DVD Commentary Review
Commentary by:
- Baz Luhrmann (writer/director)
- Catherine Martin [CM] (production designer)
- Don McAlpine (director of photography)
- Craig Pearce (writer)
The commentary that was added
to the special edition of the Romeo + Juliet DVD is very enlightening, and I
highly recommend it for anyone who wants to better understand the film. It starts off
quite laid back, but the foursome soon get into some serious discussions regarding the
production of the movie and how they came up with the all the groundbreaking ideas that
are featured in the film. This commentary was made AFTER the four co-workers went on to
make Moulin Rouge, and so there are often some insightful references made between
the two films.
After carefully listening to this commentary, I have comprised a summary of key
information that is disclosed throughout the film. I have highlighted direct quotes in
blue, and summarised other bits of information, often including my own observations. All
comments are listed in the order they were said, and most will correspond to particular
scenes in the film, although some recurring ideas have been moved to fit in with
particular categories. I have included titles for each topic that is mentioned to help you
place the comments within the structure of the movie, but I definitely recommend you take
the time to check out the commentary to hear these comments for yourself, and listen out
for anything I may have missed.
Media as prologue
"The idea... in the whole film was to find modern day images
and equivalents that could decode the language of Shakespeare."- Baz
He then goes on to explain that one of these key images was the television set that we see
at the beginning and end of the film. The use of media is one of the many ways the
production encompasses a better understanding of the text throughout the movie.
"It was about simply decoding or unlocking language for the
audience and that was really the whole motive of the entire project." - Baz
Opening sequence
The film was originally intended to open with the Montague boys and the gas station
sequence, but it was the editor, Jill Bilcock, who suggested they do a more confronting
opening piece. As a result, the prologue is read by a newsreader on a television set, and
then repeated during a spectacularly frenzied introduction to the city and characters. I
am very glad that this decision was made, as the opening sequence is truly amazing, and it
definitely helps set the scene for the rest of the film.
Baz describes the gas station sequence as a Leoni Western look, complete with western
music backing all the fast paced action. Baz later describes Tybalt as a 'dandy warrior'
and John Leguizamo worked with the choreographer, John 'Cha Cha' O'Connell, to master the
flamingo dancing style of gun fighting that is demonstrated at the gas station.
Baz also sounds somewhat amused as he points out a blooper in the gas station sequence
where we can see a boom mike reflected in a car window. He can't believe he didn't pick up
on it beforehand, but hey, I didn't notice until he mentioned it, and I think it's safe to
say that most people won't pick up on it either.
The introduction of Romeo on the beach
"He is a rebel without a cause who is also a ultra romantic...
he is a universal anti-hero." - Baz
"It's an image that can help you relate as an audience to see a guy, a troubled
adolescent youth on the beach writing something in a diary - you can understand that
image, you can start to understand who he is." - Craig
Sets and footage
CM reiterates throughout the commentary that all the sets were built especially for the
film. The church was St Peter's Church in Mexico City, and the exterior of the Capulet
mansion was a historic Mexican building, but all other sets were built by the production
team, right down to the road that borders the beach at the fictitious Sycamore Grove. The
film was originally planned to be filmed in Miami. However, it was mainly shot in Mexico
City, with some pick ups shot elsewhere. With regard to the riot footage in the opening
sequence, some people thought this footage was real, but Baz insists it was all staged.
Notable cameos!
The maids who assist Gloria Capulet gets dressed in her Cleopatra costume are CM and Kym
Barrett, the costume designer!
Mercutio's costume
"Mercutio has the most poetic and outrageous language of all
the characters in the script or in the play, so in lots of ways it came from both his
relationship to Romeo and the rest of the boys. He's not a Capulet, he's not a Montague,
he's kind of an outsider. He feels a bit older, he's the party guy - wherever Mercutio is,
there is a party. He has extraordinary, wonderful, fantastical language." - Craig
"Yes, I think that he is flamboyant, but what's fascinating is
he is flamboyant but angry. I mean the paradox of Mercutio is that on the one hand he's a
partygoer, and on the other hand he's the angriest character in the film" - Baz
Baz goes on to say that Mercutio is a drag queen but on the other hand he's also warrior
like. He is also extraordinarily manipulative when things aren't going his way.
