A study of Macbeth's witches in two films.

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A study of Macbeth’s witches in

 two films

The three sisters are introduced in two different films showing two different ways reflected two different point of views . the two films are Orsan Welles’ Macbeth and Roman Polkan’s Macbeth. Orsan Welles’ was produced in year1948in black and white whereas Roman Polanski’s was produced in  1971 in colours. Striking similarities and differences are observed in both films in the witches appearance , voice , and words . I examined the general appearance of the two withes in both films and the deeper meaning of the witches . I also studied the sound effects the rhythm , the speed of the conversations and how they vary from the Shakespeare’s original witches and text.

        Orsan welles choose to direct his film in black and white for the great contrast between black and white , where white represents good things and peaceful things, while black stands for bad evil things . if most of the screen is black Orsan means that something evil is going to prevail , but leaving most of the screen white indicates some good happenings . But Roman Polanski choose to direct his film in colours for it is more realistic he used clear , yet dull colours to suit the dull , bloody and gloomy atmosphere of the play and to make the audience expect something weird going to happen introducing the three weird sisters.

        

The opening of Orsan Well’s Macbeth shows a total absence of any bright colours to produce an eerie atmosphere .

The scene is gloomy one that creates a sad atmosphere . the dark misty foggy clouds creates a scene of vagueness and symbolizes the obscurity of the goings on . such a scene puts me , as an audience on the right mood , he made us meet the witches at the top of the hill such a secluded place for sure is a suitable place for strange happenings . on the other hand Polanski’s introduced the witches at a normal hight not giving any sense of haunting yet he used dull colours bright for goodness and darker colours to represent evil bad happenings. The dull colours he uses imply vagueness.

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Similarity is observed in the number of witches for both films introduced three witches . May be because the number three is usually related to witchcraft . I can see the appearance of the witches strikingly different ; Orsan Welles introduced them as ugly old hags , wore black clothes which draws fear into the heart of the audience.

But in Polanski’s film the witches were more human, they were dressed in rags and looked like poor villagers . Their speech is the only thing that indicate that they are witches , in Roman Polanski’s film the age ...

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