Romeo and Juliet (films)

William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has been adapted to film and television many times. Some of these adaptations include:

Direct adaptations

• Romeo and Juliet, A Romantic Story of the Ancient Feud Between the Italian Houses of Montague and Capulet (1908); directed by J. Stuart Blackton (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1908); filmed extract from a performance at the Lyceum Theatre; director unknown (UK)
• Romeo e Giulietta (1908); directed by Mario Caserini (Italy)
• Romeo and Juliet (1911); first attempt to distil the entire narrative into a film; directed by Barry O'Neil (USA)
• Romeo e Giulietta (1912); pathécolor adaptation; directed by Ugo Falena (Italy)
• Romeo and Juliet (1916); first feature-length adaptation; directed by John W. Noble and Francis X. Bushman (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1916); released the same week as, and in direct competition with, the Noble and Bushman adaptation; directed by J. Gordon Edwards (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1924); the balcony scene filmed at a performance from the Regent Theatre, London; John Gielgud's film debut; director unknown (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1936); most expensive Shakespearean adaptation made up to that time; directed by George Cukor (USA)
• Scenes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1937); first TV adaptation; directed by Royston Morley (UK)
• Julieta y Romeo (1939); directed by José María Castellví (Spain)
• Romeo and Juliet (1947); first full length TV adaptation; directed by Michael Barry (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1947); directed by Akhtar Hussein (India)
• Romeo and Juliet (1949); TV adaptation for The Philco Television Playhouse; directed by Albert McCleery (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1954); directed by Renato Castellani (UK/Italy)
• Romeo and Juliet (1954); TV adaptation for Kraft Television Theatre; directed by Richard Dunlap (USA)
• Romeo e Giulietta (1954); made-for-TV movie; directed by Franco Enriquez (Italy)
• Romeo and Juliet (1955); TV adaptation for Sunday Night Theatre; directed by Harold Clayton (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1957); TV adaptation for Producers' Showcase, broadcast from The Old Vic; directed by Michael Benthall; directed for television by Clark Jones (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1962); five-part TV serialisation; directed by Prudence Nesbitt (UK)
• it (1964); directed by Riccardo Freda (Italy/Spain)
• Romeo en Julia (1964); made-for-TV movie; directed by Jack Dixon (Netherlands)
• Romeo und Julia (1964); made-for-TV movie; directed by Gerhard Klingenberg (West Germany)
• Romeo y Julieta (1966); made-for-TV movie; directed by María Herminia Avellaneda (Argentina)
• Romeo and Juliet (1966); filmed version of a stage performance from the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre; directed by Val Drumm and Paul Lee (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1967); TV adaptation for Play of the Month; directed by Alan Cooke (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1968); hugely successful adaptation both critically and commercially; directed by Franco Zeffirelli (UK/Italy)
• Romeo and Juliet (1969); made-for-TV production that never aired; directed by Gordon McDougall (UK)
• Romeo y Julieta (1972); made-for-TV movie; directed by José Antonio Páramo (Spain)
• Romeo and Juliet (1976); eight-part TV serialisation; directed by Joan Kemp-Welch (UK)
• Romeo & Juliet (1978); TV adaptation for the BBC Television Shakespeare; directed by Alvin Rakoff (UK)
• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1982); straight-to-video production played out on an Elizabethan stage in a replica of the Globe Theatre; directed by William Woodman (USA)
• Romeo en Julia (1989); made-for-TV movie; directed by Berend Boudewijn and Dirk Tanghe (Netherlands)
• Romeo.Juliet (1990); a bag lady travels around Venice rescuing stray cats, whilst voiceovers recite extracts from the play; directed by Armondo Acosta (Belgium/UK)
• "Romeo and Juliet" (1992); TV adaptation for Shakespeare: The Animated Tales; directed by Yefim Gamburg (Russia/UK)
• Romeo & Juliet (1993); TV broadcast of a stage production from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival; directed by Richard Monette; directed for television by Norman Campbell (Canada)
• Romeo & Juliet (1994); five-part TV serialisation; directed by Alan Horrox (UK)
