WHO’S IN IT?
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Douglas Booth (LOL), Damian Lewis (Homeland), Paul Giamatti (Sideways), Kodi Smit-McPhee (ParaNorman), Ed Westwick (Chalet Girl), Lesley Manville (Another Year), Christian Cooke (Cemetary Junction), Stellan Skarsgård (Good Will Hunting), Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show), Tom Wisdom (300)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Carlo Carlei (The Flight of the Innocent), director; Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), writer, co-producer; Simon Bosanquet (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), Lawrence Elman (Paris Connections), Alexander Koll (film debut), Ileen Maisel (Onegin), Doug Mankoff (The Joneses), Andrew Spaudling (The Ward), Nadja Swarovski (film debut) and Dimitra Tsingou (film debut), producers; Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man), composer; David Tattersall (The Green Mile), cinematographer; Peter Honess (The Golden Compass), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
For all two of you who aren’t familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet, this should fill you in nicely: two sets of families – the Montagues and Capulets – are at constant odds with each other, but when Romeo Montague (Booth) and Juliet Capulet (Steinfeld) meet and fall in love, they try to keep their love affair secret from their respective warring families…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Everyone and their grandmothers know the story of Romeo and Juliet from beginning to end, everyone has been forced to analyse its hidden meanings and complex language in school and, of course, everyone from Franco Zeffirelli to Baz Luhrmann has told the tale on the big screen countless times. This new version, directed by Carlo Carlei and adapted by Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes, is just one of many renditions of Shakespeare’s most famous play that audiences can access and watch very easily.
However, it has been at the centre of a small heap of controversy with various scholars, particularly toward Fellowes’ adapted screenplay. Whereas most versions traditionally keep the dialogue that Shakespeare wrote intact – something that even Luhrmann managed to do in his MTV-inspired take on the tragedy – Fellowes seems to have altered the dialogue so much that “little to none” of it seems to remain (for more information, check out this news article courtesy of Claire Duffin at The Telegraph).
For those who do like the works of the Bard but cannot for the life of them understand what people are saying half the time despite trying their hardest to understand it, this is probably a dream come true. The story is still the same and, despite altered or changed dialogue, it becomes more accessible and therefore less alienating because of its poetic words. Understandably, this doesn’t mean that this new version should be the definitive film version of the play, but for newcomers it should be a good telling of the actual story of the two star-crossed lovers, right up until it takes that famous dark turn for its ending.
Leading the cast are Douglas Booth and Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld as Romeo and Juliet respectively, while bigger names like Homeland’s Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti and Stellan Skarsgård fill in the supporting roles. While it may disappoint some that fans won’t be able to hear those character actors recite Shakespeare’s iconic dialogue – Giamatti especially will have to perform the Friar’s iambic pentameter line recitals elsewhere (not sure what that is? That’s what the internet’s for!) – the fact that they were being courted to play the timeless characters in the first place should be satisfying enough.
For never was there a tale of more woe, than of Romeo and Juliet, written by Julian Fellowes.
