Matthew Stone 10/17/02
Comparisons of the Tragedy of Macbeth as Seen in Films Directed by Roman Polanksi’s and Michael Bogdanov
Roman Polanksi’s version of the tragic tail of Shakespeare's Macbeth is shown to us, the viewer in its most traditional way, having it been filmed and directed entirely in South Wales allowed us, the viewers to imagine what Shakespeare wanted his audience in his time period to feel. Roman Polanski uses both words and settings to enhance Shakespeare Message in which he understood it. While Michael Bogdanov uses Shakespeare’s classic text in his production that is set in a timeless world in a raw, urban, industrial environment giving the film a surreal quality. The abstract setting puts this version of Macbeth alongside other more traditional versions of how Macbeth is usually filmed.
Roman Polanksi's film, Macbeth opens with a long shot of the sky and the beach at dawn. All is quiet and still as the shot is held. You notice that the sky is red - a warning sign of danger, but it's a very beautiful image. The sky then gradually turns to a blue-grey, and a far more foreboding colour. The red bleeds out and disappears. This is not going to be a bright day bathed in sunlight - there's no sun in this tragedy. Polanski draws the attention of the audience by the use of colour in the film. The shot is held as a cough is heard and a stick gradually appears in the bottom left foreground. A wrinkled hand is guiding it, as a circle is drawn in the sand. The hands of three weird looking women scoop out the earth and dig down. The witches have a face; one of which looks young and does not look like a witch that we would have imaged to be, her skin still smooth unlike the other two. Similar connections can be made with Michael Bogdanov’s production of Macbeth. Two of the three witches are slightly older and by far, less attractive then the one. Her skin is also smoother then the rest. For what the directors objective was; I do not know or was this just by chance?