Verona, 16th century. Two families, the Montagues and Capulets, are bitter enemies. However, two teenage offspring of the rival families, Romeo and Juliet, meet and falls deeply in love. They hide this relationship and marry in secret. When Tybalt from the Capulets goes into an argument with Romeo, this escalates into a sword fight in which Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo's friend. Romeo then slays Tybalt, escalating the tension between two families. The Capulets decide to marry Juliet to Count Paris. Desperate, Juliet listens to a questionable advice by Friar Laurence and drinks a fake poison in order to fall into a fake death for two days, but later awaken and escape. Her family lays her body in a tomb. Unfortunately, Romeo did not know of this plan: when he finds Juliet in the tomb, he commits suicide by drinking poison. Juliet awakens and, upon seeing her Romeo dead, kills herself with a dagger.
One of the most popular and critically recognized adaptations of William Shakespeare's most famous play, Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" is an excellent movie transformation that achieves a rare double strike: it is both worthy of its literal source as well as of its cinematic movie language. While Shakespeare's words tend to be archaic, convoluted and too theatrical for today's times, his "Romeo and Juliet" finds him in his most inspired edition: a beautiful romantic prose floats during the entire story, revealing a true romantic poet. Remarkably, Zeffirelli achieves that the movie seems fresh and modern even today, and kudos should be given to the two brilliant, wonderfully genuine and sincere leading roles. Olivia Hussey is especially overwhelming and enchanting as Juliet, so much that she melts you away: rare is the treat in the movie world that an actress appears in her very first leading role and already achieves the performance of a lifetime. Leonard Whiting is great as Romeo as well. They first feel attracted to each other, but later discover something more, that they are soulmates. The whole story is a testament of this miracle: how something so pure, so full of love appeared in the world, regardless of how rare it is.
The movie is very faithful to the play: when Romeo meets Juliet, there is this wonderful "flirty" exchange ("Don’t saints and pilgrims have lips too?" - "Yes, pilgrim, lips that they use in prayer." - "Let hands do what lips do.") before he puts his palm of the hand on hers. Afterwards, there is again an inspired quote before they finally kiss ("From my lips, by thy, my sin is purged." - "Then do my lips now have the sin they took from yours?" - "Sin from my lips? Oh, trespass sweetly urged. Give me my sin again."). The balcony sequence is also easy to identify with, with Juliet sitting on it in her nightgown, as she finally encounters Romeo in the garden again. As he is about to depart, he gasps: "Will thou leave me so unsatisfied?", as she gives him that look that says a lot. Afterwards, he runs happily through the forest, and jumps to kick a branch from excitement of this encounter, and the whole sequence rings true and honest. Zeffirelli even allows for a quick, yet effective erotic scene in which a naked Romeo is sleeping besides Juliet in bed, connecting to the wild, revolutionary 60s spirit that rocked that era. The authors managed to break free from the standard mold of the source that was told a thousand times before, almost as if they act it out completely spontaneously, untrammelled with every move they make, leaving a lasting legacy in cinema.
Grade:+++
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