Remakes of well-known classics are, in most cases, thankless.
First, the widespread dissemination of the story has made people lose the freshness of its plot. Even if some people have not seen it, they will know a little about the general plot. The audience already knows what the next fate of the characters in the play will be. , what the end of the whole movie will be. On this basis, how to seek innovation and change instead of just relying on sentimental slogans, so that the public has a new recognition for the re-interpretation of the story, and whether it can provide other levels of interpretation angles, becomes the director’s role in this secondary creation. The key to success.
Second, because the creators belong to different eras and backgrounds, the values displayed in the works are also different. If you look at the female characters in "Water Margin" from today's perspective, the work will undoubtedly be labeled as "objectifying women", so when evaluating a work, it is absolutely impossible to escape the analysis of its era background, whether it is Whether it is a work of art or a person who creates a work, they are all part of the torrent of the times. No matter how strong the seeds are, they can't twist the soil. It is obviously unfair to evaluate the works independently of the background of the times. Therefore, how to properly re-create the original classics in combination with the current situation and social mentality is another challenge for the adaptation of famous works.
"Romeo and Juliet" is a relatively well-known Shakespeare play, even if you haven't seen it, you have heard and understood the general plot of the play.
First of all, this play is not like Shakespeare's four tragedies. It has more philosophical speculations. The epidermal plot of the whole play is an easy-to-understand love tragedy. Suicide, this kind of tragic drama between men and women, no matter how many centuries have passed, can hit the audience's tear glands the most. Of course, compared with Shakespeare, later generations only learned the skin, but failed to penetrate the essence.
Secondly, it is also due to another pair of mandarin ducks in our country - Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in the East and Romeo and Juliet in the West are often linked and compared, and they have become two model essays on the theme of freedom of love.
So, is "Romeo and Juliet" just a declaration of freedom of love?
When evaluating the love between Romeo and Juliet, we cannot separate from their age. In the play, in the short five days of their lives, Romeo is 19 years old and Juliet is 13 years old. , From the current point of view, they are at most the age of junior high school and high school, but these two minors have become the spokesperson of the word "love".
What are the characteristics of this age group? Romance, fantasy, yearning for freedom, dare to love and hate, but also impulsive, emotional, and emotional. I have always felt that idealistic love can only exist in youth, because men and women at that time were simply simple, without too much consideration of interests, and just followed the call and direction of their inner emotions.
Many people are curious that the purpose of Romeo's attendance at the party was to see the person he liked, just because he looked at Juliet one more time in the crowd, his heart was captured by her, empathized and fell in love, and he would be fascinated by the original lover. Drunk was all transferred to Juliet in an instant. It also made the audience feel apprehensive about this sudden love, and could not help but wonder: If Romeo meets a girl who is more beautiful than Juliet, can he still end it all?
I think this question is a matter of opinion, because at the end Shakespeare made them sacrifice for love in the best emotional period of the best age, their love is still so hot and fresh, and the anxiety and confusion of reality failed to produce their feelings. Erosion, from this level, Romeo and Juliet's love is lucky again, their love will always stop at the youngest and most beautiful moment.
This drama is not so much to say that it promotes love and advocates the freedom of love, it is better to say that it only pursues freedom. Shakespeare's creation period was the European Renaissance that we have already heard about in history textbooks. At that time point, the tendency of artistic works was to deny divinity, to promote the meaning and value of secular life, and to emphasize the freedom of man as an individual.
In "Romeo and Juliet", the concrete expression of this pursuit of freedom is that individuals have the right to pursue love and the right to choose love. To this end, Shakespeare placed the theme on two teenagers. As mentioned above, the characteristics of adolescents are that they do not succumb to routines. They are more likely to follow their own feelings and not be shaken by the surrounding environment. What's more, they will use extreme behavior to break the existing established stereotypes. The outdated conventions, so the pioneers of revolutionaries since ancient times were mostly young people.
For example, the French New Wave movement that movie fans are most familiar with, the movie kid in the New Hollywood period, and the "sixth generation" in my country in the 1990s. Shakespeare set a rather grand background of grievances and grievances between the two families, but the key point of the whole play is on the two young boys and girls who are young and not more important. What is valued is the romance and ignorance of this age. Whether it is Romeo or Juliet, what they love and dump may not be the object itself, but what they pursue is love. As for who this love is directed to, it does not seem to matter. What matters is the act of pursuing love, the person behind the act. freedom of.
However, Shakespeare did not make absolute affirmations about the romance and ideals possessed by this age, but looked at it from a more dialectical perspective. Romeo and Juliet are also impulsive and emotional. It is this impulsiveness that makes Romeo kill Juliet's cousin by mistake, and it is this impulsiveness that makes Romeo take medicine in a hurry and commit suicide without knowing the specific circumstances at the end. . Youth is a double-edged sword. While stabbing at the enemy, it is also easy to expose one's own weaknesses.
