast-paced camera-cuts and zooms, and bold costumes are all key characteristics of his films and assist Luhrmann in putting forward the themes and motifs he regards as essential in each of his works. However, Luhrmann still receives much criticism for not staying true to the original source material of the stories he introduces to the big screen. One fails to realize the fact that, “Luhrmann’s films are not so much adaptations as re-imaginings” (Vogue Magazine) and through analysis of his various techniques, as well as his overall cinematic language in his films, “Strictly Ballroom” (1992), “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) and “The Great Gatsby”, one can see this clearly, through Luhrmann’s evolution as a director. Luhrmann makes his films his own from the start, the opening scenes of all three of these films implement post-modern techniques which instantly informs the audience that they are entering into Luhrmann’s
In both the films Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrmann uses the same specific style of storytelling to ensure his audience remains captivated throughout the entire movie. Through the editing choices, lighting, camera work, music choices and actor choices he shows how his style grips the audience. Luhrmann has a definite way of telling stories. In both Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby he uses a prologue to narrate the story. Both are used to provide the audience with initial information they need to understand the rest of the story.