• Romeo + Juliet (1996); modernisation of the story, which retains Shakespeare's language but sets the play in "Verona Beach" in California; directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann (USA)
• Romeo och Julia (1996); made-for-TV movie; directed by Alexander Öberg (Sweden)
• Romeo and Juliet (2000); straight-to-video adaptation told from the point of view of Mercutio; directed by Colin Cox (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (2013); 'traditional' adaptation of the play, with text adapted by Julian Fellowes; directed by Carlo Carlei (Italy/USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (2014); filmed version of a stage performance from the Richard Rodgers Theatre, directed by Don Roy King

Other adaptations

• Roméo et Juliette (1900); Romeo sings an aria from Charles Gounod's 1867 operatic adaptation of the play; directed by Clément Maurice (France)
• Romeo und Julia (1909); Juliet sings the waltz from Gounod's operatic adaptation; director unknown (Korea)
• Roméo se fait bandit (1909); comedy short set in contemporary Paris; directed by Romeo Bosetti (France)
• Romeo and Juliet in Our Town (1910); comedy short set in contemporary New York; director unknown (USA)
• Indian Romeo and Juliet (1912); a boy from the Huron tribe falls in love with a girl from the Mohican tribe; directed by Laurence Trimble (Korea)
• Romiet and Julio (1915); animated short featuring stray cats; directed by John Randolph Bray (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1915); burlesque about an amateur dramatic society's attempts to stage the play; directed by Will Kellino (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1919); animated parody of the balcony scene; directed by Anson Dyer (UK)
• Romeo und Julia im Schnee (1920); comedy adaptation set in contemporary Bavaria; directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Germany)
• Romeo and Juliet (1920); burlesque directed by Vin Moore (USA)
• Doubling for Romeo (1921); a man falls asleep whilst reading Romeo and Juliet and dreams about people from his life morphing into characters from the play; directed by Clarence G. Badger (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1924); parody of the balcony scene; directed by Reggie Morris and Harry Sweet (USA)
• A Rarin' Romeo (1925); comedy short in which a bumbling actor causes chaos during a production of the play; directed by Archie Mayo (USA)
• Drama Deluxe (1927); comedy short in which an actor causes the set to collapse during a production of the play; directed by Norman Taurog (USA)
• Felix the Cat as Romeeow (1927); part of Pat Sullivan's Felix the Cat series; directed by Otto Messmer (USA)
• The Hollywood Revue of 1929; features two versions of the balcony scene, one a serious recitation of Shakespeare, the other a parody using contemporary slang; directed by Charles Reisner (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1933); animated short; directed by Frank Moser (USA)
• Shakespearean Spinach (1940); animated short which sees Popeye as Romeo and Olive Oyl as Juliet; directed by Dave Fleischer (USA)
• Romeo in Rhythm (1940); animated short; directed by Rudolf Ising (USA)
• Shuhaddaa el gharam (1942); set in contemporary Egypt; released in the USA as Victims of Love and in the UK as Romeo and Juliet; directed by Kamal Selim (Egypt)
• Romeo y Julieta (1943); recasts the play as a farce; directed by Miguel M. Delgado (Mexico)
• Les amants de Vérone (1949); during the shooting of a major new film version of the play, the lives of two actors begin to mirror the plot; directed by André Cayatte (France)
• Tong lin niao (1950); set in modern Tibet; not released until 1955; directed by Doe Ching (China)
• Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953); the son of a small-time fisherman falls in love with the daughter of the man trying to put his father out of business; directed by Robert D. Webb (USA)
• Romeo i Dzhulyetta (1955); film adaptation of the Bolshoi Ballet performing Sergei Prokofiev's 1935 ballet adaptation of the play; directed by Lev Arnshtam (Russia)
• Giulietta and Romeo (1955); TV comedy adaptation for Conrad Nagel Theatre; relocates the story to a modern Italian village; directed by John Mantley (USA)
• The Same Sky (1956); TV adaptation for Armchair Theatre; modernisation in which the daughter of an orthodox Jewish family falls in love with the son of a Christian family; directed by Dennis Vance (UK)
• Romeo i Julija (1958); animated short which relocates the story to a prehistoric milieu; directed by Ivo Vrbanic (Yugoslavia)
• Romeo, Julia a tma (1960); set during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, a young student falls in love with the Jewish girl he is hiding from the authorities; directed by Jiří Weiss (Czechoslovakia)
