On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Zeffirelli’s release of Academy Award nominated film Romeo and Juliet, the Italian Cultural Institute, in collaboration with the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation, presents a pre-Valentine’s Day screening of Shakespeare’s tale of romance and tragedy.
Two families of Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets, have been feuding with each other for years. Young Romeo Montague goes out with his friends to make trouble at a party the Capulets are hosting, but while there he spies the Capulet’s daughter Juliet, and falls hopelessly in love with her. She returns his affections, but they both know that their families will never allow them to follow their hearts.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
Italy, 1968, 133 min
Film in Italian with English subtitles
LOCATION
Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
PREVIEW (via Youtube)
Italian director Franco Zeffirelli started out as an actor in the stage productions of Luchino Visconti, then worked as an assistant on several Visconti-directed films. After World War II, Zeffirelli launched a career designing, costuming, and directing operas. Zeffirelli’s reputation in the 1960s rested on his boisterous, non-traditional movie versions of Shakespeare. He directed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in a lusty adaptation of Taming of the Shrew (1967), then became an icon for the Youth Movement by casting 17-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey in Romeo and Juliet (1968). Zeffirelli’s eye for visual richness served him well in the opulent Brother Sun/Sister Moon (1973), a romanticized account of Francis of Assisi. Throughtout his career, he continued to film operas such as I Pagliacci (1981), Cavalleria rusticana (1982), Otello (1986), and La Bohème (2008), often working in myriad roles, including opera director and production and costume designer. His later films include Jane Eyre (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), and Callas Forever (2002).