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Welcome to tonight's edition of #vulturemovieclub, where we’ll be watching Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, famous for setting late-‘90s high-school English classes the world over ablaze with uncontrollable lust
Critics didn’t love Romeo+Juliet in '96, likening it to punks trampling Shakespeare’s grave, but it was made in his irreverent spirit. “He would relentlessly reference the equivalent of MTV, advertising, politics, making a collage out of contemporary happenings,” said Luhrmann.
Shakespeare really said fuck a spoiler alert
Does your family have a sworn blood enemy and do you secretly wanna bang one of them?
Yung Leonardo DiCaprio, who reaches the apex of his androgynous hotness in Romeo +Juliet, described the plot thusly in an on-set interview back in 1996: “The reason why everyone’s killing each other is because they love each other so much.”
Romeo + Juliet was primarily filmed in Mexico City, a stand-in for the fictional “Verona Beach.” Harold Perrineau told us that the setting made everyone go a little bit “rockstar-wild,” especially Leo, who was always surrounded by women. https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
Harold told us that Baz wanted Jamie Kennedy and Zak Orth’s characters to “sound like Beavis and Butthead” doing Shakespearean dialogue. “Baz wasn’t looking to capture these English voices,” he explained. “He was looking to capture American sounds.”
Luhrmann stuffed the film full of Shakespearean references. This sign references a line from Henry VI, Part 3; there are also allusions to The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Tempest.
He said his primary goal with this gloriously batshit film was to “smash what I call ‘club Shakespeare’...This 26-year-old writer wrote this fantastic play so that everybody could understand it, so that everybody could be affected by it.”
This introduction to Leo as Romeo...moping around the beach in a suit to Radiohead, smoking moodily...solely responsible for me abruptly entering puberty
“Leo was always the choice for Romeo,” said Luhrmann at the time, who’d only seen DiCaprio in paparazzi photos and was taken aback by his, you know, entire thing. "I went, 'Now that's what Romeo should look like.’”
While Leo is not hot in every movie he dies in, in every movie he’s hot in, he dies. https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/leonardo-dicaprios-onscreen-deaths-a-theory.html
Harold said that he was “really impressed” by Leo’s skill. “I was trying so hard to do it ‘right.’ And he would just let it happen. Leo could turn it on and off at the drop of a dime. He’d be goofing off and be like, ‘Are you guys ready?’ And I’d be like, ‘Wait, I gotta prepare!’
Naturally Harold and I also spoke about Leo’s hotness (a recurring theme in this film and this accompanying live-tweet). “He’s a good-looking kid. We can’t deny that, can we? He’s a good-looking dude. If that were my predilection…I couldn’t say no, right?” https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
The most insane part of Romeo + Juliet is that it manages to make young Paul Rudd look like a tool.
If you insist!!!!
In 1996, everyone wanted to be Juliet: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Aaliyah, Kate Winslet, Christina Ricci. A 15-year-old Natalie Portman almost got the part, but during screen tests, her age difference with 22-year-old Leo appeared “obscene.”
Claire Danes, who was 16, got the role after Jane Campion, who saw her on My So-Called Life, recommended her to Luhrmann. Leo was also impressed by her, saying she was the only actor who looked him directly in the eye and didn’t play Juliet like an “angelic flower.”
as the story goes, Claire and Leo didn’t like each other at first — Claire found Leo annoying and Leo found her uptight. but later, Claire admitted, “There was definitely a spark, but I don’t think either of us knew how to handle it. So, we sometimes sort of ignored each other.”
I asked Harold for the Claire/Leo goss: “She was so young. Sometimes I’m sure acting is confusing, you get mixed up, especially that young. I’m sure for them, there were some interesting feelings happening, but nothing that I was ever privy to.” HMM https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
would u rather
Harold Perrineau’s entrance as Mercutio — cackling in a red convertible, silver two-piece glitter dress, huge wig, messy red lipstick, a gun slung across his body, dancing and singing — is one of the best in cinematic history. Here’s what he said about it: https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
THE ONLY MERCUTIO WE RECOGNIZE @HaroldPerrineau
The ultimate question: Is Mercutio in love with Romeo? Here’s how Harold explained their relationship:
Harold consulted with Leo’s pal David Blaine for the Queen Mab/ecstasy scene: “He just taught me some up-close magic stuff. It was really to get me used to having this feeling of being mercurial, of not knowing where things are coming from.”