• Romanoff and Juliet (1961); political satire which filters the play through a Cold War milieu; directed by Peter Ustinov (USA)
• West Side Story (1961); musical set in 1950s New York, where a member of a local gang falls in love with the sister of the leader of a rival gang; directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (USA)
• Los Tarantos (1963); adaptation of Alfredo Mañas' 1962 play, Historia de los Tarantos, inspired by Romeo and Juliet; directed by Francisco Rovira Beleta (Spain)
• Romeo and Juliet: A Ballet After William Shakespeare (1965); TV broadcast of a stage production of John Cranko's ballet to Prokofiev's score, from the Place des Arts; directed by Norman Campbell (Canada)
• Romeo and Juliet (1966); filmic adaptation of The Royal Ballet production of Kenneth MacMillan's ballet to Prokofiev's score; directed by Paul Czinner (UK)
• Kako su se voleli Romeo i Julija? (1966); set in contemporary Belgrade, the son of a wealthy family falls in love with the daughter of a family from the slums; directed by Jovan Zivanovic (Yugoslavia)
• Romeo si Julieta (1968); animated short; directed by Bob Călinescu (Romania)
• The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet (1969); soft porn sexploitation film which spoofs Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation of the play; directed by Peter Perry, Jr. (USA)
• Romeo of the Spirits (1976); short film depicting the day in the life of an alcoholic tramp who was once a celebrated Shakespearean actor; directed by Nikolas L. Janis (UK)
• The Bolshoi Ballet: Romeo and Juliet (1976); TV broadcast of the Bolshoi Ballet performing Prokofiev's ballet adaptation; directed by John Vernon (UK)
• Sieben Sommersprossen (1978); a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy fall in love at a holiday camp, despite the best efforts of the adults to keep them apart; directed by Herrmann Zschoche (East Germany)
• Romeo and Juliet (1978); made-for-TV production of Prokofiev's ballet adaptation; directed by Merrill Brockway (USA)
• Maro Charitra (1978); set in contemporary India, a Hindi-speaking girl falls in love with a Tamil-speaking neighbour; directed by K. Balachander (India)
• Mônica e Cebolinha: No Mundo de Romeu e Julieta (1978); animated version of the play featuring the characters from Monica's Gang; directed by José Amâncio (Brazil)
• Runaway Robots! Romeo-0 and Julie-8 (1979); animated short telling the story of two robots from rival robot manufacturing companies who fall in love; directed by Clive A. Smith (Canada)
• Romeu e Julieta (1980); TV adaptation which modernises the story and relocates it to the town of Ouro Preto; directed by Paulo Afonso Grisolli (Brazil)
• Vam i ne snilos... (1981); set in contemporary Moscow, two high school students fall in love, much to the chagrin of their parents; directed by Ilya Frez (Russia)
• Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981); remake of Maro Charitra; directed by K. Balachander (India)
• Shiriusu no densetsu (1981); animated film in which the prince of the Water Children falls in love with a Fire Child; directed by Masami Hata (Japan)
• Roméo et Juliette (1982); TV broadcast of a stage production of Gounod's operatic adaptation from the Paris Opera; directed by Yves-André Hubert (France)
• Romeo and Juliet (1983); TV broadcast of a stage production of Prokofiev's ballet adaptation by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; directed by James E. Jones; directed for television by Norman Campbell (Canada)
• Romeo and Juliet on Ice (1983); TV adaptation with the story told through figure skating; directed by Robert Iscove (USA)
• Romeo e Giulietta (1983); TV broadcast of a stage production of Prokofiev's ballet adaptation from the Palazzetto dello Sport; directed by Rudolf Nureyev (Italy/UK)
• Romeo and Juliet (1984); TV broadcast of a stage production of Kenneth MacMillan's ballet to Prokofiev's score, from the Royal Opera House; directed by Colin Nears (UK)
• Romeo i Julija (1984); animated short in which the play is performed by a group of monsters; directed by Dušan Petričić (Yugoslavia)
• Narekohme gi Monteki i Kapuleti (1985); animated film about two warring families whose children fall in love; directed by Donyo Donev (Bulgaria)
• China Girl (1987); an Italian boy falls in love with a Chinese girl, leading to gang warfare between their respective communities; directed by Abel Ferrara (USA)
• Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988); a long-standing blood feud between two families is complicated when the son of one falls in love the daughter of the other; directed by Mansoor Khan (India)
