Director: Orson Welles
Country: United States
Some years ago I saw Roman Polanski's adaptation of Macbeth but I overlooked the one made by Orson Welles, I thought that I did not need to see it in the first place since Polanski's version is a memorable film, however, I finally did it and it really surprised me because Macbeth is another tour de force in Welles' filmography, he produced it, wrote it, directed it and acted on it and by the way his performance is pure gold.
Macbeth is a very rich story about human condition, it is full of poetry, metaphors and symbolism, and in times of political turmoil like the ones we are living in (Brexit and the Election of Donald Trump) it is the perfect time to watch it. Welles offers a minimalistic film in black and white which helps the audience to focus on the story.
Macbeth who is influenced by his wife, Lady Macbeth, is manipulated through his basic human flaws such as pride, greed, fear and jealousy, Macbeth also corrupts himself when killing the king but stills unsatisfied because Banquo and his family are the ones who will own the throne of Scotland. To revert this, Macbeth disobeys the Witches’ prophecy and orders the assesination of Banquo and his son Fleance, who avoids being killed.
Macbeth starts to lose his mind the moment he kills the king, he becomes a doble-crossing bastard who is thirsty of power, blood and brute force,using cheap rethoric to convince people that Banquo is responsible for their poverty and misery (sounds familiar?). Orson Welles' performance is powerful and we can see the transformation and the different textures of Macbeth's on his face: fear, violence and ultimately madness.
Welles was without a doubt a genius, he was like the Leonardo Da Vinci of cinema, too bad Hollywood hated him and many of his projects were unfinished or not even pre-produced. Macbeth is definitely a must see for anyone interested either in William Shakespeare or in Orson Welles and this movie in particular is available on YouTube for free!.
And last but not least Orson Welles is well-known for having made Citizen Kane, a film which inspired a whole generation of masters of filmmaking such as Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich and many more, so if you want to be either a GREAT filmmaker or a screenwriter you gotta see Welles' work, otherwise get the fuck outta my blog!
