Aquatic and Celestial Space in Baz Luhrmann’s <span class='italic'>William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet</span> (1996)

doi:10.1017/9781009200905.005

Chapter 4 - Aquatic and Celestial Space in Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

from Part I - Revisiting the Canon

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2023

Victoria Bladen

Edited by

Victoria Bladen ,

Sarah Hatchuel and

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin

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Victoria Bladen: Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Sarah Hatchuel: Affiliation:
University Paul-Valéry Montpellier
Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin: Affiliation:
University Paul-Valéry Montpellier

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Summary

In Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 screen adaptation, Romeo + Juliet, water is a significant visual element: the lovers meet through the medium of a fish tank; they float in the Hollywood pool like cosmic bodies for the balcony scene; and in death their fluid union is re-visited. This chapter argues that Luhrmann draws from the language of the play-text to conflate celestial and aquatic space in innovative ways in his screen iconography, and that these metaphorical spaces that intersect love and death, are further enhanced through the paratexts of the accompanying film soundtrack, which has had its own successful afterlife trajectory (released through Capitol Records as two separate volumes, 1996 and 1997, and re-released in 2007 for the tenth anniversary).

Keywords

Romeo and Juliet film Luhrmann water music aquatic space

Type: Chapter
Information: Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet , pp. 62 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009200905.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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