Just in time for Valentine’s Day, 360 Screenings returned triumphantly with a most romantic, and most tragic, special interactive screenings in this enduring and growing franchise.

The theme at this season was of course LOVE, and with not only a slew of events now under the belt of the 360 creators, a Valentine’s event from last season needed to be outdone as well. Or at least, set apart.

Last year it was the beloved and whimsical Amelie that warmed hearts and mesmerized souls as the beautiful Artscape Wychwood Barns.

This year it was on an equally cold and snowy weekend that 360 Screenings took up residence in another historical building. The St. Lawrence Hall, the beautiful and hidden gem situated amid retailers and condos on King West, was the assuming and elegant site for the latest theatrical, interactive offering.

This was part of the tease given just 24 hours ahead of the first of three showings across the weekend. There is still, as there has been all along, an unbridled curiosity that comes with the conceit of the event: that no one knows where they are going and what they should wear or bring until a day prior to the event; and of course, you don’t get the official movie reveal until show time.

Of course the film was going to be a romance of sorts, but there was a bit of misdirection it seemed involved in this event. The tagline read, LOVE: a celebrating of what it means to love, and be loved in return, nodding of course to a phrase used throughout the acclaimed romantic musical Moulin Rouge. The only other clue involved the direction to bring masks and dress up  – this was a ball!

It was not that beloved film, but it was something equally adored, beautifully, and tragic – and it also starred John Leguizamo.

Upon arrival, to most it would seem, it was readily apparent what we were going to enjoy; which doesn’t lessen the experience. Actors reciting poetic lines in heroic couplets, a white-adored young beauty, an armor-wearing boy, a man in an astronaut outfit, and another in a Hawaiian tee shirt all wonderfully revealed the showcase: Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet.

The iconic 1996 film starring a very young Leonardo DiCaprio and an equally youthful Claire Daines (both of whom, as it were, have enjoyed some successful careers), was greeted with enthusiasm and delight. While actors roamed the rooms, engaging patrons and speaking of star-crossed while searching for lost loved-ones, there was plenty to check out.

Beautifully adornments, many religious in nature as from the film, filled the rooms, while chairs and couches lined the walls; it was a spacious and lively soiree throughout. One room stood out the most however, as the room threshold you crossed took you from the elegant and bright into to turbulent and exotic. A faux-nightclub was manufactured, as dance music was pumped and a club was created complete with neons and strobes, and pistol-decorated crosses against the covered widows.

There was plenty there for everyone to engage with, and hard to argue with a film selection that saw everyone in attendance (at least at this screening), stay and enjoy.

Perhaps the best part of the spectacle was moments before the film began. Romeo and Juliet met and embraced in romantic fashion, professing their love and heralding in a most unforgettable representation of one of the most enduring tragic love stories of all time.