Macbeth is not my favorite Shakespeare play. My favorite is Othello. I consider Hamlet to be the most overrated (although I acknowledge it’s a great part for actors). So, while Macbeth isn’t my favorite, I don’t hate it either. There are some wonderful scenes and the potential for some really great performances. I was happy when Michael Fassbender signed on to play Macbeth – I genuinely believe he’ll do great work in the role. But I was worried about Lady Macbeth. At first, Natalie Portman was going to play Lady M. Which would have been a nightmare. At the end of the day, Marion Cotillard was cast and they’re explaining her French accent as “she’s a lady who spent a great deal of time in the French court, as many high-born ladies did at the time.” Sure. I guess I’ll buy that.
Anyway, it’s come time to actually show this film adaptation to the world. In a few weeks, Macbeth will premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Good news: Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender will walk the red carpet. Bad news: The film still doesn’t have an American release date. But Harvey Weinstein is backing the film so hey, maybe it will be an awards contender and it will be released this fall?
In any case, ahead of Cannes, they’re releasing more production stills and such. We’re getting a better look at Fassy’s Macbeth. And while his Macbeth is still really, REALLY hot, he’s also dirty. Dirty in a bad way. Dirty in a “why is he so grimy?” way. Even though Macbeth is a warrior, he’s also a well-born lord, right? He has servants and they could bring him a bowl of water to wash his hands, right? Out, out damn… dirt.
So, are you into this? I want to see it (Fassy!!!), but only if critics say Marion is okay-to-great at Lady M.
Photos courtesy of The Weinstein Company.
I love MacBeth. I like them both as actors, I think they’ll both be great – I am really looking forward to seeing this.
I love, love, love, love this play. They better do it right.
“For mine own good,
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand,
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned.” – Macbeth
I’m with you, is what I’m trying to say.
Word. This play is amazing. I legit love Lady Macbeth and think this play contains some of the Bard’s best writing(outside the romance plays that nobody reads).
I cannot wait to see Fassy giving us conflicted Macbeth, “If it twere done when tis done, then ’twere well, it were done quickly”
And I love Hamlet; I think it’s a towering achievement, from start to finish.
ME TOO. Just fantastic from beginning to end. It is the only Will Shakes play I am repeated reading since leaving school.
Me too.
I love the play though Hamlet’s wishy washy nature drives me mad. I think it really does occupy a huge place in the canon not just because it is such a meaty role but because you see a lot of evolution from his earlier work come to fruition in Hamlet plus it lays the groundwork for some of the ideas he plays with in later plays.
I love Hamlet, I picked it up at 10 y.o. and read it without actually knowing what it was, it was a book among books on the shelf, I was mesmerized. I read it several times since. I had all other works of Shakespeae at home as well but they didn’t have the same impact and I read them much later There is just something about Hamlet.
Not loving what I can see of the costuming and production design….looks too European, not very U.K of that period. Also why make the casting so complex? There are so many amazing British actresses, they should have used one of them.
Sensible! Be careful! There wasn’t a “UK of that period” and many Scots would take umbrage at the very thought! This morning’s opinion polls say that the SNP (nationalist party) may well win every single Scottish seat in the upcoming general election. They might see no difference between a French and an English/Welsh actress.
Just using U.K as. general geographical descriptor in this instance….not thinking the U.K existed in anything like its current form then, I am just being lazy, am married to a Mancunian….I know how tribal it always is over there, be it football, beer, politics or accents.
I just love that you chose football and beer as your first two descriptors. So apt!
I don’t get what is so “European”; and didn’t Britannia follow the fashion? I mean, even then fashion was more or less universal, and Shakespeare himself commented on British following french fashion(Mercutio’s comment on Romeo’s pants, anyone?).
I really don’t get what is so wrong; I was pleasantly surprised how good and true to the time the costuming and the atmosphere are.
Lady Macbeth was complex nationalities wise. It seems that UK actresses were always used in production before but I don’t believe Shakespeare wrote as a woman from the UK. I could be wrong it has been ions since I read it.
Chauvinism then be two way street: please stop the British actors taking so many american roles, without even bother about making a decent american accent. Some of them are straight awful, but hey! they’re Brits! classically trained….BS
As an Irish person… join the back of the line with your accent complaints! American, British, Scottish (the hell Gerard Butler?!), they all seem to faff it up.
