This is a masterpiece of a paraphrase on a great play. The film actually has nothing to do with Shakespeare. The play is being turned into a film without much of Shakespeare, while only the plot superficially is taken care of by apparently a team of amateurs or second hand actors. The only film star among them is Martine Carol who only has a minor part and speaks practically nothing. Instead the film is being taken over by the subplot, which is the relationship between two stand-ins: the Romeo actor suffers from vertigo, so he can't climb up to the balcony, and another stand-in has second superstitious thoughts because of having passed under a ladder. The two stand-ins are Serge Reggiani, who plays a simple glass-blower of Murano, but it so happens that he makes a more perfect Romeo than most, and Anouk Aimée in her first major part, and there was never a more exquisitely enchanting Juliet - Norma Shearer, Olivia Hussey - they all fade in the lustre of Anouk Aimée. The film is shot in Venice and Verona, and the scenes of Verona are particularly unforgettable, as it was heavily bombed in the war and the ruins are used for augmenting the sensitivity of the romance. The first scene when they meet each other on the balcony without ever having seen each other before is absolutely convincing as captivating the moment of truth in love at first sight, and the camera man himself admits it's the best scene of the film. Pierre Brasseur is the great actor here, as the rival fiancé he makes his usual tour de force of dominating the stage whenever he appears, and like all the others he makes a very convincing character as a business man villain like even all the crazy members of Anouk Aimée's very degenerate family do. There are exaggerations, which tend to turn the film rather theatrical, but it all happens in Italy where it is natural, since every Italian is a born actor. The music finally by Joseph Kosma adds the final touch to the multi-dimensional drama and couldn't have been more appropriate in accompanying the double tragedy. Although Romeo and Juliet here were not really acted but instead substituted by amateur greenhorns, this still remains one of the best if not The best film version of the constantly distorted original story.
Review of The Lovers of Verona
