Thomas Page, CNN
A power-hungry Scotsman walks down a driveway, murder on his mind. Is this another Macbeth adaptation I see before me? Undeniably, yes, but John Coyne’s look at Shakespeare’s old tale is unlike any other.
It doesn’t hurt to have acting powers Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand on board as Lord and Lady Macbeth, but where Quinn puts them also catches the eye. Filmed in black and white in boxy academic proportions, we are transported into a supernatural realm of castles carved out of light and shadow with angles sharp enough to draw blood.
Taking audiences away from time and modern cinematic convention, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” looks like it might be 100 years old, and is more of a stage play and, at times, a dream (or nightmare) than real life. As if you were reaching out to touch it, your hand would pass through it.
Using the latest technology, the film’s retro-looking and forward-thinking production design comes courtesy of Stephane Deschant, whose eclectic resume includes “Avatar,” “True Grit,” and “Jurassic Park.”
Deschant joined the film after Quinn, cinematographer Bruno Debonnell, and McDormand (producer and Quinn’s wife) talked about the ideas for about a year. “I was in no way involved in this project and I said, ‘I got two words for you: German Expressionism,'” he recalls, laughing. “I didn’t go to Bruno and say, ‘Black and white, baby, what do you think? “
He added, “From the beginning, (Queen) stated that he did not want to deny that the script was created as a play (and) a theatrical construction.” “We had no interest in making it a nature film. He was not interested in going the way (Roman) Polanski went,” he said, citing the director’s 1971 film, which was filmed around the British Isles.
frame simplification
Inspirational references were plastered throughout the office in 3″ x 5″ prints of movie stills, architecture shots, and photographs by Debonnell. The base image was by photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto from Luis Barragán’s Mexico City home. Built in 1948, the former home of the late architect – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site – is pictured as an assembly of clean lines and solid surfaces lightened slightly by emphasis.
“It has become a benchmark for me to understand how much abstraction we are going to get,” Deschant said.
Collaborators also looked to the films of Karl Dreyer, Robert Mitchum, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and D.W. Griffith for inspiration, as well as sketches by pioneering stage designer Edward Gordon Craig.
“The dividing line was simplifying the framework,” he explained. “It was like creating a haiku for pictures. It was, ‘How do we reduce it to the smallest amount of elements while still being emotional and immediate?'”
Macbeth’s ascension to the throne takes him from a battle camp to his castle at Inverness and eventually to a castle at Dunsinan. Quinn asked Deschant not to think of the castle, but rather the “idea of the castle”. How this unfolds takes the film into a world beyond the script.
The raw edges and scattered ornaments are a nod to theater design, but the incompleteness of these spaces also became an extension of Lord and Lady Macbeth. These are the personalities who imagined themselves on the throne, but did not elaborate on the details of their reign. The lack of imagination is reflected in the bare walls, cold floors, and high ceilings, and these characters are dwarfed by their station – a hollow castle for a hollow crown.
“There’s an adjective annoying and empty,” Deschant said. “I think Joel might have been working at that level, in that (Inverness) is not a house, because they can’t have heirs. Then you go to (Dunsinane) and that’s not convenient. There’s still a void. It’s just one man looking for power, He and his wife.”
Make the old new again
The sets are designed using 3D computer modeling, allowing Coen and Debonnel to run virtual tours of scenes and work on camera angles and movements before they are built. Some groups are roughly marked on an audio platform or built with foam blocks and augmented to serve text.
Dishant remembers MacDormand walking down an imaginary corridor in preparation for a pivotal murder scene, reading Macbeth’s corresponding soliloquy as she walked to make sure the space was long enough. Nailing this scene—and one of Shakespeare’s most famous passages—was vital, especially as the production designer and director plotted a new interpretation.
The vision of the dagger Macbeth sees before him appears in most interpretations of the play here in the form of a doorknob to his victim’s chamber, before he takes his own blade. Deschant said Quinn showed him a 1903 photograph of the banker J.P. Morgan sitting with the arm of a chair—except for the light, Morgan seemed to actually be holding a dagger. The production designer manipulated the carving of a metal doorknob to achieve the same effect. (Deschant eventually left the set with the finished product and part of the door as souvenirs.)
Another departure Quinn makes is through his casting of stage and animator star Katherine Hunter to play the three witches in the story. At the height of the film’s creativity, when the witches return to Macbeth and recite their famous song, they do so inside Dunsinan Castle – perched above the rafters of a simple room – as water (all digital, the production designer admitted) floods the space.
“(The room) has no historical connection,” Deschant said. “It was designed with one purpose: to be a cauldron.”
There were other touches, too: When Macbeth saw his friend’s ghost in the hallway, Deschant designed each arc to be “unbalanced, for Macbeth is also in his madness.” Deschant predicted the fateful coming of the enemy to Dunsinan in the throne room, where pillars were set in the same proportions as pillars of trees from which the invading forces would later pass. The textures of the collections – highlighted by the absence of color – were designed to match the work of fashion designer Mary Zophres.
Deschant, despite his track record, described his work in purely collaborative terms. He’s quick to give credit, whether to Coen, Debonnel, the interior designers who painted shade on his sets to make the lighting stand out, or the matte artists who painted the landscape to be included in post-production.
“Imagine if you came to work and everything looked like a piece of art when you walked in?” He asked, smiling, as if he still couldn’t believe his luck.
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” is available on Apple TV+ on January 14th.
Add to Queue: Five Genius Interpretations of Shakespeare
“Blood Throne” (1957)
Akira Kurosawa transports Macbeth to feudal Japan for an epic tale of a warrior’s rise and fall. Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada star in the lead and demand feelings along the way. (See also: “Ran” [1985], Kurosawa’s movie “King Lear” and “Bad Sleep Well” [1960], adapted from the disturbing movie “Hamlet.”)
“10 Things I Hate About You” (1999)
Heath Ledger singing from the stands. Read Julia Styles’ tearful poetry. Joseph Gordon-Levitt annoys everyone. Gil Junger’s The Taming of the Shrew, with American High School, had it all.
“Richard III” (1995)
Richard Longren’s adaptation takes the rise of a bad king and imagines it as a fascist coup in Britain in the 1930s. It’s worth watching Ian McKellen let her rip as one of Shakespeare’s most insidious characters and her brilliant use of location (Battersea Power Station stands at the Battle of Bosworth).
“Acceptable” (2003)
Another “Macbeth”, another original shot. Vishal Bhardwaj set the play in the secretive underworld of Mumbai, while the late Irrfan Khan caused great world exhaustion for the troubled leader. Comparisons with “The Godfather” would not be misplaced.
“The Chimes at Midnight” (1965)
Orson Welles shifted the focus from the royal family in “Henry IV” and cast the spotlight on Sir John Falstaff. Sure, Wells looked the part as the jockey and the troublemaker, but it gave him a sly edge as well. And it wasn’t the last movie that increased the character’s fame (see: David Michaud’s 2019 film, “The King”).
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