Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet (1968) is Franco Zeffirelli's drama after Shakespeare's play, and you can watch it online on iFILM. In Verona two proud houses, the Montagues and the Capulets, have been spilling each other's blood for generations. Then young Romeo crashes a Capulet ball, meets the daughter of his family's enemy, and everything comes undone.

Zeffirelli made the bold choice of casting actual teenagers as the leads: Leonard Whiting was sixteen, Olivia Hussey just fifteen. That is why their romance plays less like recited verse and more like the fever of a first love. The two marry in secret before Friar Laurence, but a street brawl between the clans kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, and the story tips toward the ending everyone already knows. A young Michael York turns up in a supporting part.

Shot in old Italian towns and scored by Nino Rota, whose theme became a hit on its own, the film won two Academy Awards, for cinematography and costume design. It is still regarded as the most vivid screen version of the play. Stream Romeo and Juliet (1968) online on iFILM.