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Renato Castellani - Romeo and Juliet (1954)

Posted By: amlo01

Date: 3 Jul 2011 13:24:29

Renato Castellani - Romeo and Juliet (1954)

Generally forgotten today, Romeo and Juliet is a satisfactory, if perfunctory, adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal tragedy. Cast as the "star cross'd lovers" this time out are Laurence Harvey, who's quite good, and Susan Shentall, who isn't. Whether or not Shentall would have improved with experience is a moot point, since she retired from the screen to get married soon afterward. Director Renato Castellani was showered with praise for his decision to lens the story on location in Italy. Less popular was his decision to delete several of Shakespeare's more famous passages, arguing that they held up the progress of the story (sometimes whole scenes, including the one with the apothecary, were chopped out).

The supporting cast includes Dame Flora Robson as Nurse, Mervyn Johns as Friar Laurence, Bill Travers as Benvolio, Norman Wooland as Paris, John Gielgud as the (unseen) Chorus, and Sebastian Cabot as Capulet; the rest of the major roles were filled by Italian actors. Though overshadowed by later film versions, this Romeo and Juliet was impressive enough in 1954 to win the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival. (Hal Erickson @ allrovi.com)

This version of Shakespeare's oft-filmed Romeo and Juliet is sumptuously filmed and a treat for the eye, but rather less one for the ear – which fact will likely make it unsatisfying for Shakespeare aficionado. Transferring Shakespeare to film is always a difficult chore, and director Renato Castellani deserves credit for not treating the text as sacrosanct, knowing that what works wonderfully on-stage may not always have the same impact onscreen. Unfortunately, Castellani's cuts and changes have not had the desired effect, as the film tends to drag in spite of the excisions, and while the beautiful location lensing is often glorious, it doesn't add to the emotional or dramatic impact as it clearly intends to.

With a brilliant cast, this might not have made so much difference, but Susan Shentall's Juliet is lackluster, uninvolving, and occasionally annoying, if undeniably attractive. Laurence Harvey does much better by Romeo, but he's merely good, rather than special. (To be fair, Romeo is a difficult role in which to excel, lacking the innate drama of a Hamlet or a Richard III.) The supporting cast fares well, with especially strong contributions from Flora Robson and Mervyn Johns, and the whole enterprise looks stunning. For some, that will be more than enough to make this Romeo and Juliet rewarding viewing. (Craig Butler @ allrovi.com)

IMDB

MediaInfo

BD-Rip MKV Xvid | 720 x 544 | 0.2 bpp | AC-3 192 Kbps | English with Spanish subs

General
File Name : Romeo and Juliet (1954).mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 2.06 GiB
Duration : 2h 14mn
Overall bit rate : 2 193 Kbps

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual Simple@L3
Codec ID : XVID
Resolution : 720 x 544 pixels
Bit rate : 1 957 Kbps
Aspect ratio : 1.324
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bits per Pixel : 0.200 bpp

Audio 0
Format : AC-3
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Language : English

Subtitle 0
Format : UTF-8
Language : Spanish

Thank You To HD4U

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