Macbeth (1948) by Orson Welles
Macbeth, directed and starred by Orson Welles in 1947 and released the following year, is a dark somber screen version of one of the most pessimistic Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Generally, the original plot was not changed: Macbeth, getting a prophecy of becoming a king, kills the current ruler, Duncan, and every noble man, who could possibly pose a threat to him being a new king. Tragic unfold of events leads to the moral decline, madness and death of Macbeth and his wife. The main conceptual message of Shakespeare's tragedy is that a deliberate choice of evil always leads to madness. Skillfully using capacity of expressionistic lighting including shadows and silhouettes, filling scene and getting giant dimensions, the message was captured and conveyed amazingly accurately by the director and actors.
The plot of the picture generally corresponds to the text of Shakespeare's play, but still some changes were made. The significant part of creation the atmosphere of infernal madness was intensification of the role of the witches. Thus, a number of episodes were added, such as making out of clay the figure of Macbeth, which loses its head after the character’s death. The whole introductory episode, filled with macabre witches’ screaming and deftly montaged with the help of double exposure, increases the feeling of approaching imminent disaster of immense proportions (Macbeth). Adding a new character, Holy Father, who knows about the Macbeths’ sins not being an eyewitness, Welles highlights the presence of invisible power of retribution. In addition, significant reduction of all scenes involving Duncan took place. Some of the lines were cut, a number of replicas were transferred to other characters, and the order of scenes was changed, causing a negative critics’ reaction (“Macbeth (1948)”). Despite a considerable number of plot corrections, all these changes, made by Orson Welles, did not make any harm but deepen the main idea of Shakespeare’s play.
The main aim of the film, which is achieved by apposite combination of acting, music, scenery, costumes and angle, is creation of an atmosphere of an exacerbating nightmare, drawing in all of the characters as well as the audience. Due to the alternation of close-ups and long shots and active usage of deep mise-en-scène, Wells deprives the picture of theatrical effect. Close-ups turn the characters’ faces into landscapes, filled with hallucinogenic and hypnotic existential feelings and emotions. Acting is balanced: even the scenes with rapidly developing madness can never enter the brink of emotional credibility or turn the tragedy into farce. Shooting the fifth movie and the first screen version of Shakespeare, Welles seeks to follow his style established in his debut Citizen Kane, which is characterized by creating the effect of characters’ monumentality, attention to their passions and existential depths, lower angle shooting, effects of lighting that typical for Noir (“Macbeth (1948)”). However, the picture has some weak points that break the feeling of reality and participation. For instance, the scenery of Macbeth’s castle looks overly artificial. Lady Macbeth’s eyelashes are covered with …
