Romeo and Juliet
Boy is she beautiful! I suppose I do rant about actors a lot, but this woman is an exceptional case of beauty. I still think that Ingrid Bergman is unparalleled, but Olivia Hussey is probably the closest to that amongst all actresses I have ever seen and the two of them should win the award for most beautiful couple of all times.
This film is a classic, and I have wanted to see it ever since I saw a picture of Hussey as Juliet. Everything about this film looks right – the costumes look wonderful, the characters are beautiful beyond belief and everything just fits together including overly dramatic music. On a side note, I love how Romeo died with poison and Juliet died using the infamous dagger.
Apart from that, with 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film felt way too long. This is a problem when you know the story by heart because you have seen it so many times. I saw the horrible Leonardo DiCaprio film, Prokofiev’s ballet and of course “Shakespeare in Love”. Without having read nor seen the play, I still know almost about it, and besides a feast for the eyes, this well-known story is quite a borefest.
Personally I enjoyed the film the most in the scenes where Romeo and Juliet are together. They have a surprising chemistry despite their youth and lack of experience, and I like the purity of their relationship. Otherwise this is quite a forgettable film unless you have a love for the it as strong as I have for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. I could see that one over and over again, but not “Romeo and Juliet”.