Yup, there was no “UK of that period” (another Scot here). And there’s an Auld (old) Alliance between France and Scotland, meaning that the royal families often intermarried. Mary Queen of Scots (although centuries later) had a French accent when she came back to Scotland to claim the throne, as she’d been raised in France from 5-17.
He looks yummy dirty, I’d slam that like a screen door in a hurricane, gladly.
+1 and I seriously LOLed at your screen door reference, brilliant
He looks Joaqin Phoenix dirty… And Joaqin gives me the Heebeejeebees. So, abnormally, he is just not doing it for me.
“He looks yummy dirty”
Funny you should say that (but I agree with your statement). I felt the same way about Viggo Mortensen as “Aragorn” in the Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. He was hot but when he got cleaned up and was crowned king…meh. That photo of Fassy on the throne is the “meh” shot. I like him better with some rough edges.
Those fingernails though (caked with earth and blood, no doubt). Not appealing but I’d imagine very much in character. Can’t wait to see the film!
I think most people would say Hamlet or King Lear is their favourite, probably. If forced, I’d probably pick Henry IV (both parts).
Stills look good. I’m optimistic about Cotillard and I don’t think the accent matters. They can spin it as an anachronistic Marie de Guise scenario if they want – it’s not as though every single Shakespeare production ever doesn’t do similar.
I can’t pick an absolute favorite. But Sixer, I went to school in London for a semester, and my concentration was Elizabethan lit, and I saw the RSC perform almost every week. I could go to the theatre for 1 pound back then if I waited until the last minute. I loved it so much. Can you still do that? I thought it was so wonderful for them to give students and lower income people a chance to see these great performances. Theatre over here is so expensive, I almost hate to go anymore. Even if the show was great, and I haven’t seen anything great in years, I wonder if it was worth the money. And I could never have gone as a student. I’m looking forward to seeing this movie.
The RSC do £5 tickets for 16-25 year-olds these days. School visits are £12.50 per ticket and the teachers go free. You can also stand at the Globe for a fiver.
Some theatres do one day a week of cheap tickets and you can usually get last minute tickets for £10 to £15 – but obviously that means severely reduced choice of what to see. Otherwise, theatre is also pretty expensive here.
Theater is pretty expensive just about everywhere if you want to see quality productions.
And my favorite is “As you like it”
I forgot to say: the RSC also do the equivalent of NTLive for schools for each of its productions, which is free to any school that wants to participate.
I think, in the UK, there is some effort for affordability (but it could be better) – the main problem is London-centricity.
It’s great that they’re still trying to make it accessible to young people.
Lol, my favorite is “Coriolanus”…….
They’re ALL good, but I’ve gotta throw my vote in for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – what a cast of characters!
Yes, love the comedies! Much ado about nothing is one of my faves.
Am I the only one that has a soft spot for Much Ado About Nothing?
no! It’s brilliant! His best comedy, by far, IMO!
I love so many of the plays but Lear and Macbeth are probably my favs with Henry IV and the Tempest, and As You Like it rounding out my top 5.
The Tempest and King Lear for me because the poetry is stunning. And I have a big soft spot for Henry IV.
One of my absolute favorites, which they finally released on dvd was Taming of the Shrew, done Commedia dell’ Arte style, starring Marc Singer.
I rather enjoy Fassbender hot and dirty. In that one photo where she is seated on the floor Cotillard looks like a person from the Bible. It will probably do the Fall festival circuit to get the buzz going and then get released sometime in the winter. This is no Avengers, it will need to be released slowly and with care.
I love “The Scottish play” as well. I’m curious to see if Marion can show the burning ambition that so drives Lady McBeth. Have no doubt she can handle the part as Lady M descends into madness.
Yes I wondered about that, she seems too gentle at the core to portray Lady Mab’s monomania – could be completely wrong, hope I am.
Lady M is the real prize in the whole story. God she was magic!!!
Is Fassbender ever not hot and dirty?
…and even a little bit mean/angsty right?
It all makes for so much sexiness.
Inorite? Rowr.
