The next view is of the banqueting hall itself, huge and draughty set out with a ‘High Table’ and a long table facing outwards from it. Macbeth says that he will ‘mix with society’ and sit on the long table instead of isolating himself at the High Table, where Francesca Annis presides as a beautiful, young Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth moves to find a seat away from the long table, Lennox protests: ‘Here is a seat reserved for you, my lord’ to which Macbeth replies ‘th’table’s full’ – Lennox gestures at the seat next to him, which to the viewer appears occupied by a gentleman with grey hair. As Macbeth stares uncomprehendingly at the seat (which appears to the viewer as first full, than empty, as the thanes see it), the occupant turns his head, eyes shadowed with a pale hand, as though awaked from a nap. A cello makes highly discordant sounds as if to reflect the unnaturalness of the being’s presence. We see now that the being is, in fact, Martin Sheen or Banquo, heavily dusted with talcum powder and grey, rent clothes. Macbeth shrieks and drops his goblet, which clangs as it hits the stone floor, spraying red blood-like wine. ‘Which of you has done this? …Never shake thy gory locks at me!’ cries Macbeth as the Lords rise at Ross’s command. Lady Macbeth stands and reassures the Thanes ‘Sit worthy friends. My lord is often thus…’ she makes her way over to the white and shaking Macbeth. ‘Are you a man?’ she demands: to which Macbeth replies ‘Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that/ Which might appal [sic.] the devil.’ At this the camera turns to focus on the ghost, discordant notes sound, the ghost is in a further state of decay –blood dripping, covering his ashen face. The ghost rises and moves towards Macbeth who stumbles backward and falls onto the chains that held the bear to the pillar creating again the parallel between the bear and Macbeth – the bear tortured by dogs, Macbeth by guilt and fear. As Macbeth cowers, shielding himself with an arm as if expecting the deadly blow, the ghost comes on, fully decayed with arms outstretched – naked and gory. A translucent bird of prey (‘hell-kite’) flaps on his arm, adding to the graphic detail of the ghost’s attire. Lady Macbeth, quite out of her depth, orders the lords to ‘Go! Stand not upon the order of your going, but go!’. The great hall is now silent. Macbeth remarks that he ‘keeps a servant paid’ in every Thane’s house (an alteration to the text made in both versions, where the original is ‘keep a servant fed’ – possibly to enhance the viewers understanding, especially in the Channel 4 version, which was made for schoolchildren.)
Polanski’s version shows the ghost in one, fluid part of the scene, untrue to the script, which has a break between the ghost’s two appearances. The ghost’s advance is broken by Lady Macbeth’s interruption, but I feel Polanski’s aim in threading the two appearances of the apparition together was to obtain maximum effect by using extremely graphic detail to show the ghost’s fall into decay.
The next ‘mini’ scene is the Macbeths in their bed after the night’s festivities. The room is flooded with an eerie blood-like red light, reminiscent of the dawn, which may signify that the Macbeths are still plagued with insomnia. It is also an omen still believed today: ‘red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning’. By dividing the scene into four separate parts, Polanski emphasises the continuity of the Macbeth’s life despite their supernatural and bloody predicament.
In Michael Bogdanov’s Channel 4 version of Macbeth, he tries to create a version that is more palatable to the audience the film caters for. By setting it in a contemporary world, he creates a modern-day Macbeth, using imagery of the twentieth century to clarify certain points in the text. The scene is set in a huge room with a cathedral-like quality, it seems to be in a state of faded grandeur: perhaps reflecting the dereliction caused by the expensive war that begins the play. In place of the altar, if the room was a cathedral, is the throne of Macbeth – a comment on Macbeth’s crime of regicide (believed to be a crime against god). The dress is extremely formal, modern-day White Tie. Pertwee’s Macbeth is an action-man type – very young and ambitious, flanked by a more mature, but nonetheless beautiful Greta Scacci as Lady Macbeth.
