Billed as not just a film but a ‘cinematic event’, director Kit Monkman has created the unthinkable – an imaginative new version of Shakespeare’s classic Macbeth. And how has he performed this wondrous feat? By filming the entirety of the play with a backdrop of green screen in order to bring the play firmly into the twenty-first century. And us lucky UoN students have the opportunity to watch it at the Savoy very very soon.
“Monkman has used background matte painting and computer modelling to create an intricate and violent world…”
This innovative idea comes from the wish to integrate the worlds of stage and screen to create a new kind of filmic experience. Set in what appears from the trailer to be a three-dimensional and atmospherically gloomy doll’s house, the camera seamlessly glides through floors and walls to observe the inhabitants within – just like the sense one gets being a member of a theatrical audience.
Monkman has used background matte painting and computer modelling to create an intricate and violent world, which Professor Peter Holland, the Chair of the International Shakespeare Association, has called ‘brilliant and exhilarating…[alongside being] the most innovative rethinking of what it means to put Shakespeare on film for decades’.
This is an opinion confirmed by UoN’s very own Dr Peter Kirwan, who on his blog, The Bardathon, declared that this is ‘a take on Macbeth which I suspect will have immediate popular and scholarly impact’.
“… This enthralling version of the classic tale of blood, lust and power is sure to captivate even the most sceptical of cinemagoers.”
He also notes the intricate uses of the green screen and the possibilities it allows, with spiral staircases ending in darkness, implying ‘an infernal and eternal descent into blackness’. The key thing about this film though is, as previously noted, its unique selling point of being the ‘single most theatrical cinematic film’ Dr Kirwan has ever seen.
Despite being a play renowned for its use during the study of English, this enthralling version of the classic tale of blood, lust and power is sure to captivate even the most sceptical of cinemagoers. And in a world of countless Macbeth adaptations on the stage (with the RSC producing their newest version of the play starring ex-Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston opening on the 13 March), it is not only incredibly interesting, but exciting to see Monkman determinedly doing something different.
If this film and its intriguing trailer has piqued your interest, then Tuesday 13th March is your lucky day. The Savoy in Lenton is one of the few chosen cinemas to screen the film for one night only. Beginning at 7.45pm, with an introduction to the film by Dr Peter Kirwan, and a short documentary detailing ‘The Making of Macbeth: The Film’ after the performance, it is clear this is an event than cannot be missed, whether you’re a Shakespeare fanatic or vaguely recalling being traumatised by those three witches from GCSE English.
So head to the Savoy and prepare for a night of toil and trouble as Macbeth faces his fears as never before…
In Cinema’s March 13th at your local Savoy Cinema at 1:00pm!
Amy Wilcockson
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