Shakespeare on Film: Macbeth
In MM's second week on Shakespeare on Film, we examine 1948's Macbeth.
By Daniel Rosenthal
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/distribution/article/shakespeare_on_film_macbeth_20080606/
In MM's second week on Shakespeare on Film, we examine 1948's Macbeth. Made in just 23 days, Orson Welles' black-and-white experiment combines cinematic visuals with theatrical acting and design and a radio director’s emphasis on the verse. His production of Macbeth at the Utah Centennial Festival in May 1947 was effectively a dress rehearsal for the movie, which began shooting a month later on a tight $700,000 budget from Hollywood B-movie studio, Republic.

Welles could only afford abstract sets: The jagged walls of Macbeth’s castle resemble quick-dried volcanic lava; its courtyard has the unmistakable smoothness of a studio floor.