LADY MACBETH
UK, 2016, 89 minutes, Colour.
Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, Christopher Fairbank, Anton Palmer, Golda Rosheuvel.
Directed by William Oldroyd.
Audiences will immediately think of Shakespeare and then wonder about the connections of this story and its central character, Katherine Lester, and Macbeth’s vengeful wife. In fact, this film is based on a Russian short story of the 19th century by Nikolai Leskov, Lady Macbeth of Minsk (filmed in Russia in 1989).
Of course, Lady Macbeth is not a random choice for a title. It might be considered, as T.S. Elliott considered an “objective correlative�, a kind of archetypal reference to evoke connections in the imagination and emotions, some parallels, not strict, with Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth.
This is very stylised film, set in the remote Northumberland locations of County Durham, a mansion, the outhouses, the surrounding countryside which can be both attractive as well a sinister. There is no musical score but, at the time of deaths, in the middle of the film and that the end, there are electronic reverberations. While the photography is beautiful, the director is at pains to create a great number of tableau with the characters as well as frequently framing Katherine Lester and leaving the audience to contemplate her passionate yet sometimes enigmatic character.
For those who enjoy film history and comparisons, one might say this is a role which, in her past, Isabelle Huppert would have been very much at home in, quiet, interiorly ruminative, often seemingly impassive in her exterior manner and behaviour, yet bursting out sometimes passionately.
At the beginning, Katherine seems a quiet young girl, played by Florence Pugh (not yet 20 at the time of filming). She is seen in bridal white, in church, singing hymns, then, strong-minded, on her wedding night, asked to strip while her husband ignores her and is preoccupied with his own sexuality. Not a promising beginning to the marriage. He is a stern man, called away to a colliery explosion and Katherine is left alone, her hair combed by her maid, Anna, Naomi Ackie, woken each morning, brought breakfast, a quiet routine with Katherine confined to the house, rarely allowed out, sitting with her religious books. Not quite Lady Macbeth at this stage.
Matters change for her when she sees her husband’s workers ganging up sexually on Anna, ridiculing her about size with reference to a sow. Katherine’s demanding that they go back to work but her being attracted to the seeming instigator, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis) who then enters Katherine’s room – with some passionate changes in her, surfacing all kinds of whimsical designs, and setting her on a psychopathic path.
This involves her horrible father-in-law who detests her, symbolically her standing next to his upright coffin for a photograph and her disdain in passing by his body lying in state. This also involves her husband and his return and his denunciation of her with dire results.
Once on her path of passion with Sebastian, and ensuing violence, she is tested when a stranger brings a little boy who is her husband’s ward. As they settle into the house, the little boy comfortable with Katherine, it might seem that this story will not have tragic consequences. But, of course it does, Katherine now glibly able to deny all complicity, transfer men blame to others and seeming impassive to their fates.
There is nothing else to do but for the director to frame Katherine again, focus the camera on her, her impassive look, the audience contemplating, reflecting on what might be going on inside her.
This is not a 19th century melodramatic romance but rather what might be called a study in the psyche of a Lady Macbeth.
1. The title? Expectations? Lady Macbeth of Minsk, as a story, as a variation on the Lady Macbeth theme? The references to Shakespeare?
2. The location photography, Durham County? The mansion, the rooms? The outer rooms, the stables, the grounds? The countryside? The seasons, beauty? And the sinister touches in the countryside, deaths and burials?
3. The lack of a score, the electronic vibrations at two key points?
4. The reserved tone, quiet, composed shots, tableau, time for contemplation? Katherine confined, sitting, reading the Bible, sometimes out for walks, the presence of the cat?
5. The title, Lady Macbeth as an archetype? Comparisons with the Minsk story? With Shakespeare’s character? Katherine as a woman, ruthless, the growing power, her passion patience, cruelty and brutality, impervious to what was going on around her, her lies, growing evil, psychopathic? Her old over the men?
6. Katherine as a character, seeing her as a bride, dressed in white, the church, singing the hymn? The wedding night, waiting for her husband, confident, his asking her to strip, his going to bed, his own sexuality? The relationship with Anna, the servant, and her work, combing Katherine’s hair, waking, breakfast? Katherine isolated, proper behaviour, meditative?
7. Her relationship with her father-in-law, having been acquired with a piece of land, considered worthless? Boris, his impatience, the meals, his insults, his dislike of Katherine? His beating Sebastian?
8. Sebastian, the workers, the sexual play with Anna, the group sex, her being trussed up, the jokes about her weight?? Katherine rescuing her? Her taking a hard-line, discipline with the workers, in her husband’s name? Asking Sebastian about her weight? The attraction to Sebastian, his coming to her room, seductive, the sexual encounter, his being beaten, her going to him, his wounds, kissing them?
9. The move to equality, inviting Anna to share the meals, and her fear, not having a life story?
10. Boris, his dislike of his son and his son’s dislike of him, hard at the table, Katherine locking him in the room, his struggles, poison, his death? Anna going to call the doctor, hurrying through the woods? Becoming mute? Boris dead, in his coffin, Katherine having the photo standing next to the upright coffin? Passing by the coffin with disdain?
11. Her relationship with Sebastian, the passion, the bed, together, the effect on him?
12. The return of the master, Katherine hearing the horse, getting Sebastian out, her covering herself, offering tea to her husband, his denunciation of her, everybody talking about her, her reputation? Sebastian, the confrontation, the fight, the master biting his neck, Katherine killing her husband with the poker, the burial in the countryside, shooting the horse burying it?
13. Katherine, taking over – and the shock of Agnes arriving with Teddy? The story, the master, his ward? Sebastian not believing? Katherine deciding the documents were genuine?
14. Agnes and Teddy settling in, the choice of rooms? Teddy saying that Katherine was beautiful? Their playing together, the names of the birds, each missing their mother?
15. Sebastian, his humiliation, ousted, in the dirt? Katherine seeing him, following him, knocking Teddy away, Teddy being lost, the search?
16. Teddy sitting on the rocks, Sebastian finding him, the decision to save him, bring him back? Agnes humiliating him, ousting him?
17. Katherine, her plan, getting Agnes to sleep, her watching over Teddy, Sebastian’s return, smothering him? The doctor’s testimony?
18. Sebastian, confessing, Katherine denouncing him, her lies? Denouncing Anna? Anna suffering, the arrest, in the wagon with Sebastian?
19. Katherine, pregnant, her life before her, the final close-up and the audience contemplating her?
