I went to my favorite movie house, the beautiful Art Deco cinema Cine Capitol, on Madrid’s main strip, the Gran Vía. I had been away for so long, and I was desperate for American movies and anything in English. It was my study abroad year in college, and a girlfriend wrote in one of her letters that I should see the movie when it reached me in Europe. I first saw the movie in the spring of 1997 when it premiered in Madrid. Most Shakespearean filmmakers gloss over anachronism between theme and form, but Luhrmann relishes it. The lovers share their first kiss in the privacy of an elevator, not in the pseudo-public space of the Capulet party dance floor the balcony scene occurs mostly in a pool, allowing Romeo and Juliet to be on an equal physical plane in close enough proximity to kiss throughout and the audience is aware that we are watching a spectacle, with Luhrmann’s famous “Red Curtain,” an animation of a giant stage curtain, at the outset to remind audiences that this is in fact theater.

Allstar Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo. What might be common in today’s concept productions and films was a big risk at the time: Luhrmann retained the language but modernized the setting and visual style.Ĭlaire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio, Romeo + Juliet, 1996. Instead, he proved you don’t need to change the language to make Shakespeare accessible. But Luhrmann exploded the sensibility of filmic Shakespeare for the time: his film was neither Shakespeare in an antiquated setting nor a modern-day riff in contemporary English, like films such as Disney’s The Lion King (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). The 1990s were the era of the Shakespeare film: Kenneth Branagh bookended the decade with five Shakespeare movies between 19, both opening up and solidifying a broad audience. Twenty-five years later, its indelible mark as the Romeo and Juliet of Gen X, Gen Y, and even Gen Z has not been diminished, despite the wealth of Shakespeare films released since then. 1 at the box office in the United States.

Album / Alamy Stock Photo.īaz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, premiered on November 1, 1996, opening No.

However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, 1996. And when you’re done with that, we have some (happier) movies about summer love for you to check out.Īll products featured on Teen Vogue are independently selected by our editors. Now, get ready to revel in a sad love story (or several), and while you’re at it, pass the tissues. (Yes, even those of you who swear you don't have tear ducts!) Love’s highs - and all of its beyond-anguishing lows (we love a good unrequited love song) - are explored in so many different ways in movies now, so we've rounded up the 29 best emotional movies that are guaranteed to make you cry every time. And isn't that what matters? We thought so. But the emotions and heartbreaks, the wins and losses of being in love, still feel totally real. In the back of our minds, we totally know that most of the characters are made up (or, at the very least, are fictionalized adaptations of real people). When it comes to sad romance movies that make you cry, honestly, we can't get enough. You know those sad romance movies that wreck you every time you watch them? The ones that - at the age of 12, having yet to go on a single date - left you utterly convinced that you knew what love’s most tragic depths felt like? And the emotional movies that, as someone who’s maybe now experienced a taste of love and loss yourself, continue to hurt so good?

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