If you use the perspective of someone from the past or an adult we are familiar with, you will probably say something like: Hey, why is this kid so stupid, what can be a big deal about this, isn't there a long way to go? It will always be solved, why do you have to use this extreme way? He hurt himself and his family.
However, if everything is strict to the level of restraint, is this still a high-spirited teenager? Just like the lines of the police officer in "Youth as a Teenager": You and I may not, but they are still teenagers. Only teenagers will be reckless and pursue those unreal things. This is a necessary stage for everyone. When we are young, people are more trapped in the world established by their own subjective thinking and emotions. This world is separated from the external world, so when we look back at our former self, we generally feel naive. .
Just imagine, if Romeo and Juliet were grown-ups with experience, would they still have everything after that? It's hard to say, the probability is lower because they have more external factors to weigh and are less pure. Young people are naive, and it is this untrustworthy naivety that gives them romance; young people are impulsive, and it is this impulse that gives them the courage to challenge. Shakespeare used an extreme young couple like Romeo and Juliet to express the cry of people's eagerness to break through the pressure environment and pursue personal happiness and personal freedom with extreme emotional conflict.
In addition to the pursuit of freedom, another theme of the show is probably about hatred and reconciliation. It's just that the exposition of the theme of freedom is too dazzling, sometimes covering up the expression of this theme. On this theme, Shakespeare's consistent humanism and unknowable destiny can still be seen. The two families fell into endless confrontation and conflict, until both sides paid the price of their young lives before they woke up.
Going back to this film, the background of the story is set in a modern city. The film opens with a documentary-style introduction to the grievances of the two families. It also aims to emphasize the differences in this version of the story. Language increases audiences' new expectations for this traditional story.
The director of the film, Baz Luhrmann, has always been a master of formalism and has unique skills in audiovisual techniques. But there is also a disadvantage, that is, it is too flashy. If there is a script that matches the audio-visual style, the final effect of the movie can easily shine. Especially like "Moulin Rouge", the musical itself has high requirements for the audio-visual application of the film. How to express the beauty and movement of a song and dance, and how to fit the mood of the scene in the film and the environment of the characters, to achieve The high degree of unity of form expression and emotional tone makes the picture more infectious and easier to have symbolic and symbolic artistic texture. Z. Luhrmann's musical film is definitely one of the premier directors today.
But if you encounter a script that is too delicate, this audio-visual style is easy to overwhelm the guest, and the overly ornate surface decoration conceals the deep discussion in the story. In the sequence of his works, this kind of failure is "The Great Gatsby". In addition to creating the effect of being intoxicated with money, Baz Luhrmann's style does not capture enough of the loneliness in the original work and the loneliness under the prosperity. , it has its own appearance, and it is not transparent. Obviously, this story is more suitable for Wong Kar-wai.
In this "Romeo and Juliet", Baz Luhrmann wisely intercepts the theme that suits his style, namely the pursuit of freedom, and expresses the restlessness and instability of his youth, as for hatred and reconciliation. The fate theme of the film was briefly taken away, and the plot of the film focused on the pair of hard-fought mandarin ducks.
However, judging from the final effect of the film, Baz Luhrmann is obviously not interested in digging out another interpretation of the story, nor does he want to make a deeper exploration of this classical narrative, he just borrows this well-known story , to satisfy his own film language experiment, the biggest highlight of the whole film is its consistent audio-visual style. So it's a little surprising to see this movie as an experimental cult.
As mentioned earlier, this story is more about freedom than love freedom. This topic is not out of date in the modern context. If it is said that love is free, most people can actually achieve it now, and it is even too indulgent; but for freedom, even if we are living in the current rapid development, we cannot say that we have absolute freedom. Freedom is always the most longing for human beings and the most difficult to achieve.
Baz Luhrmann placed this classical romantic couple in a modern context, and there was a sense of idealism against the industrialized world, and this confrontation was more intense than breaking the constraints of feudal ethics. The emotional tearing of the characters derived from this intensity is first perceived by us through the extremely fast and frenzied editing of the lens.
The most typical of them is the camera movement before and after Romeo's participation in the ball, the shaking, broken, fast, messy, supplemented by a lot of pop music that has reached the level of noise, so that the whole paragraph is filled with a kind of unstable and restless color. , At this time, the mood of the audience is the same as Romeo in the film, it is erratic but heavy, like a lead feather, because at this moment Romeo is uneasy about not being able to find his sweetheart.
It was not until Romeo dipped his entire face in the washbasin that the irritability of the previous paragraph was somewhat calmed and calmed. After Romeo came out of the washbasin and saw Juliet's delicate and beautiful face for the first time through the glass fish tank, the film just switched to another narrative rhythm. The slowness at the beginning of the meeting, the briskness at the halftime dance, the frequent editing of the two kissing to create violent emotional fluctuations, the audience's emotions are driven by the camera, and we are able to understand the emotional development of the two through this rhythm.