• Rami og Julie (1988); a Palestinian refugee living in Copenhagen is rescued from a gang of racist thugs by a young woman with whom he falls in love; directed by Erik Clausen (Denmark)
• Montoyas y Tarantos (1989); adaptation of Alfredo Mañas' 1962 play, Historia de los Tarantos, inspired by Romeo and Juliet; directed by Vicente Escrivá (Spain)
• Romuald et Juliette (1989); a white businessman falls in love with his black housekeeper; directed by Coline Serreau (France)
• Torn Apart (1990); during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, an Israeli Jew falls in love with a Palestinian woman; directed by Jack Fisher (USA/Israel)
• Romeo and Juliet (1990); TV broadcast of a stage production of Gounod's operatic adaptation from the Creighton Orpheum Theater; directed by Leon Major; directed for television by Michael Farrell (USA)
• Godfather (1991); loosely adapts the tale of a young couple, from warring families, falling in love; directed by Siddique-Lal (India)
• Romeo & Julia (1992); low budget straight-to-video comedy adaptation; directed by Kevin Kaufman (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet (1992); TV broadcast of a stage production of Prokofiev's ballet adaptation, performed by the Northern Ballet Theatre; directed by Kriss Rusmanis (UK)
• The Punk (1993); set in modern-day London, a homeless young man falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy family, much to the horror of her parents; directed by Mike Sarne (UK)
• Roméo et Juliette (1995); TV broadcast of a stage production of Gounod's operatic adaptation from the Royal Opera House; directed by Brian Large (UK)
• Tromeo and Juliet (1996); transgressive comedy adaptation in which Romeo and Juliet discover they are brother and sister; directed by Lloyd Kaufman and James Gunn (USA)
• Love Is All There Is (1996); comedy modernisation set in The Bronx, where the children of two rival restaurateurs fall in love; directed by Joseph Bologna and Renée Taylor (USA)
• Ronnie & Julia (1997); made-for-TV comedy in which the children of two rival politicians fall in love; directed by Philip Spink (USA)
• Shakespeare in Love (1998); the (fictitious) story behind the composition of Romeo and Juliet; directed by John Madden (UK/USA)
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998); animated film which tells the story of a young female lion who befriends a young male from a banished tribe; directed by Darrell Rooney and Rob LaDuca (USA)
• Solomon & Gaenor (1999); in a Welsh mining village in 1911, a young Jewish man falls in love with a Christian girl; directed by Paul Morrison (UK)
• Romeo Must Die (2000); an ex-cop falls in love with the daughter of the man he believes responsible for the death of his brother; directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (USA)
• Jiyuan qiaohe (2000); the son and daughter of two rival families in the chicken rice trade unexpectedly fall in love; directed by CheeK (Singapore)
• Alaska.de (2000); set in East Berlin in the 1980s, a young girl living with her father falls in love with a tough street kid; directed by Esther Gronenborn (Germany)
• Romeo e Giulietta (2000); TV broadcast of a stage production of Prokofiev's ballet adaptation from La Scala; directed by Tina Protasoni (Italy)
• Brooklyn Babylon (2001); modernisation of the story set during the Crown Heights riot ; directed by Marc Levin (USA)
• Roméo & Juliette, de la haine à l'amour (2002); TV version of Gérard Presgurvic's 2001 musical adaptation of the play; directed by Redha and Gilles Amado (France)
• Amar te duele (2002); contemporary Mexican retelling of the story; directed by Fernando Sariñana (Mexico)
• Barrio Wars (2002); straight-to-video modernisation of the story which relocates the events to a Los Angeles barrio; directed by Paul Wynne (USA)
• Bollywood Queen (2002); comedy modernisation of the story set in London where a young Indian girl falls in love with a Scottish guitarist; directed by Jeremy Wooding (UK)
• Roméo et Juliette (2002); heavily truncated made-for-TV production of Gounod's operatic adaptation; directed by Barbara Willis Sweete (France/UK/USA)
• Skin (2003); TV show in which the daughter of a major porn producer falls in love with the son of a district attorney crusading against the porn business; created by Jim Leonard (USA)
• Romeo & Julia und die neue Weltordnung (2004); short comedy in which the President of the USA's daughter falls in love with Osama bin Laden's son; directed by Thorsten Wettcke (Germany)
• O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta (2005); comedy in which a die-hard football fan falls in love with the daughter of the chairman of his team's arch rivals; directed by Bruno Barreto (Brazil)
