Taglines: What if you had a second chance to find true love?
When a young American (Amanda Seyfried) travels to the city of Verona, home of the star-crossed lover Juliet Capulet of Romeo and Juliet fame, she joins a group of volunteers who respond to letters to Juliet seeking advice about love. After answering one letter dated 1951, she inspires its author (Vanessa Redgrave) to travel to Italy in search of her long-lost love and sets off a chain of events that will bring a love into both their lives unlike anything they ever imagined.
The film is based on the compilation of missives that lovelorn people all over the world have written to storied star-crossed lover Juliet Capulet. The letters find their way to Verona, Italy. Book explains who are the volunteers who’ve been answering the missives for 70 years.
A tale of encountering new sparks and rekindling old flames. When Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young American, travels to Verona, Italy — the romantic city where Romeo first met Juliet — she meets a group of volunteers who respond to letters written to Juliet seeking romantic advice.
Sophie finds and answers a letter that has been lost for 50 years, and is stunned when its author Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) arrives in Italy with her handsome but overprotective grandson (Christopher Egan) to find the fiance she left decades before. Fascinated by Claire’s quest, Sophie joins them on an adventure through the beautiful hills of Tuscany searching for Claire’s long lost Lorenzo. The journey will change their lives forever, as they discover it’s never too late to find true love.
In point of fact whether Romeo and Juliet is real and from Verona, Italy has become irrelevant since Verona is known as the location on which Shakespeare based his play. Half a million tourists descend upon the northern Italian city (90 minutes west of Venice) specifically to visit the courtyard where notes of love lost and won are affixed to the stone wall; to stand on Juliet’s balcony and pose next to the bronze statue of Juliet (with her right breast polished to a sheen from the tradition of touching it for good luck). Production began on June 25, 2009 in Verona, which (next to Rome, Florence and Venice) is the most visited city in Italy.
“What makes it so wonderful about this tradition (of the courtyard) and love in general, is that everyone wants to believe in it,” says director Gary Winick. Since the 1930s “Juliet” has received thousands of letters from all over the world; sometimes the missives are sometimes simply addressed as “Juliet, Verona,” but all of them reach their destination (the Club di Giulietta), which is staffed by volunteers. And all the letters are answered; sometimes with the help of outside translators.
The idea for the movie got momentum when producers Caroline Kaplan and Ellen Barkin were intrigued by an album of Elvis Costello’s, “The Juliet Letters” which followed the pair becoming aware of the Verona Courtyard phenomenon. Soon after, they discovered the book “Letters to Juliet: Celebrating Shakespeare’s Greatest Heroine, the Magical City of Verona and The Power of Love” by sisters Lise and Ceil Friedman.
“We knew there was something beautiful and romantic there, something pure hearted and resonant. Summit agreed and we immediately attached Gary as the director and brought on Jose, who came up with this beautiful story set against the backdrop of Verona and the Casa de Guilietta. “ OR “We knew there was something beautiful and romantic there, something pure hearted and resonant. Summit agreed and we immediately attached Gary and it all came together rather quickly,” says Kaplan.
“For some people it’s as if they live their lives on a checkerboard and you’re on a square and only move to the next square because of circumstances. But imagine if you would change your life just based on courage, and simply make the leap without being pushed,” adds Winick.
“Gary’s sensibilities are a bulls eye for this movie which, is in the best sense of the term, a date movie,” says producer Mark Canton. “It deals with an intrinsic human trait: it’s hard to run from what the heart tells you and sometimes it’s hard to run toward what the heart tells you.”
The movie is notable if for no other reason as to demonstrate that movies are the world’s language: the five stars of the movie are from five different countries; Seyfried (United States), Redgrave (U.K.), Egan (Australia), Bernal (Mexico) and Nero (Italy).
Coming off of the international box office sensation of “Mamma Mia,” and the series “Big Love,” Amanda Seyfried had proven herself as an actress but had not yet been the lead in a project and in particular, one that required her to be in virtually every scene. “The movie rides on her shoulders, “ notes Winick. “She’s certainly luminous on screen but what’s going on for her is two voyages: finding her mother, meaning Vanessa and finding her true love, which is not Victor.
“She’s deep, she’s funny and there’s a lot going on behind those amazing eyes,” says Winick. “It doesn’t take tremendous insight to realize that Vanessa Redgrave would be great for the role,” says Winick. “She’s great in everything she’s done. One of our casting directors, Ellen Lewis, always says, ‘You get that one actor who raises the bar and thereby brings up the level of the movie’ and that happened on this movie and it was because of Vanessa.”
“If you’re going to be on screen with Vanessa Redgrave, you better ‘bring it ,’” says Mark Canton. “Because she comes early, leaves late, knows her lines and your lines.”
For Seyfried, any intimidation about playing so many scenes opposite a screen legend was quickly dissipated. “Nothing is a big deal to her (Vanessa). She’s so smart, so present and incapable of being false on camera so that you immediately relax in her presence.”
The talented Gael García Bernal plays her intense, hyper-kinetic boyfriend of Victor. “It’s a role, the likes of which, I’ve never played before. Victor is very specific and loves food more than anything else and wants to share that with his girlfriend, Sophie,” says Garcia Bernal. “Getting Gael to be in our movie was a dream come true,” adds Kaplan.
“The problem with Sophie and Victor, is that they’re not sharing the same moment together,” says Seyfried. “They care for each other and love each other, but they’re not connecting. Victor is in love with his cooking and his dream. On the other hand, Sophie and Charlie connect because she sees how much more exists for a relationship.”
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Letters to Juliet (2010)
Directed by: Gary Winick
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Marcia DeBonis, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, Franco Nero, Luisa Ranieri, Marina Massironi, Lidia Biondi, Milena Vukotic, Luisa De Santis, Vanessa Redgrave
Screenplay by: Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan
Production Design by: Stuart Wurtzel
Cinematography by: Marco Pontecorvo
Film Editing by: Bill Pankow
Costume Design by: Nicoletta Ercole
Set Decoration by: Alessandra Querzola
Art Direction by: Stefano Maria Ortolani, Saverio Sammali, Eugenio Ulissi
Music by: Andrea Guerra
MPAA Rating: PG for brief rude behavior, some language and incidental smoking.
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: May 14, 2010
