Let's analyze Joel Coen's Macbeth, available on Apple TV +, focusing on the final shot of the film which could hide a reflection on cinema.
The still black screen leaves room for a single giant caption: " When ". We hear the voice of the three witches, who complete the question that we viewers are reading. "When will the three of us meet again?". It is the beginning of Joel Coen's Macbeth , rather faithful, especially in the text, to the tragedy of William Shakespeare who forcefully inserted the supernatural world in Scottish events. In the film adaptation available on Apple Tv +, Joel Coen seems to link the mystery of witches to a discourse strictly linked to the magic of cinema. He does so precisely with a film that seems, instead, a filmed theater work, essential in the staging, but precisely for the expressionist character, strongly linked to a dimension of light and shadow. Cinema, in fact. And this is how the final shot could hide a meaning within it that relates to the nature of the cinema itself.
The good is bad and the bad is beautiful
Shakespearean tragedy formed by conflicts, even between the words that the characters pronounce, Macbeth is a hymn to the indefinable, to the dark forces that move the human soul, to the thirst for power that first exalts and then consumes. The same witches say it at the beginning of the film that, in Macbeth's Scotland, "good is bad and bad is good". And, in the same way, this new film by Joel Coen is both cinema and theater, word and image, in a continuous struggle. When we are ready to watch the images, we do it with the sound of a slide projector, which lets in a picture in 4: 3, in the classic and now obsolete Academy format, totally white. Pure light, ready to let shadows enter at its entrance. Almost a demonstration of the old magic lantern, prodrome of cinema, very essence of what creates a film. The first shadows are those of a flying crow, an animal that symbolizes the magical and witchy dimension within the story. The whole of cinema can be summed up in this way: the light soiled by the shadow. The magic of the seventh art is all here.
Getting excited on the world stage
How the destiny of a man changes thanks to the knowledge of his own future. For Macbeth (character) the prophecy of the three witches is the trigger of his desire for power, such as to push him to kill King Duncan and his friend Banquo. A decision that will consume him little by little, transforming him into a real tyrant. All he has to do is die at the hands of MacDuff, who will behead him. The film Macbeth, on the other hand, which precisely by placing the accent on tomorrow (it is the other word that appears as a caption after the initial "When") seems to reflect on contemporary cinema, creating a short circuit between the theatrical dimension, fidelity to the Shakespearean text, two leading actors like Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand who belong to a past generation of actors, a director like Joel Coen who, in renewing American cinema through a post-modern language, he now finds himself in the position of being an old master of the seventh art. And in 2022, this means belonging no longer to the dimension of the cinema (although in America the film was also shown in the cinema), but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. now he finds himself in the position of being an old Master of the seventh art. And in 2022, this means belonging no longer to the dimension of the cinema (although in America the film was also shown in the cinema), but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. now he finds himself in the position of being an old Master of the seventh art. And in 2022, this means belonging no longer to the dimension of the cinema (although in America the film was also shown in the cinema), but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. And in 2022, this means belonging no longer to the dimension of the cinema (although in America the film was also shown in the cinema), but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. And in 2022, this means belonging no longer to the dimension of the cinema (although in America the film was also shown in the cinema), but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. but to a streaming platform. Old and new, cinema and theater, but also cinema and television duel and confront each other, like lights and shadows, black and white, prophesied destiny and man's decisions. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy. It therefore appears consistent with the discourse to be faced with a film that seems to take the lessons of classic American noir and German expressionism. This last type of staging, linked to the supernatural and to inner sensations, marries wonderfully with Macbeth's tragedy.
A story that means nothing?
Macbeth is defeated, the human soul finds its end in all its defects. The happy ending of Shakespearean tragedy finds a final dark point in this new film adaptation. Macbeth's story is over, the reel comes to an end, yet in that final final shot Joel Coen seems to be reflecting on the cinema itself. It starts from the road illuminated by the sun, the wind that moves the grass and a galloping horse. Then a flock of crows rises, once again the magic and the inexplicable, takes flight. The camera rises with them, moving away from the earthly dimension and re-entering that of the ether. The black wings of the ravens are placed between our eye and the sunlight, which increasingly resembles the light of the projector, the same that started the film. In that sunlight the mysterious power of cinema is hidden, its magical nature is revealed. Then, in closing, the sound of a closure. The film is over. The story of Macbeth is transformed into a deadly reflection on the cinema "of the past", a story that in itself, as the famous phrase of the tragedy says, "means nothing", like the life of a man. What matters, however, is that flock that obscures the sun, that liberating movement of wings that creates living shadows. The magic of cinema, a true crowned queen, that haunts the world and forges it. as the famous phrase of the tragedy goes, "it means nothing", like a man's life. What matters, however, is that flock that obscures the sun, that liberating movement of wings that creates living shadows. The magic of cinema, a true crowned queen, that haunts the world and forges it. as the famous phrase of the tragedy goes, "it means nothing", like a man's life. What matters, however, is that flock that obscures the sun, that liberating movement of wings that creates living shadows. The magic of cinema, a true crowned queen, that haunts the world and forges it.
