Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet has a core of obsessively devoted fans. Most of them are there for Leo, who, to be fair, does a damn good job smoldering onscreen and being shocked at the gravity of his actions. Until the Ribbon Breaks, brainchild of Pete Lawrie Winfield, has done that fan base proud by reworking Luhrmann’s 1996 feature to serve as the music video for his own “Romeo.”
Winfield was a film student first, and it might be more appropriate to call him a multimedia artist than a musician. He’s just released the A Taste of Silver EP, and the video for “Romeo” is one of the first visuals to go with. It’s a devastating and overwrought piece of editing that finds the most emotionally draining moments from Luhrmann’s film and slows them down, loops them, and generally just squeezes the juice. Upon learning that Luhrmann had seen and liked the piece, Winfield said “From conception to the finished piece, creating the video for ‘Romeo’ had taken a lot out of me. His approval was
overwhelming. I finally felt that I’d said what I’d needed to say,
without compromise.”
If you’re unfamiliar, stream the video above and then check out his equally arresting “2025.” Until the Ribbon Breaks debut album is due out in 2014.
