NEW YORK (AP) — Joel Coen, in his first solo outing as a filmmaker, premiered a striking, black-and-white adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand at the New York Film Festival on Friday . .
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” Which was to open at the 59th New York Film Festival on Friday night, is not a mud-and-blood adaptation on medieval Scottish regions, but a minimalist, noir nightmare, draped in shadows and fog, and an Academy-proportionate take on Boxing is a square frame full of rigid, expressionist imagery.
“I didn’t want to give up on the notion of drama,” Coen told reporters after a screening. “It was taking a play and making a film on it that was interesting to me, not trying to make a play into a movie. I didn’t want to hide the drama.”
“A lot of the driving impulse was taking things away in terms of design,” he said.
The film, which will hit theaters on a24, December 25 and will screen on Apple TV+ in January, was the much-anticipated premiere of the New York Film Festival. Festival Part of the newly revived Lincoln Center and lasts till October 10. The euphoria for “The Tragedy of Macbeth” was due in part to Coen’s first film without his brother, Ethan, who has recently withdrawn from filmmaking. But it was also due to the star power of its lead actors – Washington as Macbeth and McDormand as Lady Macbeth.
The film is a cornerstone for both the actors.
“It’s been a fascinating journey for me. I went to school 1,000 feet from here and played ‘Othello’ when I was 20 — I had no idea what I was doing,” said Washington, 66, who played Fordham. He acted in plays as a student on the Lincoln Center campus. “It’s a thousand feet long.”
Washington has starred in other Shakespeare productions, including “Julius Caesar” on Broadway in 2005. For Washington, it’s a fundamental part of himself as an actor.
“This is the ultimate challenge. This is the ultimate reward,” said Washington. “This is where I started and where I want to end.”
For 64-year-old McDormand, the connection to “Macbeth” in particular goes back even further.
“The first thing that hooked me to be an actor for the rest of my life was the sleepwalking scene from ‘The Tragedy,'” she said. “I did it when I was 14. I have been practicing and rehearsing a lot for it for 50 years. It was kind of a definite imperative to it.”
McDormand also played Lady Macbeth in 2016’s Berkeley Rep. McDormand said that over the years, she has urged her longtime husband, Coen, to direct a production of the play. After sitting on his rehearsals, Coen eventually came to do it as a film. He wrote the screenplay adaptation as something less like Orson Welles’ 1948 “Macbeth” or Roman Polanski’s 1971 version, imagining something more with the austerity of the Carl Theodor Dryer film and the chiaroscuro glow of FW Murnau’s “Sunrise”.
Three witches are seen in ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ directed by Joel Coen (screenshot)
Bertie Carvel, who played Banquo, said, “It pays homage to both the cinematic and theatrical traditions in which the play is seated.” “(Joel) used the word ‘sculpture’ and very few other words. What was clear was that it was about taking things away and getting out of the way of the drama.”
Another thing that sets this “Macbeth” apart from others is the age of its lead cast. As a drama about ambition, some – such as Polanski’s co-writer Kenneth Tynan – have claimed that it is inherently a story for young actors. McDormand and Washington disagreed.
“There’s a built in sense of urgency,” Washington said. “That’s it. This is the last round. And they’ve been stepped in by the king. And they want it. And we understand.”
“You might think that maybe they don’t understand, but – guess what – we do understand,” agreed McDormand. “When we first talked on the phone, Denzel and I, what we both understood about each other is that there’s always a fight. We’ve fought it as brilliantly as possible but the fight is never going to end. So, you know, we brought it up.”
“We still knew how to fight. Maybe we were limping a little bit,” she said with a laugh. “But the fight was yet to come.”