MACBETH
US, 1948, 89 minutes, Black and white.
Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy Mc Dowall, Edgar Barrier, Robert Coote.
Directed by Orson Welles.
Macbeth is Orson Welles' interpretation of Shakespeare. It is a companion piece to his Othello as well as his big-budget and more inventive Chimes at Midnight, based on Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2.
The film was made for a very small budget in 22 days and released in 1948. It is a stylised version with Welles as Macbeth and as director of the film. Critics were very hostile to Jeanette Nolan's performance as Lady Macbeth. Roddy Mc Dowall, is the other name in the cast.
Welles had achieved a great deal cinematically in the early '40s with Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and had just worked on The Lady From Shanghai. Welles' commanding presence and voice make the film an interesting interpretation of Shakespeare - as well as the stylisation of the whole enterprise. Other film versions include an American '60s product~ ion with Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson as well as Polanski's interpretation with ion Finch and Francesca Annis.
1. The skill and work of Orson Welles? The small budget, 22 days' work? The stylised sets etc.? The achievement?
2. Orson Welles' skill as star, director, interpreter? Action? Realism and stylisation? Black and white photography? The use of light and darkness? Screen compositions, angles, movement? The soundtrack? (The history of the film and being cut, later restorations?)
3. The fidelity to the structure of the play, the text? Shakespeare's mind and interpretation? Diction, poetry, drama?
4. The tragedy of Macbeth: the downfall of Macbeth, his flaw: with the witches, temptation, his wife, acting. killing, the results, his being unhinged, covering, cruelty, fate and superstition, Banquo, the slaughter, madness? The collapse of his wife. the confrontation? The witches in the wood? Macduff? His coming alive again and fighting? Tyranny and defeat? Welles' characterisation, interpretation, Macbeth as a warlord?
5. Lady Macbeth as a tragic figure? Evil? 'Unsexed'? Temptation, opportunity, 'mannish', action, covering, her bewilderment, her torment, 'Out damned spot', her death?
6. Macduff, vanity, companion. the confrontation, exile? His wife and the gentleness of the sequences. the children? The horror of the massacre? His return? Grief? Leadership? Battle and heroics?
7. Banquo as Macbeth's companion, influence, death, haunting?
8. The King and ceremony, the entry into the castle, his death, Malcolm and his youthfulness, the uproar, departure, return, the new King and the restoration of order?
9. The witches and the prologue, as witches, fate, prophecy, their reappearance? Their conjuring up prophecy? The end? Background of Satan and evil? Exorcism?
10. Seton, the doctor and the nurse? Characterisation? Contribution to the plot? With Lady Macbeth?
11. The nobility, the lords, loyalties, tradition? Changes of allegiance?
12. Welles' handling of the best-known sequences and speeches?
13. The ending, Burnham Wood and the battle?
14. Audience sharing Welles' interpretation and insight? The cathartic experience of Shakespeare's Macbeth?
