This is as near perfection as I can conceive a film coming. Though I have limited toleration of reseeing films, I have seen this one about a dozen times. I am still in awe of its beauty and invariably streaming with tears at its ending.
If aspiring to make a stupendous film about love, it does of course help to choose a story standing so high above others of its kind that it has become a byword for romance. As one should be able to (but cannot) take for granted with a dialogue already supplied by the greatest playwright ever, it has been only occasionally and gently edited for vocabulary. Zeffirelli made however some very judicious cuts to bring his film down to a suitable length. Gone therefore are most of Romeo's professions of love for Rosaline, his duel with Paris and the little detective story near the end whereby the love story is finally explained to all. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I would say Zeffirelli improved Shakespeare's story with the removal of these distractions.
I found every single actor well-cast and brilliant, the nurse possibly the best. The only fault I found was that Friar Lawrence's incongruous Irish accent grated a little. The lovers were suitably beautiful, which again one might hope one could take for granted with such a topic, but cannot. It is extraordinary that Zeffirelli was the first film director to have the sense to cast teenagers in the leading roles, as Shakespeare obviously intended. Both story and dialogue are otherwise patently absurd. Not only Romeo and Juliet, but also their companions impart perfectly the innocence, passion, swagger, spontaneity, charm and eros of Renaissance youth.
The mild but exquisite eroticism of the bedroom scene was essential; there can be no moment when beautiful nudity is more strongly called for than in the sole such scene of a film celebrating young physically-inspired love. I only wish Zeffirelli could have gone further despite our puritanical society. It is a particular shame as he had the sense and good taste to pay homage to the beauty of both sexes.
The period-perfect Italian settings and ravishing costumes are so authentic and beautiful that many of the scenes look exactly like Renaissance paintings, in other words some of the most beautiful images ever made. For me, however, the crème de la crème is the one of these visual feasts where we are simultaneously treated to a youth's singing of the superbly apt theme song, What is a Youth?, itself the most beautiful song I know of.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a modern tragedy of forbidden love, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112
If aspiring to make a stupendous film about love, it does of course help to choose a story standing so high above others of its kind that it has become a byword for romance. As one should be able to (but cannot) take for granted with a dialogue already supplied by the greatest playwright ever, it has been only occasionally and gently edited for vocabulary. Zeffirelli made however some very judicious cuts to bring his film down to a suitable length. Gone therefore are most of Romeo's professions of love for Rosaline, his duel with Paris and the little detective story near the end whereby the love story is finally explained to all. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I would say Zeffirelli improved Shakespeare's story with the removal of these distractions.
I found every single actor well-cast and brilliant, the nurse possibly the best. The only fault I found was that Friar Lawrence's incongruous Irish accent grated a little. The lovers were suitably beautiful, which again one might hope one could take for granted with such a topic, but cannot. It is extraordinary that Zeffirelli was the first film director to have the sense to cast teenagers in the leading roles, as Shakespeare obviously intended. Both story and dialogue are otherwise patently absurd. Not only Romeo and Juliet, but also their companions impart perfectly the innocence, passion, swagger, spontaneity, charm and eros of Renaissance youth.
The mild but exquisite eroticism of the bedroom scene was essential; there can be no moment when beautiful nudity is more strongly called for than in the sole such scene of a film celebrating young physically-inspired love. I only wish Zeffirelli could have gone further despite our puritanical society. It is a particular shame as he had the sense and good taste to pay homage to the beauty of both sexes.
The period-perfect Italian settings and ravishing costumes are so authentic and beautiful that many of the scenes look exactly like Renaissance paintings, in other words some of the most beautiful images ever made. For me, however, the crème de la crème is the one of these visual feasts where we are simultaneously treated to a youth's singing of the superbly apt theme song, What is a Youth?, itself the most beautiful song I know of.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a modern tragedy of forbidden love, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112