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Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1954) part 13 of 13

Uploaded by: ShakespeareAndMore
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link below to playlist of all 13 parts of this "Romeo and Juliet":
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2E21C243AAAF54C5
Laurence Harvey ... Romeo
Susan Shentall ... Juliet
Sebastian Cabot ... Capulet
Lydia Sherwood ... Lady Capulet
Mervyn Johns ... Friar Laurence
Giovanni Rota ... Prince of Verona
by William Shakespeare
from Hallam, "Introduction To The Literature of Europe", London, 1855):
Madame de Staël, has truly remarked that in Romeo and Juliet we have, more than in any other tragedy, the mere passion of love; love in all its vernal promise, full of hope and innocence, ardent beyond all restraint of reason, but tender as it is warm.
The contrast between this impetuosity of delirious joy, in which the youthful lovers are first displayed, and the horrors of the last scene, throws a charm of deep melancholy over the whole. Once alone each of them, in these earlier moments, is touched by a presaging fear; it passes quickly away fron them, but is not lost on the reader. To him there is a sound of despair in the wild effusions of their hope, and the madness of grief is mingled with the intoxication of their joy. And hence it is that, notwithstanding its many blemishes, we all read and witness this tragedy with delight.
It is a symbolic mirror of the fearful realities of life, where "the course of true love" has so often "not run smooth;" and moments of as fond illusion as beguiled the lovers of Verona have been exchanged perhaps as rapidly, not indeed for the dagger and the bowl, but for the many-headed sorrows and sufferings of humanity.
The character of Romeo is one of excessive tenderness. His first passion for Rosaline, which no vulgar poet would have brought forward, serves to display a constitutional susceptibility. There is, indeed, so much of this in his deportment and language that we might be in some danger of mistaking it for effeminacy if the loss of his friend had not aroused his courage. . . . Juliet is a child, whose intoxication in loving and being loved whirls away the little reason she may have possessed. It is, however, impossible, in my opinion, to place her among the great female characters of Sh.'s creation
..............
Not the best "Romeo and Juliet" on screen, but then none of them out there really....
The leads are played by youngsters in hope of sacrificing some poetic ability for authenticity, but it doesn't really work out.
The text is heavily cut and rearranged without much regard to meter or poetic flow.
Best part of the film are the sets, locations, art direction and costumes; with fine photography by the great Robert Krasker....Directed by Renato Castellani

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