Love is their only sanctuary away from this restless world. In the passage between Romeo and Juliet, the pictures are always relaxed and beautiful, and the romantic atmosphere rendered by the ambiguous atmosphere is like a circle of colorful bubbles lingering around us.
And when Romeo leaves Juliet, the camera slides into intensity and anxiety again, especially in the scene where Romeo chases and kills Juliet's cousin. The previous shot is still Juliet's shy face, and the next shot is Romeo's hideous close-up. The roar of Romeo, the whistling of the rainstorm, the depression and agitation of youth are also portrayed in my heart with this scene.
Baz Luhrmann told us the theme of this film through this completely different picture and lens, two young people who are not young, trying to use their love to break through the established laws of this city. The collision between ideals and reality, isn't it something that young people who yearn for freedom have to face? Who hasn't been bruised and bruised in this collision? Young people are mostly idealists because they are not deeply involved in the world, and they are willing to fight and even sacrifice for this ideal.
Baz Luhrmann wisely transplanted the proposition of freedom and confrontation to modern themes, making it still worth discussing. But in terms of the overall style of the film, Baz Luhrmann was a little more casual this time.
The first is the overall style of the movie. The documentary form of the opening paragraph conveys realism to the audience. However, in the first confrontation between the two family members at the gas station that followed, the action arrangement of the characters also contained heavier cartoons. The exaggerated design of colors and actions is not in harmony with the reality of the news at the beginning, which makes the audience feel a sense of separation from the film's aesthetics at the beginning of the film, and this sense of separation becomes more obvious as the plot progresses. The protagonist, who is dressed in trendy clothes, plays guns like a circus juggling, which is too fancy, and immediately dissolves the sense of realism that begins to be grand and urgent.
In addition, it is Shakespeare's lines that disturb the reality of the film. Anyone who is familiar with drama knows that to a certain extent, drama performance is unrealistic beyond life, especially Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare's most praiseworthy plays, in addition to the exquisite design of the dramatic conflict, humanism and philosophical speculation, as well as the lines of poetry. But this kind of poetry and beauty exists in words and on stage. Once it is used in reality, there will be an indescribable violation. If someone in your life speaks to you in Shakespeare, you won't feel a sense of incompatibility in romance. This is the difference between life and drama.
The background of the film is set in the present, which is very close to the life we live in, so there is a sense of substitution, but the direct use of Shakespeare's poetic lines strengthens the sense of separation, the lines are separated from the characters themselves, and the characters are separated from the environment. The separation of the film context and the audience.
Baz Luhrmann's version of "Romeo and Juliet" is very inconsistent in every aspect. It has a realistic opening and background settings, comical action design, poetic lines from Shakespeare's plays, and gorgeous MV-style editing. It is difficult for you to attribute the above elements into a complete aesthetic system. Baz Luhrmann uses it mixedly, and the experimental mentality is very heavy. The effect presented is as blurred and chaotic as the theme, but after all, it cannot achieve a high degree of unity and a sense of separation. It's still there, and this conflicting blend of multiple elements is why I called this film cult before.
Although the aesthetic inconsistency is one of the reasons that affects the reputation of this film, it does not prevent my emotional resonance during the viewing process. The movie started on the right track when Romeo and Juliet met, because the encounter between the two represented the collision of souls and the opening of a new door. Naturally, the performance of the male and female lead actors is the main contributor. I have to sigh that the youth at that time was just right. The beauty of the two even covered up their acting skills for most of the film. This is probably the trouble of high-value actors. .
The handsome little plum often falls into a state of hysteria in this film, especially in the second half. And Claire Denise is so passive and helpless. The fate of Juliet, played by her, if it hadn't met Romeo, it might have just been as her parents wished. . But for them in the restless period of youth, they are full of curiosity about the world. This kind of programmed life is mediocre, and mediocrity is a shackle to them.
They do not seek eternity of life, a moment of brilliance is eternal to them. Use love to dispel hatred, and use individual freedom to resist established rules. The beautiful appearance and the depressed mood have caused the conflict between the inside and outside of the characters. This sense of tearing is conveyed to the audience in the style of Baz Luhrmann's images, resulting in the blur and confusion that the film finally presents.
For director Baz Luhrmann, the evaluation is bound to be divided, and it belongs to the same kind of author as Zack Snyder. For this postmodern version of "Romeo and Juliet", it is more like an experiment than a continuation of tradition. Freedom relies on love, and love is used to find the true meaning of freedom. The radical expression of this youthful energy in the modern context, and the sharp depiction of classical romantic feelings in the industrial city background, should be the most novel idea in this film.
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