The hurricane
The brewing storm at Sycamore Grove that can be seen lashing the beach during the Mercutio
death sequence was actually real. The hurricane blew away the sets, and so the team had to
pick up scenes later in San Fransisco, such as Mercutio's Queen Mab speech. [There is more
said about this later in the commentary.]
Mercutio's Queen Mab speech
"The decision to make the Queen Mab speech ultimately about a
kind of drug was something that we went round and round and talked a lot about, and really
it came down again to the text... the Queen Mab speech is a speech about dreams and
illusions and it's a speech about ultimately the futility of believing in a romantic
dream. And we kind of made the link, or the leap, that Mercutio is kind of saying romantic
dreams are useless and they will disappoint you so you may as well have a chemical dream,
one that you supposedly 'can control.'" - Craig
Shakespearian device
[Spoken by Baz as Romeo prepares to take Mercutio's drug on the beach, and we see a flash
forward to the final church scene.]
"I really love this device of Shakespeare and we've used it in Moulin
Rouge and it's something to do with what we term comic tragedy which is you must be
made aware. You know that they're going to die, you know that the two lovers are going to
die at the end, and what you do is every 10 or 15 minutes, and Shakespeare does it
brilliantly, you remind the audience you've got about an hour and a half and they'll be
dead. And instead of hiding that as a piece of plot, you're constantly setting off alarm
bells... At the height of their greatest joy, the two lovers, you remind the audience once
again that they're going to die and this increases your emotional connection to what's
happening." - Baz
Pop music
[Spoken by Baz as Mercutio stands up in the car on the way to the Capulet Ball and starts
miming to Young Hearts Run Free.]
"I often get people saying, 'Oh you know, he's desecrated
Shakespeare - the way he's put pop music in there' and I mean one of the things about
Shakespeare was that he totally stole popular culture or anything on the streets... but
particularly he took popular music and just put it in his shows because that was a way of
engaging his audience into the story telling. Every choice we've made in terms of
cinematic devices has been grounded in some reality of the Elizabethan stage. That has
been really our motive on everything we've done here." - Baz
Baz's ever-changing hairstyles!
As Mercutio dances on the Capulet staircase, they poke fun at the size of his white wig,
and then Baz admits he's very well known for a variety of hairstyles, and he tries to
reflect this in his works! :-)
The use of water
[Spoken by Baz as we see Romeo with his face underwater in a bathroom basin during the
Capulet Ball - just before he encounters Juliet for the first time.]
"This love drug turns into the nightmare moment, and out of
this silence of being underwater comes actually the first moment of real love and there's
this apparition through a fish tank." - Baz
I've always thought this use of water imagery was a fascinating idea. After experiencing the overwhelming spectacle of the Capulet ball while on an incredible chemical high, Romeo retreats to the tranquillity of the bathroom wash basin to drown out the world around him. The act of throwing his mask in the water is also significant and, as he emerges, Romeo seems to be more at peace. [More is said about the use of water later on in the commentary.]
The fishtank scene
This scene was inspired by a fishtank separating the girls and boys bathrooms in a
nightclub that Baz and Craig visited in Miami. Baz explains,
"Craig and I were always looking for how can we surprise the audience that [the
lovers] would suddenly meet - the first look, how can it be a surprise?" At
the club, they had found their answer.
It is interesting to note that Leo and Claire are not acting alongside each other for most
of this scene. They filmed their scenes peering into the fish tank alone, and it's only
the sequence where you can actually see them both on camera that they are actually filming
together. Baz and Craig commend the actors for making us believe they were actually
looking into each others eyes during this romantic sequence.
CM points out that the fish tank broke and exploded twice when they hadn't finished
shooting! The first time she noticed it leaking and within 2 hours it had broken. The
second time, a 'fish man' pushed it over accidentally while cleaning it!
Costumes at the Capulet Ball
"The costumes - they seem like a pretty obvious thing, I
suppose..." - Craig
"Not to some people. To some people that costuming isn't obvious, you'd be
surprised!" - Baz
Baz was being quite coy here, as to most people the costumes have recognisable
significance, but obviously not to all! Personally, I've always loved analysing the
significance of the costumes in the film, and these have been discussed at length by both
myself and Becky in the Romeo + Juliet section on this site.
