Just over hour hundred years ago, William Shakespeare wrote a play about two ‘star-cross’d lovers’. It has become synonymous with stories of love overcoming all differences, even if it has a tragic ending. There have been many stage and screen versions, even ballet versions of the story. In 2013 you can relive the tale when the Romeo and Juliet new movie is released.
Written at the start of his career, Shakespeare’s most enduring play saw its first appearance in print in 1597. A few decades earlier there was a similar story in Italy and The Bard borrowed from this. In fact, there is a balcony in Verona that is said to be the one where the real girls the female title character was based on appeared to her lover.
The plot tells of two young people from opposing families in Italy. The House of Montague and the House of Capulet have been feuding for many years. However, Romeo of the Montague family attends a party at the Capulet house one night by sneaking in uninvited. He encounters Juliet and they fall in love. The two young lovers get married the next day, but do it in secret because their families will never approve.
Juliet has a cousin Tybault, who is very offended when he finds out that Romeo attended the party. He insists on fighting the hero in a duel. Mercutio, the hero’s best friend, decides to fight Tybault instead, but is killed in the process. The hero in turn kills Tybault and has to go into exile as a result.
The Capulet family decides to marry Juliet off to someone else, oblivious of the fact that she’s already married a Montague. Desperate to escape this fate, she asks the priest to help her. He provides her with a drug that will put her into a deep sleep, simulating death for a while. A message is sent to the hero but doesn’t reach him. The hero hears that his wife has ‘died’ and he travels to the crypt where her body is being kept. There he kills himself by drinking poison. His bride wakes up and finds him dead, so she grabs his dagger and kills herself too.
Since the earliest years of the film industry, there have been various big-screen adaptations of the tragic story. Several films used it as part of the plot or have been loosely based on it too. A respected director from Italy, Carlo Carlei, directed the latest movie version.
The cast includes Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld as the title characters. Booth is a British actor and model who beat three hundred other actors in getting the part. He follows in the footsteps of Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the role in the last significant film version of the story, directed by Baz Luhrman. Steinfeld is especially known for her Oscar-nominated part in ‘True Grit’ and will join notable actresses like Norma Shearer, Olivia Hussey and Claire Danes in portraying the tragic heroine on screen.
Experienced and respected actors like Stellan Skarsgard, Lesley Manville and Natascha McElhone will star in the film too. Ed Westwick from ‘Gossip Girl’ plays the part of Tybault. Set for release in February 2013, the Romeo and Juliet new movie is one you shouldn’t miss. It is the perfect movie to take your date to.
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