Catherine Martin and Baz Lurhman are my dream team. I adore Catherine's set design and costuming and Baz's unique take on communication. Bazmart, as the production company is called, is famous for the red curtain trilogy - Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet, and Moulin Rougue.
At 11, I saw Romeo and Juliet at the cinema and my world has never been the same since.
It inspires me to seek out colour and look for the smaller details in life, to embrace love and language, and took me from being a pre-teen proclaiming her love for Leo on her school books to a twenty-three-year old women living in Stratford Upon Avon working at the RSC.
The lead actors were Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes, who I'd first seen in Little Women and My So Called Life and the general ensamble included the late Pete Postlethwaite and a young John Leguizamo.
The themes of Love and Fate, Dreams and Death, flow through Romeo and Juliet and the Elizabethan crowd was a religious one. Luhrman and Martin included this in their 1996 retelling of the story: the language of Shakespeare stayed the same and the enviroment the star crossed lovers inhabit is just as violent and sexual.
17 years after its original release this film stands the test of time and is still my favourite.
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