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moon_custafer) wrote2022-01-24 09:42 am
moon_custafer) wrote2022-01-24 09:42 am
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The Tragedy of MacBeth (2021, dir. Joel Coen)
Andrew found it for us yesterday. Visually striking— I’m guessing it was shot in front of a green screen, but the stylized backgrounds justify it. (ETA— my apologies to the set designers— apparently some of those spaces were real, constructed on a soundstage, although there was a lot of post-production and VFX compositing) The story takes place in a world of mist exteriors and cyclopean stone interiors that somehow must also contain the occasional translucent screen when a dramatic silhouette is needed; it’s like a combination of Throne of Blood and the Welles Macbeth. The costumes are all quasi-medieval, but Lady MacBeth and Lady MacDuff’s gowns and hairstyles have a vaguely 1940s quality which fits with the black-and-white aesthetic (Andrew also thought one of the Murderers was playing his part in a very Elisha Cooke, Jr way).
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are just as good as you’d expect. I like that Washington’s Macbeth definitely has that milk of human kindness his wife complains about, so he’s got a moral position to fall from. As Duncan, Brendan Gleason somehow manages to act average-sized and subtle. The performer who’s really stayed with me, though, is Kathryan Hunter as the Witches — according to Wikipedia, she’s mainly a stage performer, known for often playing male roles. Onscreen, the Sisters are sometimes three in one body, sometimes three separate figures, sometimes an old woman with two reflections in a nearby mire. Hunter bends her limbs in impressive ways and has a croaking little voice. No offence to Andy Serkis or Weta, but if she’d played a live-action Gollum the character would have been twice as creepy and twice as pathetic.
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are just as good as you’d expect. I like that Washington’s Macbeth definitely has that milk of human kindness his wife complains about, so he’s got a moral position to fall from. As Duncan, Brendan Gleason somehow manages to act average-sized and subtle. The performer who’s really stayed with me, though, is Kathryan Hunter as the Witches — according to Wikipedia, she’s mainly a stage performer, known for often playing male roles. Onscreen, the Sisters are sometimes three in one body, sometimes three separate figures, sometimes an old woman with two reflections in a nearby mire. Hunter bends her limbs in impressive ways and has a croaking little voice. No offence to Andy Serkis or Weta, but if she’d played a live-action Gollum the character would have been twice as creepy and twice as pathetic.
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I was lucky enough to see Kathryn Hunter as the titular role in Timon of Athens (traditionally a male role, but played as woman in this production) just before All Theater Shut Down— she's so physically small but has such an incredible stage presence. I would love to see her take on Macbeth's witches— I'll have to check this movie out.
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I've heard wonderful things about this production, and your descriptions are changing nothing.
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