In Shakespeare's play, the characters go to a masked ball. When writing the screenplay,
Baz and Craig thought this idea was a bit outdated and instead compared the ball to a
Halloween party where everyone's in crazy Halloween costumes. Baz even suggested it be
like the Mardi Gras in Sydney! However, it was Kym Barrett, the costume designer, who
actually suggested getting costumes that really said something about the characters. She
even went so far as to make clever references from the original text. In the play, Juliet
says "Goodnight" to Romeo and in the film, this has been transferred into her
bidding him "Good Knight". The text also calls Juliet a "bright
angel". Kym read the play and gained inspiration for specific character costumes that
highlight the clever nature of the Capulet ball sequence.
The elevator
All the commentators help explain that the elevator in the Capulet mansion serves as a
secret room where the lovers steal their first kiss, yet are still surrounded by people.
They needed a place for this first interlude to happen away from prying eyes. In the play
they would have stood behind a curtain, but here they decided to make the elevator Romeo
and Juliet's own private hideaway. The tricky 360 degree camera work involved in this
elevator sequence is also mentioned.
Piece of string idea
After discovering that they are from feuding families, Romeo is led out of the Capulet
mansion and away from Juliet. However, all he can think about is Juliet and so he keeps
looking back towards her. Similarly, she cannot stop thinking about him and runs through
the mansion to stand on an outdoor balcony and stare longingly down at him. Baz explains
that there was a 'piece of string' idea actioned between Romeo and Juliet here - it's as
if they are tied together by an invisible piece of string and there is no one else in
their world but them. I found this interesting, as I have always liked the way the lovers
both struggle to retain eye contact with each other until the last possible moment in this
scene.
Sickness
Filming had to stop for a week because Baz and Don got so sick, probably as a result of
the gas station shoot that actually took place at a real gas station on the busiest road
in Mexico City. Sickness plagued many people on the shoot, including the lead actors,
because of the long and often uncomfortable working conditions.
Juliet's wig
Claire wears a wig in this film, although it's very hard to tell. Indeed, news of her wig
surprises many people, and I didn't realise this myself until I listened to this
commentary.
Unfortunate lamp
When Romeo runs back to the Capulet mansion after the ball, he enters the courtyard and
the lights around the pool are suddenly switched on. He stumbles and knocks over a lamp
which smashes to the floor. This may look like it was supposed to be part of the sequence,
but CM points out that the lamp Leo breaks in his haste was not actually supposed to
break, as it was an antique!
The pool in the balcony scene
"There is, in this scene written by Shakespeare, an obstacle
between the two lovers. It's just enough distance so they can't actually get together and
words must be used to make love, not their bodies. You know, they're being held at bad. So
we had to find a sort of modern obstacle, and the idea was that if we could get them into
the pool, the water itself would become that kind of push me pull you [effect]... the
scene only works if there is this obstacle." - Baz and Craig
Craig Pearce as Jesus
(!)
The morning after the Capulet ball, Romeo visits the priest to ask if he will marry him to
Juliet. As Romeo and Father Laurence go down the stairs from the priest's greenhouse into
the church, we see a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall behind them. On closer
inspection, the Jesus image actually has Craig's face! This causes some amusement among
the commentators. Craig asks what happened to it, and Baz coyly says they burnt it! I
can't believe I didn't notice this before! ;-)
The greenhouse
The production team built Father Laurence's greenhouse and then craned it up onto the roof
of the church. The church itself was not a set but instead the historic St Peter's Church
in Mexico City. When the priest tells Romeo he has agreed to marry him and Juliet, Romeo
scuttles away and falls over in his haste. In actual fact, Leo was not meant to fall over,
but after doing it accidentally (he was wearing slippery shoes!), it was decided he would
fall as part of the scene!
The very first scene
The first scene filmed for Romeo + Juliet was the conversation between Juliet and
her nurse after the nurse had met with Romeo at Sycamore Grove. The nurse scuttles around
the room, playfully avoiding Juliet's pleas of "What says Romeo?" The scene
looks good to me, but the commentators say it was a difficult first day of shooting and
didn't think they did very well.
