Romeo + Juliet * Baz Luhrmann * 1996

You may find me crazy, but this is one of my favorite films. Of course I have known this film for centuries, but apparently I saw it long before I started this filmsection. Now I got it on DVD, so… For those of you who don’t know this film (if this is possible), yes, it is with Leonardo DiCaprio, but this doesn’t make the film less beautiful to me. As the title suggests the film is based on Shakespeares “Romeo and Julia” and this is done brilliantly. The setting is in a modern city, but the text is in the original old English. The things that Shakespeare did not describe explicitly are filled in freely, things that are discribed used, but put in the new setting. Therefor the cars look a bit funny, a gun had the brand “sword” and they can put stuck into the ground and a policeman is the leader of the city of Verona. The voiceovers are made into newsreaders on TV and there are more brilliant findings in this film. The music is perfect (I have had the score at home for years) which makes this film as dramatic as Shakespeare probably meant it. The acting is great. The actors had to speak in an ancient tongue but still remain true to the modern setting of the film and to my opinion they did well. The film is so old that it is available for only a few euros/bucks so my suggestion is that you get a copy of it.