Romeo and Juliet (1968 film)
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Romeo and Juliet (1968) is an Oscar-winning film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. The film's tagline is No ordinary love story...
The film was adapted for the screen by Franco Brusati, Maestro D'Amico and Franco Zeffirelli, also being directed by Zeffirelli.
It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costume Design (Danilo Donati) and was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.
The film is notable for being one of the first filmed versions of the play in which the main actors are near to the ages of the characters in the play; Leonard Whiting was seventeen during filming, and Olivia Hussey was sixteen. The film garnered some controversy at the time in Italy as the two leads (who were underage at the time) appear naked.
Cast
- Leonard Whiting - Romeo
- Olivia Hussey - Juliet
- John McEnery - Mercutio
- Milo O'Shea - Friar Lawrence
- Pat Heywood - Nurse
- Michael York - Tybalt
- Bruce Robinson - Benvolio
- Paul Hardwick - Lord Capulet
- Natasha Parry - Lady Capulet
- Antonio Pierfederici - Lord Montague
- Esmeralda Ruspoli - Lady Montague
Trivia
- In order to show Olivia Hussey topless in one scene, director Franco Zeffirelli had to get special permission from the Italian censors.
- The film's "love theme", written by Nino Rota, is widely recognized in the UK because of its use by the disc jockey Simon Bates in his "Our Tune" feature.
- Hussey was denied entrance to see the film in Britain based on its initial rating of "A" for Adult, although it received its rating based on her own brief nude scene, and Hussey commented at the time on how she was not permitted to see something that "I saw in the mirror every day."
External links
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