As Romeo and Juliet, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting exhibit an innocence, naïveté, and verve that enlivens their characters, making them feel startlingly modern even as they’re reciting Shakespearean verse.

The sets are tight and stagey, every corner is decorated with baroque lushness, every shot framed by a velvet curtain or silvery branch. And the dialogue isn't caged in by any attempts at naturalism.

High-minded and lively, with heartbreakingly beautiful actors on show, and all shot in a kind of honeycomb-sunglow light.

Whiting and Hussey have a powerful screen chemistry, and the way they exchange glances, especially when they first spy each other across the dance floor in the film’s most captivating sequence, is electric.