In Verona, home, of course, of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, a voluntary group of men and women answer over 5,000 letters a year addressed to Juliet. Some arrive in envelopes marked only, “Juliet – Verona”. Most of the letter-writers are women and all the letters are about love.
They come from all over the world, in every language and every single writer who includes a return address receives a reply from a member of the “Club di Giulietta”. The club was formed in the 1940s after a caretaker at Juliet’s house in Verona started to reply to some of the letters and notes left there. The club even awards a prize, each Valentine’s Day, for the best letter received during the year and stars such as Andrea Bocelli have taken part in the prize-giving ceremonies.
It is this group and a book of some of the collected letters that have inspired the film, “Letters to Juliet”. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, a “New Yorker” fact-checker who goes to Verona with her chef boyfriend, played by Gael Garcia Bernal.
There she meets some of “Juliet’s secretaries” and replies to a letter written in 1951 by Clare [Vanessa Redgrave]. Soon Clare arrives with her disapproving English grandson and Sophie helps her find Lorenzo [Franco Nero] her Italian love of long ago.
Letters to Juliet trailer
As if the film plot were not romantic enough, there is a similar real-life love story between Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero, who met in the 1960s, had a child, broke up several times and were finally married in 2006.
Here is a lovely video in which Nero and Redrave talk about the film and their own story:
Italy Magazine loves a happy ending.
