“Romeo and Juliet” director Franco Zeffirelli dies at 96

R.I.P. Zeffirelli

More important to us than his artistic accomplishments, he introduced many to Olivia Hussey’s chest. Oh, yeah, and to some guy named Shakespeare. That was Z’s real triumph, I suppose. His Romeo and Juliet brought a lot of young people to the theater to watch something written by Billy Shakespeare, the ol’ Bard himself.

One thought on ““Romeo and Juliet” director Franco Zeffirelli dies at 96

  1. Olivia Hussey and Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet always make me think of 9th grade English. After reading Romeo and Juliet, my teacher showed us the film complete with the topless scene. I was pretty surprised that such a scene would be shown in school. I guess my teacher felt we were all smart enough to go to the Bronx High School of Science so we were mature enough to watch. Of course intelligence and maturity don’t always go together. I had the opposite experience in my 12th grade social studies class. After studying McCarthyism, we watched the Woody Allen film, The Front. At the conclusion of the film, my teacher stood next to the TV and turned off the sound just as Woody Allen told the Committee to go fuck themselves. It was about 25 years until I saw the film again and found out what he’d said. I was quite annoyed at the time, figuring we were all at least 17 and old enough to see an R rated movie, we didn’t need the censorship. But I get it, all it takes is one parent to complain to make your life difficult.

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