The story is set in 14th Century Renaissance Italy, in Verona. It is a tragic tale of two young lovers who's families- The Capulets and The Montagues are part of a longstanding feud. The lovers- Romeo and Juliet meet at a Capulet feast and fall deeply in love. Romeo stands under Juliette's Balcony and they declare their love for one another. The two of them, do everything in their power to see each other, disobeying their families. Eventually, they ate secretly married. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, had witnessed the presence of Romeo Montague at The Capulets feast and pays him a visit, challenging him to a duel. Romeo, at the time being a pacifist, refuses to do so, but his best friend, Mercutio fights for him. Mercutio dies, leaving Romeo angry and seeking revenge. He fights and kills Tybalt. The Prince of Verona, (who had previously set a law that anyone who destroys The Peace between the families and fights, should face a death sentence) decides to Banish Romeo.
Elsewhere, it is arranged by Juliet Capulet's father, that she should marry Count Paris. Juliet, however, is reluctant and seeks help from The Friar Lawrence (who is a friend of Romeo), who gives her a potion that would make her appear dead for forty- two hours. Before Romeo receives The Friar's letter, informing him of what Juliet had done, Balthazar (Romeo's Servant) sees Juliet's funeral and tells Romeo that she is dead. Romeo runs to her tomb and kills himself by drinking poison. Juliet awakens and seeing a dead Romeo, stabs herself to death. At a joint funeral, the families see what their hatred has caused and agree to end their feud.
Zeferelli chose not to make use of long speeches. He adapted the script to enhance the focus on Romeo and Juliet. He also wanted to make them more sympathetic which he did by showing Romeo's good relationships with The Friar, Mercutio and Balthazar. The duel scene between Romeo and Paris was also cut so that he would seem more sympathetic. He also made the characters a lot simpler, so that a young audience could fully understand what was happening.
The Cinematography of the film was very unique to it's time. In another decade the colour and clarity of the picture would of been very different to that of The Film. It was also a Colour Film. This meant that Shakespeare's play was available for a wider variety of people to view on a cinema screen. Also, the fact that it wasn't a live play changed the way in which the actors performed and how the viewers watch it .
The Indoor scenes were filmed in Rome's Cinecitta studios and The Outdoor scenes were filmed in The Renaissance towns of Artena in Central Italy and Pieza, Gubio. Zeferelli was given a limited budget and the film ran out of money before it was finished. Zeferelli appealed to Charles Bludhorn, The Head of Gulf and Western (Paramount's Parent Company). Although, Bludhorn was said to of talked throughout the film, it was his son who shouted, "shut-up daddy", who made him fund the rest of the film, after he asked his son if he understood it and his son replies "yes". After Bludhorn granted Zeferelli 1.5 million dollars to finish the film, it grossed 50 million dollars. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Two Oscars were won, for Pasqualino DeSantis' cinematography and Danilo Donati's costume design.
Zeferelli wanted to make his film different to previous film adaptions by using actual teenagers to portray the roles of Romeo and Juliet. The youth of that day, were quite rebellious and so, were looking for a film that would attract young audiences.Here is a quote of his, regarding The Film: "The teenagers of the play should be a lot like kids today... They don't want to get involved in their parents' hates and wars. Romeo was a sensitive, naive pacifist and Juliet strong, wise for a fourteen-year-old. That is why I chose inexperienced actors. I don't expect a performance from Olivia or Lenny. I want them to use their own experience to illuminate Shakespeare's characters".
Franco Zeferelli is an Italian Director and Producer of Films and Television. He directed and designed Operas. He was also a senator for The Italian centre-right Forza Italia party. Before The Film, he had already directed a some of Shakespeare's plays, including a version of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Due to the recent success of his film, 'The Taming Of The Shrewd', Paramount agreed to let Romeo and Juliet to go ahead, but only with a low- budget of 800,000 dollars.
He chose Leonard Whiting to play Romeo. He was 17 at the time, and was the youngest member of The National Theatre.He was chosen out of 300 young actors who auditioned. The film won him The Golden Globe Award For New Star Of The Year- Actor. He played The Artful Dodger in London's Musical of Oliver for 18 months and spend 13 months at Lawrence Olivier's National Theatre in The Production of Cosgreve's 'Love To Love' opposite Olivier. He appeared in quite a few films, his last being in (1974) Rachel's man. After that he focused on acting and writing for theatre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Whiting
Olivia Hussey was selected to play Juliet. At the age of 15, she had already starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in 'The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie' in The West End, where she was spotted by Zeferelli, who was impressed by her beauty and theatrical skill. She had also studied for 4 years at The Italia Conti Drama School. She was chosen out of 500 actresses who auditioned. For her role in The Film, she won a Golden Globe for New Star of The Year- Actress and The David Di Donatello for best actress. The Actress was born in Argentina, and is half Argentinian. She has appeared in over 40 films, including 'Jesus Of Nazareth' (1977), where she played Mary, The Mother of Jesus. She played the leading role of Jessica Bradford in 'The Black Christmas' (1974) and she played Rosalie Otterbourne in 'Death Of The Nile' (1978). She married 3 times, one of her husband;s being Dean Martin's son (Dean Paul Martin) and had a child from each husband:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Hussey
The film was credited with introducing homosexual overtones into the public perception of Mercutio and Romeo's relationship, due to the way in which Mercutio collapsed onto Romeo after The Queen Mab speech and again, when he is wounded. In The 1960s homosexuality was not as accepted as it is today. Here is a web page, about the events of The 1960s which influence LGBT rights and highlights the attitudes of people towards homosexuality in those years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s_in_LGBT_rights
The Vietnam War was between 1956 and 1975. Therefore at the time the film was released, in 1968, The war was still going on and The U.S.A were involved. The film earned 14.5 million dollars in domestic film rentals in North America alone (1969). The film was intended to attract young audiences and so you could compare the way in which Romeo and Juliet felt with the way in which teenagers of that time felt. For instance, they may have been torn between the military tradition of their elders and satisfying their own desires (love, passion, having fun). In addition, some may have felt like Romeo and might have not taken much interest in The Vietnam War. They were probably were more interested in simply getting on with life.
The film was released during the time of 'The British Invasion'. 'The British Invasion' is the name given to the time (mid 1960s) where pop and rock artists from The United Kingdom (as well as other aspects of British Culture) became popular in The U.S.A (e.g. The Beatles). Zeferelli even stated in his autobiography that he wanted to cast Paul McCartney (from The Beatles) as Romeo, but he was not an actor. Therefore a British cast was used, to appeal to American audiences.
I noticed that all of The Actors were white. This is probably mainly because of when and where The Film Is set. However, it may have also been to do with The Fact that their was segregation between white and black people during The 1960s. Martin Luther King (Civil Rights Movement Leader) was assassinated in April, 1968, which resulted in a five day race riot, in Washington D.C. There were 12 fatalities and Washington's Inner-City Economy was destroyed. It might have been that Zeferelli was aiming to avoid controversy when he didn't include any black actors in his film. However it wasn't very often that people would see non- white actors in films of that time.
There Film created some controversy, due to the fact that The Actress who played Juliet, Olivia Hussey, was seen topless in a nude scene of their wedding night. The problem being that she was only 15 and therefore she wasn't even legally allowed to watch the scene in The U.S.A. Also, although The Film was rated a PG, many teenagers who wanted to watch the film were simply not allowed to.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_(1968_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_on_screen
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191916%7C0/Romeo-and-Juliet.html
Here are my notes on The Film:
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