The Vernon Film Society’s next film is Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) and Marion Cotillard (Midnight in Paris).
Macbeth has a long tradition of superstition.
While traditionally one isn’t supposed to mention its name within a theatre where the play is being staged, apparently that also holds true for movie theaters. However, you are free to call it “the Scottish play.”
The story is familiar to all, but director Justin Kurzel changes and adds to the original, adapting the play for a modern audience. For example, the movie immediately reveals that Lady Macbeth has lost a child, a detail not in Shakespeare’s original play. The scene soon changes to the three witches on the blasted heath with their predictions that Macbeth will be king. Shortly after, Lady Macbeth’s ambition and encouragement ensure the bloody deed is done: King Duncan (David Thewlis) is brutally stabbed.
Key to the action are the performances by Fassbender and Cotillard, who place their own stamp on the power-hungry Macbeth and his lady wife, who encourages her husband’s murderous aspirations.
Adam Arkapaw’s cinematography gives the adaptation such a moody atmosphere, you can almost feel the cold of the mists and mud and isolation in the countryside and castles of Scotland.
The film screens Monday, May 2 at the Vernon Towne Cinema at 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. Tickets are available at the Towne and the Bean Scene for $7. Cash only.