The wedding
The wedding scene is one of the most beautiful sequences in the film, even though Claire
was not feeling well on the day of the shoot. In fact, there was doubt they were going to
be able to shoot it, but she pulled through. And when we see the close up of Romeo putting
the ring on Juliet's finger, it is not Claire's hand, but instead a pick up shot
separately with someone else's hand.
The gun rituals
Originally, they were going to set Romeo + Juliet as a gangster movie, but then
realised it is really a middle class story and so should be set in a middle class society.
Originally, they were also going to have everyone in the movie carrying guns, but they
decided that it should be only the rich boys who have guns.
The Capulets wear bullet proof vests and display fancy fighting manoeuvres, whereas the
Montagues do not wear vests and have more of a laid back attitude to it all. The boys all
have a ritual of fighting, and some traditional 'western' rules apply such as you can't
shoot someone in the back and one bullet for a dual.
Mercutio's death sequence
During this sequence, Mercutio is seen wearing a white shirt while the Capulet boys wear
black with obvious implications. When the sequence was being filmed for the movie, a
hurricane really was brewing. All wide shots were filmed during the actual hurricane, and
we can see the force of the approaching storm. The (fake) palm trees are really swaying,
the ocean is really clashing. All the huts on the beach were actually blown away during
the hurricane. The actors agreed to do one entire run through before the storm fully set
in and shooting was inevitably delayed. Many of the close ups were shot as pick ups a week
later when the storm had passed, and the darkened clouds were digitally added to give
continuity. The poignant wide shot where Mercutio dies and Romeo runs to his car was shot
during the beginnings of the hurricane with great effect.
The sequence leading up to Mercutio's death was one of the first rehearsal shoots done for
the film, and an early version with Leo was actually shot on a video camera in a Sydney
car park 2 years earlier (this can be fund in the Director's Gallery section of the DVD).
Baz points out that Leo flew coach (economy class) of his own accord to work on the
material with him in Sydney to see if the idea was going to work.
The car crash
During the car chase scene where Romeo rams Tybalt off the road, the roll cage fell out in
Tybalt's car during the crash with the stunt guy inside. CM explains it was actually quite
scary, but luckily he wasn't hurt too bad.
Baz explains that the shot where we see Romeo's bullet enter Tybalt and then the lingering
close-up of Leo holding the gun in despair were both shot in an airport hanger where they
went to shoot pick ups after the hurricane set in and delayed filming on the beach.
The Jesus statue
After killing Tybalt, Leo looks up at the sky and cries out at the Jesus statue in the
middle of the roundabout. The same statue is also shown standing between the Montague and
Capulet buildings in aerial shots of the city. In actual fact, there was no such Jesus
statue - it was a visual effect about 2 foot high. A full size base was built in the
middle of the roundabout in Mexico City, but the Jesus model itself was digitally inserted
into all its scenes.
The banishment dilemma
When Romeo kills Tybalt, Captain Prince declares that he is banished. Baz and Craig were
originally going to scrap the idea of Romeo's banishment from the film, but realised it
was an important element of the text.
"First of all we just
cut out banishment altogether because in our early drafts we were setting it in a more
naturalistic, Miami-like world and we said, well, there's no such thing as banishment so
he's just on the run from the law. We said it's the same sort of thing so we cut this
script a lot to get the word banishment out. But what we found was that it really effected
the screenplay very badly because banishment is in the original play for a reason, he's
not just on the run. He's physically got to be removed from Juliet's world... So
eventually, as the world heightened we said, okay, this is a world where people can be
banished from, and you just accept that." - Craig
They then had to decide on what kind of environment was found outside of the city, and
chose to make it a desolate trailer park. "You get the sense of the idea of people
living on the fringes of society." - Baz
They used an actual deserted area outside the city limits to shoot Romeo's Mantua
residence. They built trailers and even the road itself and left these in tact for the
people who lived there in return for letting them film there.
The issue of sex
They chose to include the topless bedroom scene between the lovers as, while the play
doesn't actually say they have sex, the priest tells them to go forth and consummate their
marriage and then they wake up the next morning with a reluctance to leave each other and
this was implication enough. The idea was that while one marriage was being consummated
upstairs, another was being arranged by Juliet's father and Dave Paris downstairs.
They also point out how well Juliet's room is designed, pointing out the stickers on the
door as something a teenage girl would do. Craig then adds that it's a "good
character thing", as this is the point where Juliet is transforming from a girl into
a woman.
