3.13 Romeo and Juliet (1595) in Full

Film Adaptations

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Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 British-Italian romance film based on the tragic play of the same name by William Shakespeare. 

The film was directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli, and starred Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design; it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.  Laurence Olivier spoke the film's prologue and epilogue and reportedly dubbed the voice of the Italian actor playing Lord Montague, but was not credited in the film. 

Being the most financially successful film of a Shakespeare play during that time, it was popular among teenagers partly because the film used actors who were close to the age of the characters from the original play for the first time. Several critics also welcomed the film enthusiastically.

I've seen many productions of "Romeo and Juliet," but the Zeffirelli one is my favorite. 

Behind-the-scenes.  Rebecca Saire was only fourteen when the production was filmed, an unusually young age for an actress playing Juliet (even though she is only thirteen in the play itself). During publicity for the production, Saire gave several interviews in which she criticised director Alvin Rakoff, stating that in his interpretation, Juliet is too childlike and asexual, much to the horror of the series producers, who cancelled several scheduled interviews with the actress in the lead up to broadcast.

Saire's criticism notwithstanding, I have a special fondness for the BBC productions, because they came on TV just as I had discovered Shakespeare and was falling in love with his plays.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Romeo and Juliet

Note.  The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.13) and publication year (1595), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.