Romeo and Juliet Movie

RORY: She’s letting you go? That’s amazing. What changed her mind?
LANE: I let her watch the Romeo and Juliet movie with Leo and Claire Danes.

Lane is talking about William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (often shortened to Romeo + Juliet), a 1996 film directed by Baz Luhrman and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles. It is a modernised adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, with the Montagues and Capulets two rival (mafia) business empires in the fictional American city of Verona Beach (inspired by Venice Beach in L.A., but filmed in Mexico).

The film was a commercial success and gained mostly positive reviews, as well as winning several awards internationally. At the BAFTA Film Awards, it won Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Music, and Best Production Design. It continues to be a popular choice for high school English teachers to show their students as an introduction to the play.

It wasn’t released on DVD until 2002, so I’m not sure how Lane showed her mother the movie. Perhaps it was conveniently on at the local cinema.

Fernando

SOOKIE: But we have an ice cream maker, a professional one. See, that means we can make enough ice cream for everyone in the inn, whereas this little guy…
LORELAI: Fernando.

Lorelai may have named her ice cream maker after Fernando, the 1976 song by Swedish pop group ABBA, included on their album Arrival the same year. One of the best-selling singles of all time, it went to #13 in the US, and is still a staple on some American radio stations.

I’m mostly suggesting this because I can’t imagine a woman of Lorelai’s age and background choosing the name Fernando without thinking of the song. The lyrics do fit the circumstances though, because the song is about two old Mexican freedom fighters from a nameless conflict, reminiscing about the battles of their youth.

The stars were bright, Fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, Fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
There’s no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando

Lorelai chose liberty over marriage to Max, and in the end she has no regrets about doing so. However, she doesn’t want to keep the ice cream maker, as it’s a constant reminder of a failed relationship.

“Juliet’s supposed to be chaste”

LOUISE: So now Brad can be Friar Tuck and I can be Juliet.
PARIS: Wrong … Juliet’s supposed to be chaste.

Paris ditches Louise (who wants the part of Juliet) in favour of Rory (who desperately doesn’t want the part). Her reasoning is that Juliet is meant to be chaste and pure, and Louise isn’t. Which is strange, because when you act, you literally pretend to be someone you’re not.

Perhaps Paris doesn’t believe Louise has enough acting talent to even pretend to be pure, but knowing Paris, she just loves the idea of forcing Rory into a part she doesn’t want where she has to interact with Tristan.

Amusingly, Madeline seems to think the “chastity” issue doesn’t disqualify her from being Juliet, and it’s only when she learns that Juliet has more than three lines that she gives up the idea. My head canon is that Madeline thought Paris said Juliet was supposed to be chased!

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”

PARIS: Hey, I’m the director and I’ll decide who’s born to be what, and Brad is Romeo.
LOUISE: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

A popular misquote from William Congreve’s 1697 play, The Mourning Bride, previously discussed. The quote is often wrongly attributed to Shakespeare, and as they are currently studying Shakespeare, I think this is meant to imply that Louise is one of those people who use the quote without understanding its origin or context. It’s the second time she has used it against Paris.

Louise is correct that Paris is barring Tristan from being Romeo out of pique that he didn’t want to date her more than once. Paris does eventually give in and give the part of Romeo to Tristan, although she clearly doesn’t have much faith that he will stick with the project until the end (her lack of confidence in him turns out to be well-founded).

Extended Family

As Lorelai begins calling relatives to find out if they sent her the ice cream maker, we learn a few names from the extended family. They are identified as aunts and uncles, which may be courtesy titles for any elderly distant relatives. Or they could be Richard’s aunts and uncles, the siblings of either Trix, or Richard’s father.

Aunt Bobbie. Aunt Bobbie is a traditional Bible-thumping Christian, by the sounds of it.

Aunt Clarissa. Turns out to have recently died. Aunt Bobbie seems to suggest a belief that Clarissa would have been hell-bound.

Aunt Bunny. Has also died.

Uncle Randolph. The older brother of Bunny. Lorelai doesn’t seem to think he has much longer to live.

The Pennsylvania Gilmores. A branch of the family in this state is next on Lorelai’s list. It sounds as if she is working her way through the Gilmore side of the family first.

The Ice-Cream Maker Wedding Gift

SOOKIE: A Musso Lussino 480!
LORELAI: Somebody sent me a Fascist ice cream maker?

The episode begins with Lorelai receiving a mysterious late wedding gift from someone who apparently doesn’t know her wedding with Max was cancelled. When Sookie and Rory persuade her to open it (in case there’s a card inside), it turns out to be a Lello Musso Lussino 480 ice cream maker.

