Baz Luhrmann’s gloriously over the top modern day adaptation of Shakespeare’s greatest romantic tragedy, reimagined the feuding Montague and Capulets as rival street gangs in Veracruz. With Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers and a soundtrack featuring Garbage and The Cardigans, it remains one of the liveliest takes on the classic ever made.
Screening as part of SLACKER SHAKESPEARE, a season of 1990s indie
cult movie classics, inspired by the world of William Shakespeare. These
events are part of RIO FOREVER and are sponsored by FIVE POINTS
Brewing.
There was far more to the 1990s than
Kurt Cobain, Brit Pop and Oasis. Indie cinema boomed and smart movie
makers took on the classics, the decade seeing a run of original,
outrageous and brilliantly subversive adaptations of William
Shakespeare’s plays, and films inspired by his works. Think Romeo at a
rave, Miranda in Ibiza, Ophelia on prozac, Hamlet hanging loose,
Barditry in a beanie hats, and Shakespeare as a slacker in a plaid shirt
and converse and the action coming out of Silverlake rather than
Stratford Upon Avon...
This screening is introduced by season curator, author and cultural commentator Travis Elborough.
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Slacker Shakespeare: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO + JULIET
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