If I must swear, I will swear by how serious the people of Oxford are about their Shakespeare. Summer in the city has been the season of open air performances and readings of almost every work Shakespeare has ever written, and yet there was something wholly unique about Cult Screens outdoor screening of Baz Luhrmann's nineties' classic, Romeo + Juliet. Even the rain could not deter our audience, beanbags and deckchairs strewn across the front lawn of the Pitt Rivers museum as film lovers huddled together in blankets and cagoules, mindless of the elements as they watched, captivated. Cult Screens have been staging outdoor screenings like this all summer, putting on classic movies with comfortable seating, plenty of drinks and snacks, and providing a truly communal viewing experience.
Exuberantly cheesy and lavishly over-the-top, the modern re-telling starring Leonardo DeCaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers is one that has been adored by movie buffs, Shakespeare nuts and GCSE English students for years, and it has truly stood the test of time. That is to say, the fashion and music choices in the movie are a pure nineties' nostalgia trip, but in a way that is charming rather than dated. Our scene is set on Verona Beach, New York, and the warring houses are business moguls, each with a wayward teenage child who meet at a costume ball. The swordfights are turned into gang warfare, featuring pistols named tongue-in-cheek brands such as 'Rapier' and 'Dagger', and there are consistent references and Easter eggs to the source text throughout - on this re-watch I spotted a 'Globe Theatre' and a shop named 'Merchant of Venice' in the background that I had never noticed before.
Honestly, I have yet to meet a person who does not like this movie. It's visually stunning in Luhrmann's usual style, cleverly adapted for a modern audience, and brings fresh humour and tragedy into one of the most widely known (and arguably over-done) plays the world has ever known.
(Plus, the 'gang colours' of the Montague boys are fantastically ugly Hawaiian shirts: there really is something for everyone.)
