This article examines the critical reception of the film adaptation of West Side Story (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, 1961) in Spanish culture and cinematography. It looks into two other screen versions of Romeo and Juliet: Los Tarantos (Francesc Rovira-Beleta, 1963) and No somos ni Romeo ni Julieta (Alfonso Paso, 1969). West Side Story remains in the Spanish cultural memory as a filmic event associated with the arrival of foreign influence amidst national-catholic dictatorship. I will use the variables "place" and "space," which distinguish, on one hand, proper orders established by authority and, on the other hand, areas transformable by interactions and changes, and will refer to Shakespeare's presentist criticism, French cultural theory and French Film Theory as lenses. I will examine West Side Story's 1963 Spanish reception material as well as its possible interactions with the webwork of cultural forces in operation amidst the 1960s Spanish culture. Then, I will examine the mise en scenes of Los Tarantos and No somos ni Romeo ni Julieta focusing on the forms in which characters, places and camerawork contribute to create spaces, i.e. places permeable to change and transformation through human interaction.