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Adaptations of Romeo and Juliet

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William Shakespeare used his remarkable words to inspire and delight his audiences for over 400 years. Nowadays, his many plays have been adapted into screenplays, films and remade countless times. As to those adaptations, it is not only the re-creation of the original literature, but also the art that endowed with the spirit and flavor of the times. Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet has been widely recognized as a modernized tale of the ill-fated lovers and a successful adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragic love story. Luhrmann integrated and blended modern setting and language into the film without losing the original texture and meaning of Shakespeare's work. Through the ingenious and appropriate use of modern elements, the spirit of Shakespeare and modern cultural allusions emerge to captivate a large present-day audience. Specifically, Luhrmann incorporates many modern and pop-culture elements, such as music, scenery and humorous dialogs, into the film which enriches the whole play with postmodern romantic features. Furthermore, this adaptation changes some original plots in order to provide the audiences with attractive modern atmosphere and splendid expression effect. Finally, the adaptation preserves the spirit and theme of the original script and emphasizes on representing the different characters’ personalities. To start with, the Luhrmann’s film is a carefully written adaptation of Shakespeare’s work. It becomes obvious that it extends the play by relating it to a modern society, thereby appealing to the present audience. Luhrmann focuses on presenting a depressing, agitated and tragic atmosphere by using modern alternatives and changing the setting in both time and place. Also, he tries to portray the characters’ personalities by using unique dressing style to some degree. The integration of modern and popular culture elements never failed to make the film become a successful postmodern romantic adaptation. Basically speaking, Luhrmann changes the background town to a modern and prosperous city. Also, by using modern photography technique, music and lighting effects, Luhrmann visualized Shakespeare’s words with vitality

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