It is safe to
say that expectations were high for this unanimously praised Shakespeare interpretation in the United States, and the first scenes are undeniably promising.
The suggestive image-making in many shades of gray sucks from the start, as an updated crispy variant of the old Danish silent film master Carl Dreyer's aesthetics.
On a mist-covered battlefield, where the corpses lie in drifts, we meet the three witches who tell of MacBeth's rise and fall, we see the king's camp in the distance on an equally hazy hill and later the protagonist himself who begins his journey against the hard embrace of insanity and the brutal end that most people are aware of.
Thus a film
that takes advantage of the medium's ability to form illusions that far surpass the theatrical scene.
I thought.
But after the powerful grant, it is mostly theater that matters.
Although the photo is consistently impressive and beautiful, most exteriors look like interiors, which is obviously a conscious choice, but still inhibiting for empathy.
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have for decades been a successful dynamic duo that has created an immeasurable collection of talented comedies, drama and thrillers, but here for the first time Ethan is not part of the project.
This is not because of a schism, if one is to believe industry media, but because Ethan wants to take a break from filmmaking.
Nor is there much to reveal that there is a Coen behind The tragedy of Macbeth.
No twisted humor, no laconic knapsacks - however, we often see the director's wife Frances McDormand in one of the main roles.
Here as MacBeth's dangerously intriguing wife, next to Denzel Washington's anxious title character.
Both with emphasis and weight enough to row these iconic characters ashore.
Shakespeares verk
har legat till grund för en myriad av filmatiseringar, men en av de främsta är, på rak arm, ändå Kenneth Branaghs Henrik V, där den inbitne Shakespeare-o-filen släpar den litterära förlagan genom en blodig och hårdrocksinspirerad gyttja. Han göt liv i gamla ark. Dock med någorlunda bibehållen dialog, precis som här. Men tillsammans med de kulissartade miljöerna fungerar det sämre. För även om den gamle skalden hade en gudabenådad formuleringsförmåga ställer sig den sirliga texten i vägen för mitt engagemang. Gör upplevelsen litterär snarare än eggande.
At the same time… everything is so
damn well made that my basic objection, that Joel Coen did not choose to make a great FILM of the material, possibly falls flat.
Or to talk about Robert De Niro's character in The Irishman: It is what it is.
It is what it is.
A stylish and creative theater production.
But these rarely do particularly well on a large screen.