“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Just as the witches anticipate Macbeth’s arrival at their heath, so too do audiences await the world premiere of Joel Coen‘s “The Tragedy Of Macbeth” at the New York Film Festival later this week. The new film debuts on the opening night of the festival’s 59th iteration; there’s nothing quite like a gloomy tale of murder, madness, and corruption to kick off proceedings.
Based on Shakespeare’s tragedy about an ambitious general’s doomed attempt to usurp the Scottish throne, Coen’s new film stars Denzel Washington as Macbeth, with Frances McDormand as his cunning bride.
Here’s the official synopsis from NYFF:
A work of stark chiaroscuro and incantatory rage, Joel Coen’s boldly inventive visualization of The Scottish Play is an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition. In meticulously world-weary performances, a strikingly inward Denzel Washington is the man who would be king, and an effortlessly Machiavellian Frances McDormand is his Lady, a couple driven to political assassination—and deranged by guilt—after the cunning prognostications of a trio of “weird sisters” (a virtuoso physical inhabitation by Kathryn Hunter). Though it echoes the forbidding visual designs—and aspect ratios—of Laurence Olivier’s classic 1940s Shakespeare adaptations, as well as the bloody medieval madness of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Coen’s tale of sound and fury, is entirely his own—and undoubtedly one for our moment, a frightening depiction of amoral political power-grabbing that, like its hero, ruthlessly barrels ahead into the inferno.
The film also stars Corey Hawkins, Moses Ingram, Brendan Gleeson, Henry Melling, and Ralph Ineson. Sean Patrick Thomas, Kathryn Hunter, Alex Hassell, Stephen Root, and Bertie Carvel round out the main cast.
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Joel Coen writes and directs “The Tragedy Of Macbeth” without his brother Ethan alongside him. There are some returning collaborators, though. Carter Burwell, who has made music for eight films for the Coen Brothers over the years, returns to score the film. In addition, Bruno Delbonnel, who worked with Joel and Ethan on 2013’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” and 2018’s “The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs,” returns as cinematographer.
After “The Tragedy Of Macbeth” opens NYFF, it’s also set to close out the London Film Festival next month. Then the film comes to select theaters on Christmas Day, December 25, before streams exclusively on AppleTV+ on January 14, 2022.
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How will Joel Coen’s take on Shakespeare’s play hold up against the versions of Orson Welles, Roman Polanski, and Justin Kurzel? Tune into The Playlist’s coverage of the New York Film Festival when the film premieres on September 24 to find out. Check out the trailer below from Apple and A24.