web-goddess: The Scottish Play

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Something wicked this way comes.
We caught a great film on the TiFaux this weekend: Orson Welles's Macbeth. The Snook walked in during the very first scene and guessed, "Genghis Khan?" No, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that based on some of the wack costumes they wear. The landscape and setting are crazy too. It took me a long time to figure out that the giant rocky mountaintop where everything seemed to take place... was actually Dunsinane, the castle. It was really surreal and atmospheric and weird. There were characters (that crazy medicine man/priest with the long braids?) that I didn't remember from before. Some characters would drift in and out of Scottish accents. Yet the story was still there, complete with all my favorite speeches*, and it was still powerful. I liked Welles's touch of having some of the soliloquies be voice-over instead of spoken aloud. The shots of "Birnam Wood" marching through the mist towards the castle were unexpectedly eerie and beautiful. This one is definitely recommended, if you like your Shakespeare on the weird, expressionistic side.

* Snookums was slightly disappointed though that his favorite speech got cut. It's the scene directly after Duncan's murder, when the drunken porter goes to answer the door and goes on a long ramble about the effects of alcohol on the male anatomy.

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