Farewell My Lover

The Baz Lurhnann version of Romeo ad Juliet is one of most classic versions. It follows exact the same settings as the book does. After I finished watching it, I am overwhelmed by the strong emotion of lonely, sorrow and sadness. If Romeo can stay any longer in Mantua, or if Juliet can wakes up a second earlier, this tragedy won’t happens. The movie sends these emotions by using different color, and mutual connotation of the beginning and the ending.

In the last two acts, it tells Juliet drinks fake poison and Romeo doesn’t meet her in Capulet’s tomb right on time, which causes a heart-rending tragedy. The part in this movie that impressed me the most is when Romeo heard Juliet’s death, he cries and has his knee on desert. He faces to the sun, tears roll down his face then he shouts out Juliet’s name. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in Romeo’s heart. The camera turns to the desert, making Romeo to be a figure of little dot in this land. The land is as bare as Romeo’s heart. His Juliet is dead, so does his soul. Glaring sunlight comes upon Romeo, when the camera moves to Romeo’s back, his dark shadow makes a striking contrast with the golden sky. By shooting with camera through both long and short distance, the movie lefts audience a feeling of lonely and despair. Sunset is also a really good object to show death and sadness. The low background music starts when Romeo hears his lover’s death, which also creates a woeful atmosphere.

The movie uses a really good combination of background music and actors’ actions. For example, when Romeo runs to escape from Polices’ chasing, the background music is in a really fast pace that brings audience a tense atmosphere. Also the lights’ color is a really interesting part of this movie. When Romeo and Juliet first meet, they are blocks by a blue fish tank. When Romeo finally gets into Capulet’s tomb, the blue lights glaring throw the door and shines on his back. The only difference is when Romeo was first shine by the blue light, he is facing a living Juliet, and for the second time, Juliet is already dead. One thing that is really important in this movie is in the second balcony scene, Romeo is wearing the exact same shirt as he dies. When Juliet says goodbye to Romeo on the balcony, she says: “O God! I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, thou art so low… as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.” What she says is like a foreshadow that forebode Romeo’s death, which also means audience’s emotions are not only lead by the current scene but also affect by the previous scene. At the end, when both of them lie on the bed of tomb, they have the exact same posture as they does when they wake up together in the first morning when Romeo was banished. These postures get correspondence that left audiences a sad feeling and makes this scene really thoughtful. When I was watching this part, really hope if everything happen right in time, none of them needs to die.

Just like what the prologue says: “ A pair of star- cross’d lovers take their life” (prologue, line6) Romeo and Juliet are like stars, the shines on the sky but they are never able to get close to each other. The movie version makes me see this play from a different perspective. It makes me more focus on the small details that are not able to be shown in a play. Baz Lurhnann’s cutting of this movie makes it more ironic and impressive. "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and Romeo."