Decentring the Hypotext with Denim and Zombies: Jonathan Levine’s <span class='italic'>Warm Bodies</span> (2013) and David Lachapelle’s <span class='italic'>Romeo & Juliet</span> (2005)

doi:10.1017/9781009200905.009

Chapter 8 - Decentring the Hypotext with Denim and Zombies: Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2013) and David Lachapelle’s Romeo & Juliet (2005)

from Part II - Extending Genre

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2023

Magdalena Cieślak

Edited by

Victoria Bladen ,

Sarah Hatchuel and

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin

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Victoria Bladen: Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Sarah Hatchuel: Affiliation:
University Paul-Valéry Montpellier
Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin: Affiliation:
University Paul-Valéry Montpellier

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Summary

This chapter analyses Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2009) and David Lachapelle’s Romeo & Juliet (2005) as screen works that appropriate Shakespeare not through the play-text of Romeo and Juliet but instead through its screen history of networked hypertexts. I argue that both films decentre Shakespeare as a source by appropriating Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), rather than the play-text, as a key hypotext. Both Levine and Lachapelle’s works can be discussed from various perspectives of adaptation studies. They are, for example, good examples of genre films – Lachapelle’s Romeo & Juliet, a six-minute film advertising H&M denim jeans, is a commercial advertisement in the form of a music video, whilst Warm Bodies is a romzomcom.

Keywords

Romeo and Juliet appropriation Luhrmann Warm Bodies Levine Lachapelle commercial zombie romcom

Type: Chapter
Information: Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet , pp. 125 - 139

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009200905.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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References

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