Deep in the Water. (And a bit of a rant on Juliet thrown in there too.)

I really wasn't quite sure how to blog about this movie... I don't know if I liked it, anyway. Although I appreciate Baz Luhrmann's interesting, modern, punky take on Romeo and Juliet, I don't know if it quite worked for me. Anyway, I was looking at my notes and nothing really stuck out to me that I couldn't write about in my literary essay about the actual play. There was one thing I found interesting, though, written in the margins:

'Romeo and Juliet first see each other from opposite ends of a fish tank, during balcony scene they both fall in the pool... metaphorical water usage?'

I didn't think this little tidbit about the filmaking would really compensate for a three paragraph blog post, so in order to find a little more ideas I looked at quotes and trivia on IMDB. Interestingly, under trivia, it said this:

'A number of important moments (and a lot of trivial ones) involve water. When we first see Juliet, she is holding her head under water; when Romeo and Juliet first see each other, it's through a fish tank; the balcony scene is moved from a balcony to a swimming pool; Mercutio is killed at the beach; when Tybalt is shot, he falls into a pond; when the banished Romeo comes to Juliet's room he is drenched from the pouring rain, and when he leaves the next morning he falls into the pool again'.

Which brings me to my topic of "Intentional water usage in order to create metaphors in the film adaption of Romeo+Juliet." Yeah.

Going back to what I was saying about the fish tank: To me, it was that they were looking at each other, close to the water (in the fish tank, obviously). They were on the outside looking in. Later that evening, Romeo and Juliet fall into the pool, together. This seemed to represent their escape from their comfort and confidence in being outside of the water, and their descent into being in the violence, underneath.

One thing I can't put my finger on, though, is what the difference may be from being near the water (fish tank scene, Mercucio getting killed,) and actually being in the water (falling into the pool, Tybalt dying and falling into the lake...). Maybe being near the water is more foreshadowing into their descent into the bloodshed and war.

More Romeo than Juliet, anyway- (speaking of that, is it just the play, or is it Baz Luhrmann's fault that Juliet seemed to have almost no personality? This story seems to revolve more around the lovesick Romeo, and although they're both eponymous characters, Romeo's character is more specifically developed, we see more change in him and he has a lot more screen time.) That was irrelevant to the post, but that was bugging me.

Anyway, foreshadowing. Romeo and Juliet see each other on the outside of the fish tank, resulting in them falling in even deeper love and proposing marriage, where they fall into the pool. (Falling into/being drenched in water=Serious change in Romeo's character.) Mercucio is killed on the beach, near the water, resulting in Romeo killing Tybalt, who falls into a lake and Romeo is drenched by the rain. (Once again, Falling into/being drenched in water=Serious change in Romeo's character.)

It's interesting how profound a little film making quirk can be, especially when you're adapting a classic text. On a side note, Juliet irritated me in the film adaption. That's not necessarily my feminist radar talking, but she just seemed underdeveloped and not distinct enough. I look at characters like Ophelia from Hamlet and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth and am very disappointed in Shakespeare for his underdevelopment of the title character. C'mon, man. Although, I don't really know if that was Shakespeares fault, maybe it was just a result of a weird adaption. Or Claire Danes's portrayal. (But probably not, because Claire Danes is like... super amazing). I'll be able to do a proper rant on Juliet once I've read the play.