I've seen Macbeth several times both on screen and on stage, in at least 3 different languages - this being the forth - but never better than today. Never I would have imagined that saami (lappish) could be the perfect language for a Shakespeare tragedy, but it is. At least so I think, who doesn't speak any saami, but I like to listen to different languages, and saami sounds just as harsh and severe as the story deserves.
And then the setting - northern Sweden in winter, a landscape of snow and ice, and buildings and props carved out of ice, with a incredible lack of colour except the colour red, like the red of wine, fire, dusk and of course blood. All of that is just perfect to emphasize the brutality and inevitability of Shakespeare's play.
(Spoilers)
For the first time I could really understand why Lady Macbeth became crazy and couldn't get the blood off her hands, something which always felt wrong before.
Most impressive was the scene where Macduff hears about the slaughter of his family , immediately believing the horrible events, but needing to hear again and again that the unimaginable really has happened (and my wife? even my kids? all of them?). Seldom in any film I got touched deeper than by this scene.
And then of course the witches, their contorted faces shown through or inside great slabs of ice. Here we can see (I saw) the ultimate wickedness of the human (Macbeth's) mind.
Now, if you ever should have the opportunity to see this film, go and see it!
And then the setting - northern Sweden in winter, a landscape of snow and ice, and buildings and props carved out of ice, with a incredible lack of colour except the colour red, like the red of wine, fire, dusk and of course blood. All of that is just perfect to emphasize the brutality and inevitability of Shakespeare's play.
(Spoilers)
For the first time I could really understand why Lady Macbeth became crazy and couldn't get the blood off her hands, something which always felt wrong before.
Most impressive was the scene where Macduff hears about the slaughter of his family , immediately believing the horrible events, but needing to hear again and again that the unimaginable really has happened (and my wife? even my kids? all of them?). Seldom in any film I got touched deeper than by this scene.
And then of course the witches, their contorted faces shown through or inside great slabs of ice. Here we can see (I saw) the ultimate wickedness of the human (Macbeth's) mind.
Now, if you ever should have the opportunity to see this film, go and see it!
