Synopsis: The Scottish Play - power and paranoia
Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Jon Finch, Francesca Annis, Martin Shaw
Date: 1971
How viewed: You tube
Rating: 2/5
David Meyer says:
Polanski's gift to this genre is to take the Royal Shakespeare Company out of their cloistered sets and into the damp, dirty and foreboding Welsh countryside. His revolutionary use of hand-held cameras frees his actors from the constipated Englishness of their training.
I say:
One would need to know the play, and various versions, to know what Polanski adds - and I don't! Reviews suggest that Polanski makes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth younger/sexier (bizarrely it was financed by Hugh Hefner and Playboy) and makes the film more violent (including showing some deaths that normally happen off-stage). I'm sure even an amateur psychiatrist could diagnose Macbeth's problem - it all seems to stem from the prophecies of the 3 witches - you will become king (he makes sure that happens) but it will be Banquo's children that will reign thereafter (which he tries to prevent). As a result all around him either die or realise he's lost the plot. I watched this on Youtube (thank you!) - though both the sound and picture were a bit blurry but the story is pretty straightforward and I guess you either know the words off by heart or will recognise many of the famous speeches. Did I like it? Not really.
Polanski's gift to this genre is to take the Royal Shakespeare Company out of their cloistered sets and into the damp, dirty and foreboding Welsh countryside. His revolutionary use of hand-held cameras frees his actors from the constipated Englishness of their training.
I say:
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