Macbeth

The archaism of spoken language as a counterpoint to the language of film. Both Shakespeare and Kurzel tell their own stories, but they fit together like few others. If I hadn’t known "Macbeth" from school, the protagonists would have talked a hole into my head. However, you can take Arkapaw's images anywhere, print them on a large format and hang them in galleries. (07/12/2016)

Sociopaths of the verbal type (the multiple species among us) won't appreciate this film, of course; it is only for sensitive people able to cherish the celluloid language called film that takes you back to a time when stories where still told with pictures without making artistic compromises. Here, the trump card is the modest production design. It’s not about large crowds and lavish sets, but about compositions and atmosphere. In that respect, I particularly enjoyed the first half fantastically, up to the point where Macbeth is made king. The visual aspect is so unique that it doesn't really matter if the source material was written by Shakespeare or another theatrical titan. I'm genuinely curious about Assassins Creed now, because Kurzel's cinematic language is completely incompatible with the game poetics of an assassin running on rooftops and jumping into haystacks. (08/06/2016)

The best adaptation of Shakespeare for a really long time. Visually captivating, gloomy Scottish hills and verses interlaced with madness and fears. Fassbender as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as his wife give their very best. Ambition, power, women. The age-old danger of temptation of a good man. If he succumbs, he will be damned. (02/02/2016)

I can't help but think that if I had seen this film first, it probably wouldn't compel me to watch Shakespearean tragedies in the theater. It has everything this play should have, but at the same time, it's so incredibly unpleasant to watch that I didn't enjoy looking at it, despite the presence of my favorite actors. (21/02/2016)

Even in Macbeth, Justin Kurzel can indulge in what fascinated him in Snowtown - a moral vacuum that arises around extremely ambivalent characters, torn apart by violence and manipulation. Of course, in collaboration with Adam Arkapaw, he powerfully uses the rugged Scottish landscape as a mirror of the inhospitable interior of the two main actors, who (filmed mainly in relentless detail) form the magnetizing center of the adaptation. The Macbeth couple and their gradual decline into madness usurps almost all of the space, and if the actor doesn't have the talent to play in a small area with a fascinating intensity like Sean Harris, he's out of luck. It's not a bad thing, because Fassbender and Cotillard act with an intensity that easily withstands the uncompromising choice of detail and faithfulness to the original’s language, although the strongest moment is when Macbeth sheds a “tear of madness" in the middle of a wordless scene. Kurzel chooses a gloomy, very slow tempo, which in the middle finds itself in the stereotypical arrangements of monologues / protagonist dialogues (an obvious screenplay defect), but for most of the rest of the runtime, it is only thanks to the fascinating interplay of Arkapaw's eye and the ears of Justin's brother-composer Jed that the film holds a very intense charge. The battle scenes are on the verge of Refnov mannerism, but for me they fit into the overall tone of "naturalistic lyricism". Yes, Branagh's blasé attitude breaks under the dictates of darkness, and even the BBC cycle The Crown feels airy compared to Kurzel's adaptation. In some ways, Macbeth is very close to the controversial but captivating adaptation of Andrey Arnold's Wuthering Heights. He also seeks in the classics the forgotten taste of blood, the smell of sweat and the slime of mud. And he won me over. [80%] (23/10/2015)