• Roméo et Juliette (2005); TV broadcast of Hector Berlioz's 1839 choral symphony adaptation of the play from the Royal Albert Hall; directed by Charlotte Gazzard (UK)
• Pizza My Heart (2005); made-for-TV comedy in which the son of a pizza making family in New York falls in love with the daughter of the family's great rival; directed by Andy Wolk (USA)
• West Bank Story (2005); comedy short spoof of West Side Story; directed by Ari Sandel (2005)
• Wellkåmm to Verona (2006); comedy in which a retired theatre director casts himself as Romeo in the hopes of having his leading lady fall in love with him; directed by Suzanne Osten (Sweden)
• Roméo et Juiette (2006); modernisation set in contemporary Quebec; directed by Yves Desgagnés (Canada)
• Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss (2006); animated adaptation which sets the story underwater and features two young seals falling in love; directed by Phil Nibbelink (USA)
• Rockin' Romeo & Juliet (2006); musical film in which Romeo is a modern rock star wooing Juliet with his singing ability; directed by David McGaw (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet: A Monkey's Tale (2006); fictional-documentary in which two monkeys from rival cliques fall in love; directed by Karina Holden (Australia)
• Guca! (2006); at the annual Guča Trumpet Festival, a Serb girl falls in love with a Romani boy; directed by Dusan Milic (Serbia)
• Romeo y Julieta (2007); TV series in the style of a soap opera; created by Ana Franco and Marcelo Nacci (Argentina)
• Saints & Sinners (2007); telenovela set in modern-day Miami Beach, where the son of a powerful local family falls in love with the daughter of a rival family; created by Ted Koland (USA)
• Romeo × Juliet (2007); anime TV mini-series set in the future city of Neo Verona; created by Reiko Yoshida (Japan)
• Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (2007); live screening of a stage production of Gounod's operatic adaptation from the Metropolitan Opera; directed by Guy Joosten; directed for television by Gary Halvorson (USA)
• Romeo and Juliet with the Royal Ballet (2007); TV broadcast of a stage production of Kenneth MacMillan's ballet to Prokofiev's score, from the Royal Opera House; directed by Ross MacGibbon (UK)
• uGugu no Andile (2008); TV mini-series set in Thokoza during the apartheid negotitations, where a Xhosa boy falls in love with a Zulu girl; created by Lodi Matsetela and Minky Schlesinger (South Africa)
• Roméo et Juliette (2008); TV broadcast of a stage production of Gounod's operatic adaptation from the Felsenreitschule; directed by Bartlett Sher (Austria)
• Romeo & Juliet vs. The Living Dead (2009); a young girl falls in love with a zombie, much to the horror of her (living) family and friends and his (dead) family and friends; directed by Ryan Denmark (USA)
• Romeo & Julio (2009); relocates the story to a breakdancing milieu, and changes Juliet to a young man; directed by Ivan Peric (Croatia)
• Maro Charitra (2010); remake of Maro Charitra; directed by Ravi Yadav (India)
• Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010); TV film ; directed by Paul Hoen (USA)
• Gnomeo & Juliet (2011); animated film in which a gnome living in the garden of the Montague family falls in love with a gnome living in the garden of the Capulet family; directed by Kelly Asbury (UK)
• Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish (2011); in modern-day Williamsburg, Brooklyn a young man from a Satmar family falls in love with a young woman from a Chabad family; directed by Eve Annenberg (USA)
• Private Romeo (2011); in a modern-day military school, two young boys from opposing factions fall in love; directed by Alan Brown (USA)
• William (2012); comedy short in which William Shakespeare's mother tells him to rewrite the ending of Romeo and Juliet because it is too sad; directed by Sam Lara (Australia)
• Warm Bodies (2013); contemporary zombie comedy in which a young girl falls in love with a zombie; directed by Jonathan Levine (USA)
• Make Your Move 3D (2013); dance film loosely based on the play; directed by Duane Adler (USA)
• Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013); set in a fictional India where violence is an everyday occurrence, the son of a gun-running family falls in love with the daughter of a rival family; directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali (India)

See also

• Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation)
• List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations
• Romeo and Juliet on screen