Romeo and Juliet
Romeo e Giulietta
Directed by:
Franco ZeffirelliCinematography:
Pasqualino De SantisComposer:
Nino RotaCast:
Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery, Milo O'Shea, Pat Heywood, Michael York, Bruce Robinson, Paul Hardwick, Natasha Parry, Roberto Bisacco, Roy Holder (more)VOD (2)
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One of the great Shakespeare adaptations, this sublime take on the Bard’s immortal romantic tragedy by Franco Zeffirelli breathed new life into the oft-told tale by casting actual teenagers in the title roles. As the young lovers whose affair threatens to inflame the tensions between their feuding families in Renaissance Verona, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting vividly capture the mix of adolescent ardor and turmoil that fuels their destiny-driven liaison. A sensory banquet thanks to Nino Rota’s delicate score and the exquisite, Oscar-winning costumes and cinematography, Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare at its most deeply felt and passionately alive. (Criterion)
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Reviews (2)
If one says Shakespeare, many people think of Romeo and Juliet first, which is a real pity, considering the fact that he was also the author of other and more powerful tragedies, like “Hamlet” or “Macbeth”. Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation is exceedingly faithful to its source, in both the positive and the negative sense. The two lead actors are excellent in their roles, no doubt about that, but the tight connection to the source material makes the whole thing feel too theatrical and artificial. Of course I can understand this way of performing it, but I still think it could have been more realistically conceived. That said, I must commend Nino Rota's haunting musical motif, which ran through the entire film in several variations. If the film had been half an hour shorter and felt more authentic, I believe it would have definitely appealed to me more, as it is, it’s a well crafted piece of work, but too distant for my taste.
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I certainly don't blame Master Zeffirelli for having me thinking for a long time only about only three stars. I see the problem in the story itself, which may be an immortal classic, the prototype of a massively accepted and thought-provoking romance, etc., but for me, as a viewer and as a person who has become jaded by the modern age, where the pinnacle of romantic cinema is the leaky Titanic and the sinking teenage icon (nothing against Leo – he's a great actor), this tale is so unbearably cheesy and unrealistic that I have no need to see it or, heaven forbid, read it ever again. In spite of all this, however, I still have to appreciate the beautiful form, the dramatic presentation of some scenes (the first kiss of Romeo and Juliet, the duel between Tybalt and Mercurio) and the likeable performances, which would surely have been an ornament even to the glorious English theatre. Unfortunately, in the second half I started to fall asleep suspiciously often, so the 4* is paradoxically saved only by the very lilting voices of the top Czech dubbing team, who created (with a few exceptions) a very pleasant theatrical backdrop. And it is in the theatre that this story primarily belongs. 70%
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