Macbeth [2015]

Welcome back to My Year of Shakespeare. We're winding down The Scottish Month with our second to last entry, the 2015 Michael Fassbender/Marion Cotillard vehicle, which in addition to being more dynamic and action-y, is also easily the most Scottish adaptation we've watched.

For about two weeks my draft on this one just said "yoooooooo". The combat in this is visceral. Gruesome even. I don't really pretend to be a "movie combat" guy - the late 2000s works of Zack Snyder do little for me and they're sort of a stylistic referent for what is going on here, combat-wise - but the degree of adrenal bloodletting in this was wholly unexpected for a film that adapts the language as well as the plot.

Fassbender and Cotillard are absolutely spellbinding throughout this; the choice to frame most of their lines together with handheld shots to reinforce how shaky their relationship is and how unstable both are. Were it not for their sex scene in Act II, I would say this is the ideal Shakespeare adaptation to show in schools to instill a respect for the genre.

There's two adaptational choices in this that I find very fascinating; one is the use of the church font to wash their hands; the other, at the end, to have Macbeth surrender in regret, not fall to folly or mis-step. The latter feels like it could be read either as Macbeth growing a conscience around the blood he spills; it could also be read of a kind with Coriolanus, where he recognizes his rule is divorced from what the people desire; or you can see it as a parallel with his coronation scene, where he grapples with the blood shed to be ruler of anywhere; the latter leaves a sour note with Fleance leaving with Macbeth's sword, like "this will continue to happen".

Next week, we are closing out the Scottish Month with Thane of East County, which is on youtube.

Next month, my birthday month, will be comedies; we're watching:

• Jun 7: Twelfth Night or What You Will (1996)
• Jun 14: She's the Man (2006)
• Jun 21: Get Over It (2001) + Strange Magic (2015)
• Jun 28: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2018)

Thank you for joining me for My Year of Shakespeare. Sorry these feel like they're getting increasingly short, there seems to be increasingly less to write about when there's little summary and much of what I find stands in contrast to other adaptations rather than on its own. As always, bear with me.