Verona: a Short Film Inspired by Cinematic Adapations of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Novotny, Connor
Novotny, Connor
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The majority of my research for this creative film came through the Shakespearean Tragedy and Romance course offered through the English Department. Of the films using Shakespeare's text as their base, Baz Lurhmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet particularly drew my attention. In this film I noticed that the/its disjunctive editing technique potentially opens the text up to new interpretations. When the city of Verona is at war with itself, the film reflects that in how it is edited. The "star cross'd" love of Romeo and Juliet brings peace to both Verona and remarkably also to the fabric of the film itself. Thus with my short film "VERONA" I wanted to work with the idea that the film would possibly come apart throughout the course of the story. My characters (Romeo and Juliet of course) want to make their own version of Romeo and Juliet, but for them the main source of dramatic tension lies in the choice of either killing themselves for the sake of retaining the traditional myth or to experience something new in sacrificing the film instead of themselves. Using stylistic references from the several cinematic iterations of the story, I went forth dramatically representing this both old and new conflict for the screen.
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University of Wyoming Libraries