Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: theatricality of reality against true love?

Abstract

Post-modernist film adaptations of Shakespeare often deconstruct the Shakespeare myth, as do Baz Luhrmann’s prolific Romeo + Juliet (1996), Lloyd Kaufman’s lowbudget Tromeo and Juliet (1996) and Fumitoshi Oizaki’s anime production, Romeo × Juliet (2007), all of which draw on pop pastiche. Reducing reality to an imitation of signs these films inflate signs that are deprived of their essence. Placing Romeo and Juliet into a world that continually references itself through an abundance of signs, these films ask how true, authentic love can be experienced.