Macbeth was made by Polanski in the aftermath of the murder of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, and several of his friends by members of the Manson Family at his house in Beverly Hills on the night of August 9, 1969. Following the murders, Polanski quit the film project he was working on, The Day of the Dolphin, and sank into deep psychological depression, blaming himself for the tragedy. After months of grieving Tate's death, he set to adapting Shakespeare's Macbeth with the aid of British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.
Wright and Hill wrote the script, which — although it uses a modern-day Melbourne gangster setting, and the actors deliver the dialogue in Australian accents — largely maintains the language of the original play.
This adaptation of Macbeth takes place in the Melbourne underworld. Macbeth (Sam Worthington), a loyal underboss to his crime boss Duncan (Gary Sweet), is told by teenage witches that he will one day assume great power. Driven by their prophecy, his wife (Victoria Hill) plans to kill Duncan and take the leadership of the gang for herself and her husband. Macbeth's obsessive love for her leads him to agree to her murderous plan, but he finds that maintaining his power will require a lot more from him than first imagined.
Macbeth is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare. Bloch composed the opera between 1904 and 1906, but it did not receive its first performance until 30 November 1910 by the Opéra-Comique in Paris with Henri Albers in the title role and conducted by François Ruhlmann. Alex Cohen has written of quarrels within the cast that contributed to the opera's poorly received premiere.
Performance history
After the premiere, the opera was performed 15 times through January 1911, but then was withdrawn.Romain Rolland had studied the score and communicated his admiration to Bloch in June 1911.
Guido Gatti has compared elements of Bloch's opera to the music of Modest Mussorgsky. He has also written of the different treatments of the Macbeth story by Giuseppe Verdi and Bloch in their respective operas on the subject, with Verdi being more "realistic" and Bloch being more in keeping with the symbolist era in art at his time.
A film of Macbeth with Laurence Olivier in the lead and directing was one project for which Olivier was ultimately unable to gain financing.
Stratford-upon-Avon stage production
After making Richard III, Olivier wanted to film Macbeth, with himself in the title role and Vivien Leigh as his Lady. The Oliviers had performed together in the two roles on stage in a production by John Gielgud at Stratford first performed during June 1955.Terence Rattigan described his performance as definitive and Kenneth Tynan wrote that Olivier was "touched with greatness" on opening night. The response to Leigh as Lady Macbeth was more mixed. Both Tynan and Peter Hall were unimpressed with her interpretation, although Tynan consistently deprecated her stage work.Maxine Audley, who played Lady Macduff, thought Leigh had brilliantly conveyed the character's changes of mood, and that for once the spectator could believe this couple were married. Peggy Ashcroft thought Leigh was the best Lady Macbeth she had ever seen.
The setting of this film is modern, meant to conjure images of the Soviet Union during Stalin’s leadership and draw attention to Macbeth’s tyrannical goals ... Critics loved the film, with ... Macbeth (1971).
The setting of this film is modern, meant to conjure images of the Soviet Union during Stalin’s leadership and draw attention to Macbeth’s tyrannical goals ... Critics loved the film, with ... Macbeth (1971).
There have been over 400 filmed adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays...Macbeth (1971) ... Macbeth ... The film conveys Macbeth's themes of power and evil successfully, while the deviations also add plenty.
Elko Daily Free Press
29 Oct 2023
Elko Daily Free Press
29 Oct 2023