to do often with soliloquies, with the monologues, you hear them in voice over. and this really stays with the actors, it stays with the performances, and that s what drives the movie. more than just seeing macbeth, the new york film festival s opening night brought audiences thejoyous experience of connecting after tough pandemic times. we re all ready to be here and we re ready to be in the theatre together and have a communal experience. we need this. new york needs this film festival and we need each other. it s quite emotional to be here together. over the decades there have been numerous interpretations and adaptations of macbeth from different film makers, from kurosawa to polanski and many more. noah gittell has been looking back at cinema history to see how film makers have staged the so called scottish play in the past. you know your own degrees. orson welles directed and starred in the first significant adaptation of macbeth in 1948.
from that play have stayed with me, vaulting ambition that o erleaps itself and falls on the other, and of course lady macbeth uttering out, damn spot. so i was very pleased when i heard that this year the new york film festival was having as its opening night film a fresh interpretation of macbeth called the tragedy of macbeth, starring denzel washington and frances mcdormand. the world premiere of this new macbeth definitely created excitement. the film was shot in black and white on a los angeles soundstage. it all unfolds artfully within a hermetically sealed world. directorjoel coen, working solo without his brother for the first time in his career, has certainly created a visually striking movie. but it s his actors who bring it to life, his wife frances mcdormand as lady macbeth and denzel washington as macbeth, two leads at the forefront of a large ensemble of well rehearsed american, british and irish actors. we got a chance to rehearse it like a play, well, we actually st
and some great documentaries, one using animation to chronicle the plight of an afghan refugee fleeing the taliban 25 years ago. and the other, a portrait of the influential new york rock band formed in the 1960s, the velvet underground. like almost every british schoolchild of my generation, i had the works of william shakespeare thrown at me. but i have to admit, the only play of his that i received with a massive amount ofjoy was macbeth. i think i really understood the drama of it all, and over the years, lines from that play have stayed with me, vaulting ambition that o erleaps itself and falls but i have to admit, the only play of his that i received with a massive amount ofjoy was macbeth. i think i really understood the drama of it all, and over the years, lines from that play have stayed with me, vaulting ambition that o erleaps itself and falls on the other, and of course lady macbeth uttering out, damn spot. so i was very pleased when i heard that this year the new york
closely to the language and the wording of the tragedy of macbeth, but it s refreshed in a certain way, refreshed with some of the people that are acting on screen, working behind the camera. this new macbeth won some great reviews and talk of possible oscar nominations for its leads, it was really seen as quite fine cinema. what s striking about this film is that it really turns shakespeare into something cinematic. it looks like a german expressionism film or something made by carl theodore dreyer, in the sense that you re looking at people s faces in this really striking detail up close, which is something that a lot of filmmakers, with shakespeare in general and with macbeth are afraid to do often with soliloquies, with the monologues, you hear them in voice over. and this really stays with the actors, it stays with the performances, and that s what drives the movie. more than just seeing macbeth, the new york film festival s opening night brought audiences thejoyous experience o
i think i really understood the drama of it all, and over the years, lines from that play have stayed with me, vaulting ambition that o erleaps itself and falls on the other, and of course lady macbeth uttering out, damn spot. so i was very pleased when i heard that this year the new york film festival was having as its opening night film a fresh interpretation of macbeth called the tragedy of macbeth, starring denzel washington and frances mcdormand. the world premiere of this new macbeth definitely created excitement. the film was shot in black and white on a los angeles soundstage. it all unfolds artfully within a hermetically sealed world. directorjoel coen, working solo without his brother for the first time in his career, has certainly created a visually striking movie. but it s his actors who bring it to life, his wife frances mcdormand as lady macbeth and denzel washington as macbeth, two leads at the forefront of a large ensemble of well rehearsed american, british and iri