Beyond the letters: the passion on the screen.

According to what we have studied in classes, Shakespeare was inspired by Arthur Brooke to write one of the most important plays of all times, Romeo and Juliet. Brooke’s poem was called “The tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet” which was also inspired by a poem called “Novelli” written in 1554 by Matteo Bandelo.

Romeo and Juliet is a story magically created out of the unknown, rescuing visions that were damned to oblivion, and turned into what we know now as one of the most important tragedies ever written.

We know that the 1590 play continues inspiring these days; filmmakers have been motivated with Shakespeare’s love story, creating movies that have captured the soul of the play; for example, the 1996 Baz Luhrman’s modern-setting version has brought the original text into the big screen. Updating the old Verona into a post –modern city, DiCaprio and Danes (Romeo and Juliet) fill their classic role with passion and speak the Elizabethan verse with grace, keeping the balance between the new and the old, the comedy and the tragedy.

Most than 400 years have passed and the touch has not lost, so how does Romeo and Juliet keep influencing the imagination of modern movie directors?

The play is the most famous love story in the world; love is violent and powerful, it easily transcends words, images and time. Love is pushed near its opposite ; hate, both overwhelmed the main characters to a point in which Romeo and Juliet’s passion can be described as a fusion of these two emotions. A supreme and beautiful union that can be resisted only by this transcendent couple.

In my opinion, the fusion between dark (hate) and light (love) are the themes that have endured throughout the time until modern ages. We, as humans, are always in contact with positive and negative forces that can make us do things that we never thought about. It moves us, it fills us with something new, it pushes us to the edge of life without paying attention to the dangers, or maybe such a powerful feeling is just not made for this world.

The play and the movie are representations of what cannot endure; love, the absolute, the movie and the play themselves are not infinite performances, they have a time and will come to an end, but in a way the play has been able to last for more than 400 years, as master piece and, as the gold statue of the lovers, a reminder of how true feelings govern people’s life.