MacBeth is my favorite Shakespearean play. I saw the RSC perform it years ago in Stratford. It was the sexiest MacBeth ever. I hope they go for that here.
He looks dirty, he looks grubby, but goddamn it to hell, his hotness is unnerving.
Two very good actors. I think Michael might have been partly responsible for Marion getting cast in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which looks to be a massive one. Can’t wait for that. Less excited about this one but will still catch it.
Whatever they do, it can only be better than Roman Polanski’s version from the seventies.
I remember seeing it for the first time, over ten years ago. His rape case had not yet made its media comeback and was largely forgotten about; I didn’t know anything about it, since I had not even been born when it happened. Knowing next to nothing about Roman Polanski the person, the first words out of my mouth after having seen his ‘Macbeth’ were: “I think Polanski doesn’t like women.”
Someone else remembers that version?? Polanski aside, I thought the actor who played MacBeth did a fantastic job- esp that scene where “the trees are coming” and he realizes the jig is up for him.
I agree, the acting was gripping, but when I saw Lady Macbeth for the first time, very young, very blond, very pretty, my first thought was: “Oh, he’s going to want to show her naked.” – granted, it happened.
Well if he looks dirty that will be pretty authentic. People in medieval England were very mucky, they believed that clogged pores kept disease out (blech), they weren’t much cleaner in Elizabethan England, Elizabeth I famously bathed once a year. I occasionally have fantasies about going back in time for a day to see what life was really like, but I realised a while ago I would have to have my olfactory nerves removed first to cope with the sheer smelliness of it all.
The whole idea of “washing your hands”, or anything else for that matter, wasn’t really big back then. Life in general was pretty dirty, what with poor sanitation, ash and soot all over, and the general rainy muckyness of the weather in that part of the world.
I imagine that if that’s all you knew it wouldn’t smell so bad. You can get used to pretty much anything, your brain learns to ignore constant stimulus.
It’s called ‘habituation’, problem is I wouldn’t want to get ‘habituated’ 🙂
I wouldn’t either but you get habituated quickly. Working at a dairy teaches you that.
This film looks great. There was quite a bit of cross-channel travel (and invasion!) for a couple of centuries, so a French Lady Macbeth is not particularly surprising. France and Scotland were often allies.
That poster looks like an ad for History Channel’s Vikings.
I definitely want to see this. Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play and the actors are great. I love the way this looks.
Shut up and take my money. 😉
My favorite Shakey play will forever be Much Ado. Beatrice is my soul sister.
The Assbender will get my money; we trail runners like it dirty.
Have you done the XTerra running competitions? Do you recommend them?
Lola, I haven’t done those races specifically, I do ultramarathons. My favorite distance is 50 miles. It sounds like the XTerra races are shorter versions of what I do here. If you’re running on trails, I would recommend them on principle since trail running is RAD.
The Xterra races look very corporate and I prefer the more low-key trail races — there’s much more of a family feel to them. If you’re looking at trail races, another site to look at is http://ultrasignup.com/. It’s the premier ultrarunning registration site, but they showcase plenty of shorter trail races. You can search by region and distance.
@MtnRunner: Thaks for the info.
she’s a goddess. She’s going to lose her mind in that movie as that character and it’s going to be amazing.
i’d watch her eat a bowl of cereal, though, so maybe i’m biased. heehee
I just saw her in Two Days One Night. Boy was that a disappointment. She’s quite possibly the most overrated French actress since the God-awful Audrey Tautou.
Agree she was great as Edith Piaf and really bad to passable in everything else. Do not like her in this iconic role at all. Better than Portman, but that’s not saying much.
Agree she was great as Edith Piaf and really bad to passable in everything else. Do not like her in this iconic role at all. Better than Portman, but that’s not saying much.
I think it’s going to be a lot of “deep” staring followed by lines we half understand.
Sorry double post :-/
They’re going to kill this. I wanna see it in theatres.
