This film screened 25th June 2016.

Adapted for the screen over 50 times, whether serving as the inspiration for a film such as West Side Story (Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, 1961), or in versions more faithful to the original text, Romeo and Juliet has always been one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays with cinema audiences. Zeffirelli’s remains one of the most acclaimed, and was the first film to cast as leads actors close to the (speculative, in Romeo’s case) ages of the play’s protagonists, 17-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey. Enormously successful on release, it is currently the last Shakespeare adaptation to have been Oscar-nominated for Best Picture.

(Notes by Kevin Coyne.)

This film is screening as part of our Shakespeare Lives season June 8th – 30th.