Shakespeare Magazine 9

Macbeth
eeing Macbeth on the big screen is
rather a revelation. The potential
of cinematically depicting the
play’s rugged Scottish setting and
pitched battles sets it on a different
path from the more domestic
explorations that have become
current in theatres.
This on-screen Macbeth is less about the
twisted psychology of guilt, and more about
the brutal Highland culture and the physical
trappings of kingship. The initial battle
scenes and the misty isolated village where
Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) prays and
waits for her husband, are in stark contrast
with the later vast cavernous palace and royal
bedchamber. Despite its refined setting,
Macbeth’s kingship offers him no respite – his
crimes become more insidious, his mind more
tortured.
The film’s re-iteration of violence and
blood makes for uncomfortable viewing. Yet
the violence constantly intermingles with long
lingering shots of the scenery, and beautiful
music. Even battle scenes are filled with stylised
shots, in a way that aestheticises the violence.
In a similar way, the three screenwriters, Jacob
Koskoff, Michael Leslie and Todd Louiso,
maintain the aesthetics of Shakespeare’s words
and the beautiful cadences of his verse. The
brutality is poetic, never gratuitous.
Michael Fassbender makes a stately, serious
Fassbender and
Cotillard as the
regal Macbeths.
22 SHAKESPEARE magazine