While I have no doubt of Cotillard’s acting talent – personally I prefer Cate Blanchett but hey, you ‘ship who you ‘ship – I’m really not looking forward to sitting through 2.5 hours of trying to work out what she’s saying: her accent is rather heavy and throw in Shakespearean verse: oh dear. And just in case anybody wants to pick a fight with me: English is my second language and whilst accents per se are totally acceptable, understandable and quite frankly a given for me I think as a paid performer you should really make an effort and spent a little time working on the phonetics if you are working in another language. Perhaps understandably – since she’s a mega-star in her own country – Cotillard has never really bothered to get to grips with English pronunciation. I found her accent in the various Nolan movies she’s been in rather distracting. And quite frankly lazy for such a highly skilled performer.
I don’t think it’s lazyness, French people often have a lot of difficulty with foreign languages. But I agree with you: altought I find her a fantastic actress, she wouldn’t be my first choice to a shakespeare play.
I agree. I know speaking a second language is hard, but I do think this role requires someone who masters the language and material.
Thinking of French actresses who rock English, Eva Green would have made an AWESOME Lady M
Cottillard would have made a fantastic Margaret of Anjou in the upcoming BBC/PBS adaption of the Henry VI plays. Her French accent would have made sense there because Margaret was French.
I don’t think that actors doing piece appropriate accents were a priority of the filmmakers, given that Fassbender isn’t great with accents.
Kelly MacDonald of Boardwalk Empire and No Country for Old Men would have been a good alternative for Lady Macbeth. Her character on Boardwalk Empire went into Lady M territory minus the breakdown and she is Scottish.
What? No Keanu Reeves? I refuse to watch! 😉
I’m still am fan of Branagh’s “Hamlet”.
How about both? Both is good. You just reminded me of the KB version of Much Ado. Bonus Emma Thompson!
Agreed! 🙂
It looks over-wrought to me. There’s nothing natural about the costumes or the sets. Maybe it’s just those stills. I’ve never been a fan of MC’s. There’s just something weepy about every thing she does. So I give it a ‘meh’ overall. I’ll stick with the Hollow Crown and the Kenneth Branagh versions of the Bard.
I agree here, it looks overdone.
Pardon my ignorance and googling laziness , but is this her first major acting role in English?
As for Shakespeare, I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I love Twelfth Night
She’s had mostly supporting roles in English-language films, but she gave her first leading performance in a little-seen — but wonderful — film called The Immigrant that came out last year.
She was great in The Immigrant,agree.
I have a question, if anyone can reply it would be great!
So, you have a film that is “backed” by a man that apparently can get distribution for a film, so Why presented it in Cannes (or any film festival, for that matter) to compete? Shouldn’t film festivals be left for independent films or documentaries that need to get seen in order to get a distributor in order for the film and documentary be shown to a larger group of people?
Even films that screen at Sundance can be bought by great distribution companies.. The Weinstein Company is a mini-major studio film,they often buys the rights of indies and small productions. Macbeth is not even among Weinstein’s bigger releases for the next year. Whiplash premiered at Sundance the last year,its right were bought by Sony and it was a contender in the last awards season. Birdman premiered at the Venice Film Festival and Fox campaigned for it. Some films in competition have already a distributor,others not. Who buys what has nothing to do with festivals’ selections. This year there are at least six,seven films in competition which may become huge awards contenders (Carol with Blanchett,The sea of Trees with McConaughey,The Lobster with Weisz,Farell,Sicario with Emily Blunt,del Toro,Youth with Caine).
Thank you for replying.
Ahh, something to be seen. The last Macbeth I have in mind was a TV adaptation with James McAvoy. ShakespeaRe-told. I liked it though I prefer non-modernised approach.
I love Marion, but just once, I think I’d like to see her in a comedic or lighthearted role. We already know she can go mad with aplomb!
Macbeth is among my favourite plays,Cotillard and Fassbender are probably my favourite actors working right now,so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve read very nice things about Fassbender from people who worked with him on it,so let’s hope it’s good.
About 20 years ago, I saw Macbeth on Broadway performed by Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) and Glenda Jackson. No other performance of Macbeth has ever matched up for me. I like Fassy, but not sure if he’s mature enough to pull off the complex role of Macbeth. Any word on who Macduff is being played by?
Yum all day. Sigh. Definitely will watch this.
Funny how it is almost a novel thing to have one of Shakespeare’s great masterpieces played straight up. This could be epic and I will be most interested to see and hear Cotillard’s take; Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say!