Abstract
This essay argues that Luhrmann’s films William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) and The Great Gatsby (2013) bring the two classic texts together through visual and thematic parallels, particularly in scenes that feature Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the titular protagonist of both films. The latter film imagines an alternate ending for Shakespeare’s young lovers, as DiCaprio’s Gatsby becomes a grown up Romeo who lost his Juliet and is desperate to get her back. It is difficult to untangle the complex relationships between Luhrmann and DiCaprio, Fitzgerald and Shakespeare, but an attempt to do so can help unearth another iteration of “Shakespeare” in contemporary culture.
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Loper, N. (2017). Finding Shakespeare in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby . In: Desmet, C., Loper, N., Casey, J. (eds) Shakespeare / Not Shakespeare. Reproducing Shakespeare. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63300-8_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63300-8_13
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