I've never dared to re-watch it, since I saw it when I was 14 and was
enraptured and thus converted to Shakespeare. I rather fear that
Polanski's film mightn't survive the 70s, although I remember lots of
moody medieaval Scottish landscapes and naked witches, and I seriously
doubt it will horrify you. It might even make you laugh. But you never
know. It would be interesting to hear.
You might be better off getting Ian McKellan's Richard III, which is
fantastic. Or hunting down Brook's Lear, with Paul Scofield. Or even
the RSC Macbeth, which you can get on DVD, with a young McKellan and
my favourite unknown genius Bob Peck as a heartbreaking MacDuff, which
is very good and very bleak.
xA
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Funny about Shakespeare, how he appeareth.
>
> I just acquired a copy of the Polanski's *Macbeth*. I have never seen it. I
> have seen *Throne of Blood*. I have seen Welles' dreadful whatever-it-was.
> People have warned me away from the Polanski version. An old friend said
> "Never watch it by yourself." Even my older son, who had to watch it in high
> school(!), said it was nightmarish. Apparently, the worst sequence is the
> slaughter of the Macduff household, which replicates a bit too closely the
> butchery in Polanski's own home when the Manson brain-slaves killed Sharon
> Tate, her baby, and the others present. It was suggested to me that Polanski
> was trying to work out his guilt over not having been there, making him
> sound rather like Macduff himself. I gather too that the onscreen death of
> John Stride as Macbeth is fairly repellent. And yes, I know Francesca Annis
> sleepwalks in her own skin and nothing more.
>
> So what am I in for?
>
> ken
>
> --
> ----------------------------
> Ken Wolman
>
> http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com
> http://opensalon.com/blog/kenneth_wolman
> http://wearethecure.org/friends/cids-memory-p-394.html
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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