Romeo and Juliet (H&M) Advertisement

Synopsis: Music video and commercial inspired by the story of Romeo and Juliet and directed by David Lachapelle for the fashion company H&M’s `&denim’ (`This is the Season to be Gorgeous’) range . Burnett & Wray (op cit) write ‘ROMEO AND JULIET...emerges as no straightforward filmic statement. It represents a collocation of texts to be decoded as much as it appears as a cross-media tie-in for the latest initiative of the global garment industry, A work in which Shakespeare is himself a brand or an implied icon, this Romeo and Juliet is part homage, part imitation, part trailer, part promotion, part PC experience. As such Lachapelle’s ‘film’ illustrates in abundance the signature features of Shakespeare filmmaking in the new millennium’.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 2006
Duration: 10 mins

Director

Cast

General: Mary J. Blige performs ‘When I First Saw You’ and Tamyra Gray performs ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’.
History: The ad was withdrawn in Canada following complaints that it glamorised gun violence (Romeo is gunned down randomly by a hooded killer).
Reviews: Burnett, Mark Thornton & Wray, Ramona (eds). Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. pp.2-6.

British Universities Film & Video Council