What was Joel Coen thinking? Because I'm not sure.
I loves me some Coen Brothers, and I really loves me some Frances
McDormand. I kinda loves me some Denzel. Denzel in Much Ado about
Nothing was sublime; Denzel in Fences, it was a film of a stage
production.
That is how I experienced Joel Coen's recent film, The Tragedy of
Macbeth. Shot first in color then converted to black and white in
post-production (to get the RGB filtration curves) with a stark
set, it was reminiscent of Alan Schneider's 1961 filmed play of
Waiting for Godot with Zero Mostel and Burgess Meredith — stark,
dark and dreary, and playing to the camera. I wasn't sure if it
was experimental film, a graduate thesis project, or something
entirely different. Maybe a combination of the three.
Are they in a desert? Or in the sand by the sea? Banquo is killed
on a deserted road, and Fleance runs off into the bullrushes.
Then, suddenly, Malcolm's troops are hewing the branches of the
Burnam Woods which we've never really seen. When we're taken to
Macduff's castle on a cliff, that was the first sense of place I
had, far too long into the film to make sense. Production designer
Stefan Deschant painted backdrops for the exterior scenes, even
the sky. We know it's a stage and not real. “Everything is fake,
and it's absolutely gorgeous,” said Deschant. I needed a stronger
sense of place, but never really found it.
Bruno Delbonnel, the cinematographer, wanted the film to be a
“cinematic haiku,” the simplest form of filmmaking to contrast
with the richness and complexity of the language in the play.
Composed in square (Academy aspect ratio) with wide-angle shots
and extreme close-ups, the film was abstract, almost Brechtian.
The Weird Sisters — definitely Brechtian, with one becoming
origami, the reflection of one sister as three in the water, the
three sisters in the rafters, witches and crows simultaneously.
I can't, and won't, complain about casting. Ellen Chenoweth always
gathers superb casts (Doubt, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country
for Old Men). But when both Macbeth and Macduff barely flinch when
they learn their wives are dead, the motivation disappears. Maybe
when one has the absolute power, nothing affects.
At one point, I thought of the Ryōan-ji Zen Temple in Kyoto.
Fifteen stones are in the garden, but you can never see all
fifteen at once, only fourteen. Something in the film is always
hiding, and we can never see the entirety of the piece.
This nihilistic tragedy should move me. It did not. I truly looked
forward to it from the day I heard about it. My hopes were too
heightened. Yet, I'm glad they made it. As an educator, it allows
me to show yet another adaption of a grand play, and we can pick
apart all the elements, dissecting and analyzing them, in hopes
that one day, maybe, a student will pick up the script, assemble a
team, and do something even better.
The Tragedy That Is Macbeth
January 17th, 2022
What was Joel Coen thinking? Because I'm not sure.