Harold Perrineau trained as a dancer, so for him, this scene was easy. “It was a little tricky getting used to heels, but I had done some pointe work in ballet, so I had a little experience being that high. I could communicate in that language all day. It was no stress.”
Baz Luhrmann loves a chopped and screwed, drug-addled, fish-eye party scene.
tfw the large man singing “amore” makes the party simply too lit
R +J's soundtrack is totally inextricable from its appeal — it went triple platinum in the U.S. and also in my high-school bedroom. Des’ree’s “Kissing You" was written specifically for the movie, and she’s also in the film, performing the song
Rosaline whomst?
all of us at the first party post-quarantine and we forgot how to act
this smooch, as viewed in my freshman year English class, actually created a tear in the space-time continuum that resulted in Leo abandoning being hot in favor of being Marty Scorseses’s muse and winning an Oscar for sleeping in a bear. https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/leonardo-dicaprios-onscreen-deaths-a-theory.html
these two kooks are perfect for each other: two 14-year-olds who talk aloud to themselves in public at great length.
romeo's like
as Harold put it, “There’s a lot of reverence for these kids’ penises” in Romeo + Juliet.
Euphoria paid homage to this scene earlier this year, tho it was a lil bit darker:
10 Minute Fiance
get you a priest who can do both (drugs and be a priest)
the way he says “...eyes” -- that priest is talking about dicks again
this child's cover of "When Doves Cry" ...... life-altering
Mercutio bringing Cher from Clueless realness
well here are some more dick jokes thanks shakespeare
Miriam Margolyes is freakin legendary as the Nurse, especially in this scene.
remember watching this scene at 14 and being like, “yes, this makes sense. they are in love and should be married immediately.” Shakespeare understood horny teens better than Gossip Girl.
This scene was filmed as a hurricane approached Veracruz; you can see it looming in the background, and it eventually destroyed the set. Harold said Baz went on shooting anyway. “It was like, ‘If we die today, we die today. But I’d rather not.”
Here’s @HaroldPerrineau's take on the fight that leads to Mercutio’s death: https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
love a man who puns while dying
YOUR HOUSES YOUR HOUSES YOUR HOUSES YOUR HOUSES
The off-screen drama during Romeo + Juliet was nearly as intense as the movie itself. At one point, the production’s makeup artist was kidnapped and held for $400 ransom. “Got him back, a little beat up,” said Harold. https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.html
juliet's entire monologue here is just about how horny she is -- we stan
when u forgot somethin at the grocery store during a pandemic
TFW you murder the beloved cousin of your teenage wife who you met yesterday and who is now sitting at home waiting for you to consummate the marriage
I love Baz’s high-key implication that Juliet’s mom was sleeping with her cousin Tybalt. This is the kind of lunacy I come to Shakespeare for.
“thou art wedded to calamity” is the deepest burn of all time
love how much time Shakespeare (and Baz) devote to discussing how gorgeous Romeo is by way of explaining why Juliet is dickmatized
It wouldn’t be a Claire Danes movie if we didn’t get at least four seconds of the Claire Danes cry
POV: you’re a chill priest. Claire Danes points a gun at you in church while wearing gloves, a wig, and a jaunty beret. what do u do:
when someone is too long to speak and you long to die
Juliet’s Year of Rest and Relaxation
as in 2020, everything in Romeo + Juliet hinges on the functioning of the post office
How Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet Made Us Gay
same
everyone to their weed guy over the past 5 months:
Juliet’s funeral aesthetic: neo-goth Anthropologie
whenever I watch this scene I’m like, ok maybe this time she’ll wake up before he takes the drugs???
absolute god-level on-screen crying in this scene
this scene — & the film — works so well because Luhrmann & the cast (& Shakespeare) lean hard into what it feels like to be a teen in lust; they play it straight-faced. everything is life or death-level drama. everything is poisoning yourself at your girlfriend’s fake funeral.
claire's strangled, echoing sob here is so well done and chilling that i can conjure it in my brain from memory. who else in the world has ever made that noise??
at the end of my convo w/ @HaroldPerrineau, we talked about how he feels “salty” about the initial critical response to the film, but vindicated by the fact that all of the teens who loved R+J in high school have now given it a sort of cult-y second life https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/harold-perrineau-answers-every-question-about-romeo-juliet.htm
thanks for watching this bombastic, bizarre, beautiful ode to teen horniness and drugs with me. handing the keys back to the Vulture account, but you can find me @rachel_handler, and remember: the Post Office is literally all that stands between us and total chaos
