What is the real tragedy of Macbeth?
Joel Coen’s brilliant film of the Shakespeare play opened the New York Film Festival and then disappeared like the lost city of Atlantis. Few have seen it or even heard about it. When I’ve mentioned it to civilians, so to speak, they’ve never heard of it. Even Ruth Negga, who’ll be playing Lady Macbeth on Broadway later next winter with Daniel Craig, was fuzzy about it.
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” stars Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Kathryn Hunter (who is completely unknown to every Academy voter), Corey Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson and exceptional cast. Bruno Delbonnel did the amazing black and white cinematography. Carter Burwell supplied the gorgeous score.
Yet, Denzel is totally AWOL on this one. He has a movie he directed, “A Journal for Jordan,” rumored to be coming from Sony/Columbia on Christmas Day. So far I’ve heard zilch about that one, too.
Denzel will not be part of a Q&A broadcast to IMAX theaters this Sunday, December 5th when there’s a free showing of “Macbeth” around the country. Here’s a link to the cities, theaters, and showtimes. I didn’t get this from a publicist, but by following A24 on Twitter. (I think A24 just expects to get a lot of National Bored of Review nominations this week and the rest, whatevuh.)
What about Kathryn Hunter? Maybe a critics group will recognize her as the three witches in this production. I have a feeling she’s going to be the lost gem of 2021. Too bad.
