Romeo and Juliet by Franco Zeffirelli - Research Paper Example

“Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet is a lovely, sensitive, friendly popularization of the play—the lovers, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, as young and full of life as they ought to be, Italy of its time there intact, a lot made of the relationship between Romeo and Mercutio, beautifully played by John McEnery” (Adler). Certainly, the actors were not experienced because of a very young age, but this inexperience was their main advantage. They did not play any parts, they were natural.

A wise director Franco Zeffirelli understood that nothing can express youth better than youth itself. Adult experienced actors would never manage to embody and express all the charm of the youth and the first love. Adults have already lost the capacity to feel all this thrill and delight and what is more, they will never die for love. There are people who were lucky to witness the shooting of the film. “Hussey and Whiting were so good because they didn't know any better. Another year or two of experience, perhaps, and they would have been too intimidated to play the roles.

It was my good fortune to visit the film set, in a small hill town an hour or so outside Rome, on the night when the balcony scene was filmed. I remember Hussey and Whiting upstairs in the old hillside villa, waiting for their call, unaffected, uncomplicated. And when the balcony scene was shot, I remember the heedless energy that Hussey threw into it, take after take, hurling herself almost off the balcony for hungry kisses. (Whiting, balanced in a tree, needed to watch his footing.)” (Ebert).

This valuable passage written by a person who saw shooting with his own eyes testifies that actors did not play any parts, they were. The researcher of this paper presents an analysis of the great screening of the masterpiece, entitled Romeo and Juliet and presented by Franco Zeffirelli in 1968. The researcher states that this movie is the best screen version of the play. The plot of the “Romeo and Juliet” seems plain, but its salt is the great misunderstanding that caused a great tragedy.

It seems that Shakespeare plays with readers in order to awake sorrow and the feeling of vexation. Romeo and Juliet are innocent creatures, who can’t be accused of what they did. The researcher also mentiones that it is necessary to analyze the music used in the movie. Music is stated to be a very important component of every movie. It is a correctly chosen music that makes a Romeo and Juliet movie successful. Certainly, the film contained the scenes, which were very difficult for young people to express and here we should admit the talented direction of Zeffirelli.

He made everything perfect: every scene, every glance, every motion of the main heroes. The reseracher then concluds that for the poetry, and the fine archaic dignity of Romeo and Juliet, the story could be taking place next door. It is stated to be the "sweetest, the most contemporary romance on film this year”. Critics and the researcher both mentioned this movie as a great work, every detail of which was thoroughly thought out by the director and producers and had its deserved success: it certainly became the best screening of the “Romeo and Juliet” in the world.