The scene starts with Macbeth flambéing a haggis, a symbol of his status as king and the equivalent of Polanski’s chained bear. The applause for the haggis has been merged with the splash of Banquo’s body being thrown into a river by the murderers (the ‘serpent concealed by the flower’ image) He is called aside by the presence of the murderer, who shrugs into a white jacket. The murderer assures Macbeth of Banquo’s death, to which Macbeth replies ‘you have blood on your face’. Presentation is a central theme of the film, shown in the text by the ‘serpent concealed in the flower’ image. He goes on to find a place to sit amongst ‘society’ as promised in the text, but, again, finding the table full he turns as if to sit at the head of the table with his wife. When Lennox gestures at a seat on the other end of the table, Macbeth looks up at it. Loud chimes sound, as looking up from his seat, a deathly white Banquo, replete with red gash on his head smiles at Macbeth, giving the film a very horror-movie like quality. Macbeth shrieks and points at the ghost, beginning a tirade of terror and mindless speech. Lady Macbeth reassures the lords quickly, grimaces and hurries to her husband’s side. Only when Macbeth challenges the ghost to speak does the ghost vanish.
A calm Macbeth returns to the head of the table, and proposes a toast to Banquo as if in defiance of the ghost. As he does so, the ghost reappears, walking down a huge flight of stairs at the opposite end of the hall. Macbeth sees the ghost, screams and drops the glass, which shatters on the floor. The toast is not made – a reference perhaps to the Macbeth’s trait of leaving business unfinished. Macbeth pushes his wife out of the way and rips off his white dinner jacket to reveal a gun in a holster (again the imagery of the serpent concealed within the flower is used, if in a rather James Bond manner). Shouting he jumps up onto the dinner table and draws the gun. The guests climb under the table or hide behind pillars as they cower from Macbeth’s rage. The ghost pauses on the steps, and Macbeth fires four shots. The ghost vanishes again, accompanied by the fluttering of many wings – linking the ghost to the bird imagery that is constant throughout the text. The gunshots echo around the cathedral-like hall.
Macbeth finally emerges as a tyrant as he screams at his terrified guests (who are all beautiful people, the sort that a new Prime Minister would surround himself with). Lady Macbeth is distraught and shouts at the guests to go, to not go politely but to leave immediately. As the last guest leaves, Lady Macbeth slumps down and drinks from a full wineglass. She is practically in tears. Macbeth is cold and calculating as he declares that there is no stopping him now – he will kill anyone that stands in his way, and again ‘I keep a servant paid’ in Macduff’s house and in all the other thanes houses. Lady Macbeth collapses into despair, as Macbeth receives control of the situation. The alteration in the script, where ‘paid’ is substituted for ‘feed’ is used in both productions: Roman Polanski’s and Michael Bogdanov’s. The entire scene is portrayed as one scene only, as supposed to the breaking up of it in the 1972 version.
In both productions, the character of Lady Macbeth is different. In the 1972 version we see Francesca Annis play a beautiful, glamorous and suave Lady Macbeth. She is dressed in dress of lace and velvets and although she may be losing her grip on things, she remains controlled until the very end, when she opens a window to breathe some fresh air. The 1998 version stars Greta Scacci: older than her husband, which remains faithful to the true Lady Macbeth who married Macbeth as a second husband. She too is pretty, but out of her depth. She wears a dress of gold and has a royal sash draped over her shoulder – the very essence of luxurious elegance. At the end of the scene she is pleading and desperate, and drinks throughout the scene.
Of course, this is the last time we see the Macbeths together.
The ghost also differs in each production: in the 1998 version he has a sinister, horror-movie style, deathly white and smiling; in the 1972 version the ghost is shown as a gory, artificial figment of Macbeth’s imagination. The versions differ also in that in the 1972 version the ghost appears only once, in a broken up sequence, whereas in the 1998 version the ghost appears twice in a more textual, sophisticated manner. The 1972 version remains literal and staidly conventional throughout the film.
In my opinion, both films are equally effective. The 1998 version portrays the all-important ‘Banquet Scene’ as a contemporary dinner party that goes horribly wrong, and the horror-movie quality of the ghost gives the film a really good way of expressing the play in all its glory. The 1972 version remains mostly faithful to the text and to the original staging of the play and is as Shakespeare would have wished his play to be staged. The sheer, unadulterated goriness of the ghost piques most viewer’s interest, and the traditional costume as well as the breaking up of the scene give the film a more realistic sequence, instead of the 1998 sophisticated, and yet carefully staged acting. Both films are, however, very well directed and staged and give a really good interpretation of the text, which is enjoyable to people who have both read the text and those who have not.
