Romeo And Juliet On Screen
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet may be one of the most-screened plays of all time. The most notable theatrical releases were George Cukor's multi-Oscar-nominated 1936 production, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet. The latter two were both, in their time, the highest-grossing Shakespeare film ever. Cukor featured Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard, with a combined age over 75, as the teenage lovers. Zeffirelli populated his film with beautiful young people, and Baz Luhrmann produced a heavily-cut fast-paced version aimed at teenage audiences.
Several reworkings of the story have also been filmed, most notably West Side Story, Prokofiev's ballet and Romanoff and Juliet. Several theatrical films, such as Shakespeare in Love and Romeo Must Die, consciously use elements of Shakespeare's plot.
Read more about Romeo And Juliet On Screen: Other Performances, Adaptations, Films Featuring Performances, or Composition, References
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“I can’t hide it any longer. I love you. It’s the old story, boy meets girl—Romeo and Juliet—Minneapolis and St. Paul!”
—Robert Pirosh, U.S. screenwriter, George Seaton, George Oppenheimer, and Sam Wood. Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx)
“A laughing Lear would be monstrous. Not so a laughing Romeo and Juliet.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The screen of supreme good fortune curved his absolute smile into a celestial scream.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)