Blog post#3 Balcony scene 4 versions

                                      Analysis of Balcony Scene in Romeo & Juliet 

The Balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is very romantic and dramatic. I think the most important thing for this scene is to make this plot reliable, which can show this couple of young boy and girl’s desire of each other’s love. The four versions I saw was 1963 George Cukor, 1968 Franco Zeffirelli, 2010 Royal Shakespeare and Gnomeo & Juliet: "Balcony" Clip. 

 In my opinion, the most effective version is “2010 Royal Shakespeare” These two actors are not the cutest, but their high acting quality helps portray the scene a lot. Firstly, my overall feeling of this version is these two characters are very lively and reliable. Every single action or facial expression is mimicking the in love young boys and girls in our real life. Here are some examples. When Romeo is staring at Juliet, his coat falls down from his right shoulder, and he does not notice that. This detail shows that Romeo is so in to Juliet, and he pays all his attention to look at her, accomplish her and even forgets to fix his attire. Using a lot of body languages and changing talking tone freely are the strengths of this Romeo. When he says, “see, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that check.” he sighs a little bit, and he uses a kind of self-mockery way to say that line which makes me think he might feel a little bit jealous of that “lucky glove” because he is deeply in love and “Juliet”, this name, is burning his heart; he wants to touch her, to feel her like that little glove. When he hears Juliet says his name, he falls down because it is like a heart-attack for him. He cannot believe his name is saying out from the girl he loves so much. Because of those actions, audiences can easily read his mind. After kissing and talking to Juliet, Romeo jumps high and raises his arm above his head waving about which seems like he wins an important match. He is so excited because he wins his love, and his actions show that clearly to the audiences. And about Juliet, her tone is also very appropriate at every turning point. Her tears even come down in the middle of the scene which makes the character more colorful and emotional. Although this version shows the play on the stage where does not have many varied props, such as trees and moon, these two characters are good enough to qualify this scene. 

 The one I think is the least effective is the “Gnomeo & Juliet: "Balcony" Clip” version. I think one of the reasons is because it is an animation, it needs to make those “little guys” look as lovely as they can, so they are super active which are too much for this kind of scene. For example, the “red hat” and “blue hat” change too many actions at one time. Within only one minute, the “red hat” shakes her head, waves the rose, stands on tiptoe, makes funny face and so on; the “blue hat” touches his head, points to the right side, puts his hands on his hips and raises his eyebrows. Sometimes, actions help develop person’s characteristic, but sometimes, over active might lead to the opposite way.