Teachers who show their students Luhrmann’s film should explain to them what Elizabethan theater was like: in the year 1600 audiences were more archaic, natural and wild than we are today. They weren’t silent or discreet, but spent the time in theaters flirting and drinking (the way we would do in a football stadium nowadays). That’s why Shakespeare entertained them the loud way – not just with the pure text we find in his books. That’s why Luhrmann made it such a loud and lush film (and a truly unforgettable one for more than one reason!).

People who’ve watched this film and still don’t understand why Romeo + Juliet is the world’s most famous love story will never understand it, I suppose.