This is a top-shelf ice cream maker, made in Italy, producing restaurant-quality ice cream in half an hour for the domestic market. It’s extremely expensive, costing almost $1000 today. Lorelai jokes that it’s a Fascist ice-cream maker, because its name sounds slightly like Mussolini, and of course Lorelai has to refer to it as Il Duce.

We never discover who sent Lorelai the ice cream maker. It seems reasonable to guess that it was Emily, trying to give Lorelai her gift anonymously. It’s certainly the kind of expensive gift she would pick out, and it’s thoughtful, because this ice cream maker is quick and easy to use – she knows Lorelai and Rory are not at home in the kitchen. It seems telling that just after she told Lorelai about the wedding gift she chose, refusing to say what it was, she asked them if they wanted ice cream.

Lorelai and Rory’s List of “Enemies”

People who eat crunchy food with their mouths open

People who dog-ear library books

People who spit when they talk (Lorelai spits in Rory’s eye while she’s saying this)

Note that Lorelai, who supposedly never eats fresh fruit unless she feels like she’s coming down with an illness of some kind, is eating a bowl of fruit salad for breakfast. Maybe she’s a bit under the weather?

Emily Confronts Mia

MIA: When Lorelai showed up on my porch that day with a tiny baby in her arms, I thought to myself, what if this were my daughter, and she was cold and scared and needed a place to live? What would I want for her? And then I thought, I’d want her to find somebody to take her in and make her safe and help her find her way.
EMILY: That’s funny. I would’ve wanted her to find someone who would send her home.

Clearly shaken by the news that Mia is visiting Stars Hollow, Emily goes to see her at the Independence. Somehow, in all the years Lorelai and Rory lived at the inn, Emily and Richard never crossed paths with Mia. Perhaps they didn’t visit very often, or perhaps Mia tactfully made herself scarce whenever they came to see their daughter.

To Emily, Mia is the woman who stole her family and stuck them in a potting shed. It’s hard not to have some sympathy for her feelings, but by the time Lorelai left, she was eighteen and a half, and an adult. A young adult, for sure, but still legally capable of making her own decisions and living where she pleased.

Mia would have had no authority to send her back to Emily, and if she had refused to take Lorelai in, she would have gone somewhere else – perhaps somewhere far more hazardous. The truth is, Emily owes Mia for keeping her daughter and granddaughter safe, but she is too angry and proud to ever thank her.

Mia promises to send Emily a box of photos from when Rory was young, but never asks for her address (nor does Emily offer it). Perhaps Lorelai already gave Mia her parents’ address at some time?

Note that Emily wears deep red, with an artificial black rose on her lapel, as a symbol of her rage and mourning. Mia wears funereal black with a circle of pearls in the same position, as if in sympathy with Emily’s feelings (pearls are often a symbol of tears). Mia wears the colours of bereavement that Emily is not quite ready to admit to; she understands the depth of her loss.

Lorelai’s Fight with Emily

EMILY: You can be so harsh sometimes, and I just don’t know where it comes from or what I’ve done to deserve it.
LORELAI: You did nothing … Mia showed up for a visit and I told her about our plans and she’s talking about selling the Independence Inn and it just wigged me out a little. It’s stupid, I don’t know, but that was our home for so long, mine and Rory’s.

During a pretty standard Friday night argument, Emily and Lorelai actually reach out and express their feelings to each other. (It’s interesting that Emily’s perception that Lorelai can be very harsh is exactly how Lorelai must often feel about Emily).

Unfortunately, whenever Lorelai is honest about how she feels, it often has the effect of hurting Emily. In this case, she has to hear that Lorelai thinks of the Independence Inn as she and Rory’s “home”, and is reminded that it’s the place where Rory grew up. Although she forgives Lorelai for her outburst, and says she understands, she is clearly hurt to hear the emotional attachment Lorelai still has to Mia and the Independence.

In this scene, Lorelai makes it sound as if the Independence was their home for many years, even though they only spent two or three years in the potting shed (as Lorelai said it’s where they lived when Rory was a baby). Possibly as Lorelai proved her worth, Mia was able to move she and Rory into more suitable accommodation in the inn, such as staff quarters. It may be that Richard and Emily only began visiting them at the inn after this point, which is why they never knew about the potting shed days.

Jess Meets Dean

RORY: Um Dean, I don’t think you two have met. This is Jess. This is Dean.
JESS: Boyfriend?
RORY: Of course.
JESS: Sorry, you didn’t say.

Naturally Jess knows that Dean is Rory’s boyfriend – he must have seen them walking around town together and smooching outside the market numerous times. He probably targeted a prank at the market because he knows Dean works there.

Jess does enjoy letting Dean know that in the two months since he and Rory met, she never bothered to mention Dean’s name or said she had a boyfriend. If Dean doesn’t treat this as a red flag, then he’s not very bright.