Every week, Ultimate Movie Year looks back into the past to highlight the best film that came out that weekend.

“Romeo + Juliet”
Released Nov. 1, 1996
Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Love and romance often go for drama and laughs in the cinema, but rarely does it aim for tragedy as a path for ticket sales without a great hook, but then again, never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet + her Romeo.

Director Baz Luhrmann had multiple hooks in the mid90s, adapting a classic tale authored by William Shakespeare and catapulting it into the present with fire and passion, anchored by performance that turned actor Leonardo DiCaprio into a movie star. “Romeo + Juliet” made English classes cool for a moment when it was released this weekend in 1996.