Gloria's instability
'Whether people get this or not - but I like this little moment here
where Mum is coming in. I mean, Juliet is like this teenage daughter that she has such
distance with that she doesn't say anything to her, we cut some text there, and she goes
like, 'Ahh, I can't deal with it', and walks out, so a good example of where not using the
language worked. - Baz
I like this moment too and have always been aware of the idea that Gloria Capulet is a
distant mother. This scene is a great example, and it's exemplified later on when Gloria
tried to pull her husband away from Juliet during their feud on the stairs, and he strikes
out at her. When he leaves, Gloria seems to have given in to the pressure and the
everlasting distance between mother and daughter as she states coldly, "I have done
with thee."
Water tomb
When Romeo leaves Juliet's room after their first and only night together, he falls down
into the pool. Juliet stares down at Romeo from the balcony as he peers up at her from
underneath the water.
"This is very important too because she says the 'I see him at the bottom of a grave' speech and then you see him disappear under the water and it's again just using this water like a kind of curtain really, to close that beat of information. It's... the last time Juliet sees Romeo alive before the moment at the very end which we have constructed into the piece where she awakens just before he dies." - Baz
Transferring the text
"Speaking about not using the language, what was obviously a
big part of writing the screenplay was deciding what to leave out without destroying the
text, and part of that decision was what can be done visually and what information can you
convey visually that you don't therefore need to convey with dialogue. Because obviously
Shakespeare was working for the theatre and an empty stage and there is a hell of a lot of
information about time and place in his dialogue.' - Craig
"In reality, any text for cinema has some sort of cutting going on and I mean the
full version of Hamlet is 5 hours long for the stage so.." - Baz
"Just about every stage version is cut as well." - Craig
"So people are always making choices about what text to use and what not to use and
our rule really was to maintain absolutely the language, but to ask the question at all
times - if Shakespeare were making a movie, what choice do you think he would make?"
- Baz
Balthasar as Romeo's servant
Baz explains that Balthasar was Romeo's servant in the play, but obviously teenagers don't
have teenage servants in the modern world. Therefore, in the film they decided to make him
a poor downtown kid who idolises Romeo. He adds that Leo was given freedom on how to play
Romeo. Leo learned exactly what he was saying through the text and really helped make the
words understandable to a modern day audience.
Continuity blooper
After hearing news of Juliet's death, Romeo goes to buy the poison from an old man in a
dingy upstairs apartment. We see that when the car is parked outside, there is nothing up
against the wall. However, when the car drives away, an old sofa and other props have
suddenly appeared! CM explains that this can't be blamed on Baz as she redressed the set
in the middle of a shot. Baz then jokes there's probably a website dedicated to the lack
of continuity in Romeo + Juliet! ;-)
Sacred Heart symbol
After buying the poison, Romeo forces his way up the stairs into the church. We see a
close up of the entrance as he holds a man captive to reach the doors. The commentators
explain that it was the Sacred Heart symbols featured on the doors of St Peter's Church
that became the motiff of Romeo + Juliet.
The final death scene
"If you survive the gas station - the first 20 minutes - you'll
survive the rest of the film. It's very theatrical, it's very fast, it makes all sorts of
stylistic references, there's a lot of comedy. As the film goes on and on and on, what
happens is as a vortex moves towards death, we strip away the heighteness, we strip away
the comedy, we strip away the artifice until finally the boy goes to the girl. The final
scene is played in very little and very simple coverage, a couple of two shots, and
finally you're not going away to extra action or device or style. It's a scene between a
boy and a girl and you pull up into the sky and they're dead and so there's this choice to
just simplify away towards the end.' - Baz
They go on to explain that the poignant aerial shot of the two lovers lying side by side
in those final moments was achieved by tying a camera to a piece of string and slowly
hoisting it up towards the roof of the church. It was difficult keeping the camera steady
for such a long time, and so the shot is actually split into two with the flashback
sequence inbetween. Baz points out that some people did not like the flashback sequence.
Personally, I really liked this sequence, as I think it serves to heighten the emotion the
audience feels at this pivotal moment of realisation. These flashbacks help to emphasise
that these two young lives have been needlessly lost, and all the happiness that they
shared has been tragically destroyed.
