Close Comparisons in Narrative Art

However one sorts out the ontology of general criteria in art, Rosenberg's method of comparing two closely similar works of art is a helpful one. This is true, in my opinion, whether one is attempting to "grade" one work over another, or working in one of the other modes of discourse, particularly appreciation.

You'll be working on your Arts Colony Assignment this coming week, but I wanted to give you a preview of the type of comparison we will be doing in Week 6 when we compare two versions of the same play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. The two versions are cinematic adaptions done in 1968 and 1996. The director the the first is Franco Zeffirelli; the second, Baz Luhrmann.

We will be doing an intensive appreciation of these two and a possible evaluation in regard to certain respects; in particular, the "meeting" scene; the balcony scene and the death scene.

Working from DVD copies of these two films provides the highest quality, but YouTube provides good quality video, especially for the 1968 Zefirelli version. If you search "elfaceitoso" and "Zeffirelli" on YouTube, you will find a 15 part version of the whole movie. As an introduction, today we will take a quick peek at the way in which the two directors handle the crucial meeting between Romeo and Juliet.