That's Why He's Shakespeare

Avocado and her class are reading Romeo and Juliet and at the same time watching both the Zeffirelli R&J* and the Baz Luhrmann Romeo+Juliet. Anyway, last night she Netflixed (look! a noun-into-verb! avert!) the latter film and wanted me to watch it with her. I had never seen it before; it's a peculiar film in the same way that Moulin Rouge is a peculiar film--lots going on, some of it delightful, some of it, as near as I can tell, just there for the weird. Great cast, although it's the nature of the play that some actors of great skill and stature (Brian Dennehy and Paul Sorvino, as Montague and Capulet, respectively) have almost nothing to do. And there are a few choices made that I did not care for in the least. (Though I did like it that all the guns have names like "rapier" which gives some reason for people to be talking about putting up swords.)

But what I noted was that 1) the kid has no problem with the language, although we did pause it a couple of times to discuss the dirty jokes; and 2) that as the play turns tragic that damned Shakespearean magic took right over. From the minute Tybalt comes looking for Romeo and finds Mercutio instead, the kid started murmuring "no, no, no" under her breath. When the awful begins to snowball and it becomes clear that Romeo is, indeed, fortune's fool, she took my hand and held it all the way to the end.

I can't wait to hear what she thinks of the Zeffirelli version. The young ones in that are pretty and sweet, but o! McEnery's Mercutio and York's Tybalt are wonderful. And the swordplay, choreographed by the great William Hobbs, is fabulous.


*She and I agree that the young Michael York was breathtakingly toothsome as Tybalt. I think it weirds the Spouse out a bit when we have these discussions.

I'm Easily Amused

Here's Chapter 17 of The Sleeping Partner as a Wordle: