- Title: USA: BAZ LUHERMANN'S 'ROMEO AND JULIET' PREMIERES IN LOS ANGELES
- Date: 27th October 1996
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (OCTOBER 27 1996) (REUTERS) (** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) EXTERIOR OF MANN'S CHINESE THEATRE IN HOLLYWOOD WHERE "ROMEO AND JULIET" PREMIERE WAS HELD MEDIA LEONARDO DICAPRIO, CLAIRE DANES AND BAZ LUHRMANN POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS ( SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) DIANE VENORAWHO PLAYS "GLORIA CAPULET", JULIETTE'S MOTHER, SAYING I AM EXCITED BECAUSE I LOVE
- Embargoed: 11th November 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MIAMI, FLORIDA AND LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA7VGZFSG977NJOEZT1KO7UWJVA
- Story Text: An Australian directs Americans in the latest -- and hippest -- adaptation of William Shakespeare's work.
Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet" premiered in Los Angeles on Sunday (October 27).
Luhrmann, the director of the Australian hit "Strictly Ballroom", takes a fresh and unorthodox look at a classic tale in his adaptation.
"Romeo and Juliet" stars teen heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes, of television's "My So-Called Life" as Juliet.
The film gives Shakespeare's Elizabethan English a contemporary American voice and sets it in the mythical city of Verona Beach, a pasionate, visceral, sexy, violent other-world, neither future nor past.
Luhrmann told Reuters Television he was trying to bring the play back to its original form.
"He (Shakespeare) wrote for three thousand people in a theatre who were basically drunk, or selling pigs and ducks and geese or whatever and yelling and screaming," Luhrmann said.
"Shakespeare was absolutely relentless in the devices and tricks and things he would do to get the audience's attention." While Luhrmann changed none of the dialogue, he did have the American cast speak it in their native accents, which he argued were closer to the original Elizabethan pronunciations of Shakespeare's day.
"The energy of the words in their mouths was quite different from what we believe is the correct way do do it," he said. "There is no correct way to do it because no one was there." In the film, swords and swordplay have been replaced by guns and gunplay.
The Montagues and Capulets drive large American cars with personalized license plates and Romeo falls into the Capulets' swimming pool as he tries to see Juliet.
Playing the opposing Capulet/Montague gangs are actors Harold Perrineau as Mercutio and John Leguizamo as Tybalt, Juliet's cousin.
Rounding out the cast are Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence, Miriam Margoyles as the Nurse, M. Emmet Walsh as the Apothecary and Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora as Juliet's parents, the sovereigns of the Capulet empire.
The rival Montague patriarch and matriarch are portrayed by Brian Dennehy and Christina Pickles.
DiCaprio is a veteran of the films "The Quick and The Dead," "The Basketball Diaries," and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
Danes was nominated for an Emmy for her work in the short-lived television series "My So-Called Life." She can also be seen in the upcoming comedy/drama "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday." While the film has opened in the United States, Europe will have to wait a little longer.
British audiences can see expect to see "Romeo and Juliet" in March next year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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