Film Text Analysis—The Coming-of-Age Genre, Baz Luhrmann’s Production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1996) Alias Romeo Juliet and Kate Wood’s “Looking for Alibrandi” (2000)

Analysis of a film text warrants a thorough understanding of the genre, and the codes and conventions used in the film to gauge the effectiveness of the film. The stages of production and postproduction measure the success of films. The coming-of-age genre is analysed with a focus on codes and conventions in films. First, a theoretical review of film terminology, codes and conventions is shown. Second, the application of codes and conventions to coming-of-age genre films is discussed with reference to Baz Luhrmann’s production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (1996) alias Romeo Juliet and an Australian Film, Kate Wood’s “Looking for Alibrandi” (2000). The former is a modern cinematic adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet (1597) which received both favourable and adverse criticisms. However, the scope of this analysis is not on the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) or to show the similarities and differences between the play and the film, rather, the analysis is on how Luhrmann used codes and conventions to make meaning of Romeo Juliet to the demands of contemporary young teenage audience and how Luhrmann fulfilled this aim. Looking for Alibrandi (2000) based on a novel of the same name is the first Australian Film about the Italian community in Australia, which portrays the growing-up of the character from an Italian background and finding identity in an Anglo-Australian society. The film is highly acclaimed, has unique cinematography, and keeps the plot of the film close to the novel. This analysis is aimed at entry-level (undergraduate) students of Film and media studies. The codes and conventions discussed in the analysis of the two films are universal and can be contextualized to analyse film texts of other genres as required in the film and literature studies curriculum.