Considering that Shakespeare himself had to navigate various plagues and pandemics in his theatrical career, it’s almost too appropriate that the filming of Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. It’s not the only way in which the 400-year-old play feels startlingly relevant. This brutal and tragic tale of bloody political upheaval and the madness of kings is all too familiar, but perhaps that’s merely an evergreen topic.
This is Coen’s first cinematic outing without his constant collaborator, brother Ethan, and this adaptation of Shakespeare’s shortest play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” is a spare, stripped-down, nearly avant-garde work. The obsessive king driven to murder and mayhem is embodied beautifully by Denzel Washington, and somehow, he’s a quintessentially Coen-style protagonist in this nearly tragicomic tale.
Justin Kurzel’s 2015 take on “Macbeth” (the 22nd film adaptation of the play) envisioned the tale as a swords-and-stallions historical war epic, and while Coen’s version also takes place in the medieval era, the visual design is sparse and striking. Filmed on sound stages, the sets by production designer Stefan Dechant sing in harmony with the stunning black-and-white cinematography by French director of photography Bruno Delbonnel, who previously shot the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”
The richly designed costumes by Mary Zophres and arresting architectural design creates for incredible compositions in which Delbonnel carves cinematic sculptures out of light and shadow. But there’s also no wasted opportunity to use the production design to create rhythm with camera movement. As Macbeth stalks down a corridor lined with arches, the shadows thrown across his face create a palpitation of light and dark, mimicking the momentum of his restless mind. The look and feel of the film is clearly inspired by German Expressionist films of the 1920s, as well as French silent films such as Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” especially in the treatment of close-ups and canted angles. In applying the style and artistry of early cinema, as well as theatrical techniques, to this classic, yet ancient, text, Coen manages to create a film that feels utterly modern in its approach.
Part of the effect of simplifying the image (though they are no less impressive for their simplicity) is an attention to the language and performance of the piece. Every actor is splendid, even in small roles, including Stephen Root, and Moses Ingram, who jumps off the screen in her single scene. Alex Hassell as Ross, and Corey Hawkins, as Macbeth antagonist Macduff, display their Shakespearean chops in memorable performances as well. But the second Washington walks onto screen, into close up, and begins to speak, he takes ownership of the film, the text and the story with an astounding ease. There is no way to come away from this without the firmly cemented belief that Washington is currently the greatest working screen actor, and one of the greatest of all time.
As his bride, the similarly scheming and eventually unhinged Lady Macbeth, Frances McDormand is unsurprisingly fantastic, but the one actor who truly threatens to steal the film from Washington altogether is the legendary British stage actress Kathryn Hunter, as the three Witches, or Weird Sisters, whose prophecy of Macbeth’s ascent is what plants the idea of usurpation in the first place. Hunter’s physical performance, utilizing contortionism and her signature gravelly voice, conjures the kind of strange magic that underpins this tale. She is, in many ways, the keystone of Coen’s adaptation, which is indebted to the stage, Shakespeare’s text and the surreal style of early cinema. Though reverent to its references, it is an entirely singular, and overwhelmingly expressive, piece of art.
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‘THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH’
4 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R (for violence)
Running time: 1:45
Where to watch: In theaters Saturday, streaming on Apple TV+ Jan. 14
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