NYFF 2021: THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH: A Wicked Reimagining

Typically, one would encourage a moviegoer to enter a film knowing as little as possible, but sometimes that task is just impossible when the film itself is the nth adaptation of an all-time classic; in this case, a William Shakespeare classic. The story of Macbeth is a story that has been told time and time again, with many filmmakers throughout cinematic history offering their interpretation of the Scottish play.

The Tragedy of Macbeth may be exactly the same story, in which Lord Macbeth becomes the King of Scotland and slowly descends into madness, but it might as well be renamed or marketed as Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, because writer and director Joel Coen has made a film that is very much his and his alone.

Older Voices Breathe New Life

The film bursts onto the big screen with immediate attention being given to the tone and the sound design. Crows hover over us in the sky, with a diabolical voice of a witch preparing us for the incoming doom. I stress the voice as the voice of “a witch,” because even though the film follows the play in having three witches deliver the prophecy to Lord Macbeth (Denzel Washington), we only hear one voice and see one central performance, that of Kathryn Hunter, who steals every scene that she’s in.

Once the pieces are put in place and the board is set, Macbeth returns home to his Lady (Frances McDormand), and instantly, the aura between them is different from how we’ve seen past iterations. In a conversation with New York Times film critic Kyle Buchanan, McDormand shared the backstory she and Washington created for the married couple, in which they envisioned Lord and Lady Macbeth as the result of Romeo and Juliet getting married instead of committing suicide.

This interpretation could not be more original and perfect. We are too familiar with the husband and wife being young ambitious characters whose desires for power lead to their downfall. Here, Washington and McDormand flip that expectation over its head: they instead portray Lord and Lady Macbeth as aged people who have already begun to hear Death knocking at their doorstep. Together, they see power as an opportunity they have missed. This new take on motivation allows for every character decision to feel new once again, from Macbeth’s decision to kill the king to the wonderful role reversal of guilt between the two of them, until death becomes the only answer in this tragedy.

Being two of the greatest actors in movie history, Washington and McDormand continue to offer something we’ve never seen before from them. His fragility is matched by her nerve, and her guilt is rivaled by his obsession. Meanwhile, standing just beyond their power is a cast of supporting actors like Harry Melling as Malcolm and Corey Hawkins as Macduff, whose climactic duel with Macbeth himself is as breathtaking and explosive as ever.

But it’s not just the performances that are the major takeaways from The Tragedy of Macbeth. Long after the film ends, several images will linger in your head. Moments like Macbeth sitting in a pool of water while he consults the three witches, or a window flying open and causing several leaves to flood the throne; these are all additional directing choices made by Coen that elevate the film beyond just “another adaptation.”

Film or Theatrical Play? Joel Coen Finds Both on Screen

Coen’s biggest magic trick with The Tragedy of Macbeth is he found the perfect balance between film and theatrical play. Lean too hard on one side and the film adaptation is too safe; even if the film has excellent performances, it could feel like the director never took advantage of film as a medium to tell the story. Lean too hard on the other side and the film becomes too focused on world-building, production design, period detail, and the core ideas and emotions resonant in the play can become lost in the translation.

The Tragedy of Macbeth avoids both pitfalls and walks a delicate fine line in the middle. Coen and his team begin by putting Shakespeare’s sense of tone first, by embracing the play’s grim and bleak atmosphere. Everything else is to be stripped down to its bare bones, designed to convey that atmosphere in a way that only film can.

Shot in gorgeous black and white in a 4:3 aspect ratio, Coen’s interpretation feels both intimate and beautifully limiting. There’s only so much we can see around the characters. There’s only so much light that pierces through the windows and between the pillars. The minimalist sets range from bedrooms to hallways. Several frames carry a heavy influence of German Expressionism, in which the image is dictated by the use of sharp dramatic lines and shadows. The interest is not so much in seeing Washington and McDormand on screen together, incredible as they are, but in seeing how they are constantly trapped and confined by the endless labyrinth of lines formed by doorways, stairs, window frames, and furniture.

With Stefan Dechant’s minimalist production design and Bruno Delbonnel’s delicate framing with the camera, the filmmakers have created an experience that is both theatrical and cinematic. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they’ve rediscovered the phenomenon of “the moving image.” Among several films today that have popularized the return of black and white photography, The Tragedy of Macbeth is a unique title that has earned the “right,” so to speak, to be presented in this aesthetic.

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Honoring One of the Greatest Pieces of Literature

Elevated by excellent performances, minimalist interpretation of the visuals, and sound design that is larger than life, The Tragedy of Macbeth is a soaring epic.

The filmmaking on display here is some of the best you will see all year, as Washington and McDormand, both being actors in their sixties, continue to push their careers to new heights by constantly challenging themselves and baring their souls in new ways on screen.

By keeping the essential components of Shakespeare’s play and abstracting everything else, Joel Coen and his team have not only honored one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time, but they have created a wicked reimagining that casts a powerful spell.

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The Tragedy of Macbeth premiered at the 2021 New York Film Festival. It is scheduled to be released in limited theaters in the United States on December 25, 2021, and will be available for streaming on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.

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