♪♪
Ambition.
♪♪
Greed.
♪♪
And a guy named Willy.
Willy Shakespeare.
♪♪
Witch: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
♪♪
Our version of MacBeth
Mary Zophres: made Shakespeare accessible.
The way I've always looked at the film, is that it doesn't take place in any physical place.
Carter Burwell: It takes place in the minds of the characters
Carter Burwell: and the psychological reality.
Macbeth has been done in many forms and many time periods.
Mary Zophres: But we're inspired by Joel's vision.
Mary Zophres: Which was this highly defined black and white
Mary Zophres: and very geometric and very architectural.
And that's what helped us come up with a set of rules on MacBeth.
What's fascinating is, I don't know, I think it's the first time I've worked with
a husband and wife team.
So, that was, that was interesting.
Just watching the two of them, how they operate.
Denzel Washington: They're two halves of the same person, I mean they rely on each
Denzel Washington: other and, uh, trust each other.
They're both brilliant, brilliant artists and care about the work.
Ellen Chenoweth: Joel really wanted the language to be very specific and very clear.
Ellen Chenoweth: And he really wanted the actors and their ability to pull these scenes off.
And make the language sing and make it real at the same time.
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.
(Sword chopping)
Come what come may.
It's important for Joel, in films, to usually establish visual themes,
Carter Burwell: as well as verbal themes and auditory themes.
Denzel Washington: He's just brilliant. He's one of the most, if not the most,
brilliant filmmaker I've worked with, period.
There are a lot of things about working with Joel that are unique,
compared to working with other filmmakers.
Joel is known for really preparing well for pretty much the whole process.
He had the story and he had the visuals already in his head.
Seeing how Joel saw it was a masterclass in, in filmmaking.
(Thunderous knocking)
♪♪
I had done a number of movies with Joel and Ethan.
Ellen Chenoweth: So, I had a pretty good sense of what kinds of actors he liked
Ellen Chenoweth: and at this point, we had Frances McDormand.
Ellen Chenoweth: And once you start thinking about who can play opposite her,
and hold their own and has had classical training, it was a very, very short list.
Ellen Chenoweth: And then, when Denzel said he would do it, it was kind of a miracle
because he's classically trained and he's a huge movie star.
My dearest love...
I mean, he's a giant so that was, kind of, a dream come true.
...Duncan comes here tonight.
Lady Macbeth: Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.
Leave all the rest to me.
She was amazing.
Amazing.
Denzel Washington: She's brilliant, really,
Denzel Washington: and a lovely, lovely woman. Lovely woman.
(Thunderous knocking)
♪♪
There was no color on set.
There was only a dress or two that Frances McDormand was wearing, which were in color.
But otherwise, everything was black and white.
Bruno Delbonnel: So, when the actors came on set, they were really aware of what it looks like.
All was in black and white, all on sound stages.
Carter Burwell: We just got these very exaggerated
Carter Burwell: abstractions sometimes that come from the sets.
It was, kind of, obvious it has to be black and white.
Bruno Delbonnel: Because black and white already introduced some, kind of, abstraction, you see.
It's a... you're not connected to reality, in some ways, with black and white.
You have already a distance.
Witch: Double, double, toil and trouble,
fire burn and cauldron bubble.
(Splash)
First Apparition: Macbeth, Macbeth...
Macbeth.
With the designs of the sets being so abstract,
Stefan Dechant: I never felt the need that I needed to have any muted color, at all.
And just to move quickly, it was just easier to paint in grays.
I've done another black and white movie, and for hair, what you wanna do, is you're
Cydney Cornell: not dealing with color.
Cydney Cornell: So, you wanna have shadows and reflection.
Cydney Cornell: And then those are your things you're working with.
Cydney Cornell: Light or dark, shiny or not shiny.
Designing a film that's in black and white
was hugely important.
Mary Zophres: Texture and textiles and embroidery and
Mary Zophres: layering and aging.
All these different tools worked really well in this form of black and white.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?
♪♪
Bruno Delbonnel: It always came to the way I would light it.
Bruno Delbonnel: We never really know if it's day or night.
Bruno Delbonnel: and it's really in the play.
Bruno Delbonnel: So, what if we play with this idea of not knowing,
Bruno Delbonnel: or is there a transition that you can see going from day to night?
It was a fair thing just to be, kind of, ambiguous with the light.
Bruno Delbonnel: The shadows are very sharp.
Bruno Delbonnel: So, when I use theater light, in fact, I didn't use any movie light,
it was the light you use for a rock and roll concert.
Things without all remedy should be without regard, what's done is done.
We have scorched the snake, not killed it.
(Thunderous knocking)
♪♪
Denzel Washington: The way the film, that Joel brilliantly made,
Denzel Washington: that Frances brilliantly played,
it moves.
(Wind blows)
It really moves. You understand what it is and he took his time and got it right.
Alex Lemke: Joel talked to us about how he wanted to make Macbeth into a film,
Alex Lemke: while preserving the theatrical experience of it.
So, he was going to use film influences, mainly from German Expressionism, to turn this into a, uh, film.
(Horse neighs)
The format choice that the movie was shot in,
Michael Huber: 2D backdrops that kind of looked like backdrops in the real theaters,
and all the artistic choices that were made, would lead to a little bit of a, um, abstraction.
Especially in the sequences where we're not entirely sure what is reality and what is not,
adds to that level of uh, stage performance.
Ahh!
So, it's a combination of backdrops, painted backings, nets, screens and stuff like that.
Are you a man?
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look upon that which might appall the devil.
Bruno Delbonnel: The academy frame was about the power of the close-up.
It's a fabulous format.
And, you know, seriously, when you have Denzel's face, you know academy fills the frame and,
Bruno Delbonnel: ah, it's, it's already very strong
Bruno Delbonnel: and Frances is the same and has such a presence.
Being in the academy framing and being able to be in dialogue and to draw with Joel.
Stefan Decant: You could design the sets for those parameters.
It was designed to leave you not in a real place.
Carter Burwell: Gravity isn't quite working right and you're unsettled by this, as a viewer.
(Screaming)
(Thunderous knocking)
♪♪
Cydney Cornell: What we're all doing is contributing to a framed piece of art that Joel is creating.
What we're creating with the costumes were, sort of, chess pieces.
All the styles, the costumes and everything, were just solid edges.
Mary Zophres: Shapes, triangular, conical, cylinder.
And the way people, sort of, moved around the set were like chess characters.
Mary Zophres: I based it on things that would be flattering first
Mary Zophres: to Frances McDormand and to Denzel Washington.
That's one of the reasons why there's lattice work in the chest and on the shoulders of the armor.
Mary Zophres: And there's this tufting technique that we use on the under-armor.
Mary Zophres: And a quilting technique that we used in the sleeves.
Mary Zophres: And it's all in an effort to create interest without being distracting in close-ups.
Bruno Delbonnel: And then it was about shapes.
Bruno Delbonnel: How can I bring some tension to the image?
Yes! (Smashing)
Yet here's a spot. Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
But it was, uh, trying to find balance where they have to work together
Bruno Delbonnel: the lines and the acting and the light are in sync.
He, kinda, gives a very clear idea of what the lighting is supposed to be on set.
Michael Huber: And that, kinda, dictates also what we're gonna be working with later.
So, whatever we do needs to fit into his lighting scheme.
Stefan Dechant: It was also Bruno's idea, which I thought was fantastic,
Stefan Dechant: oh, let's start painting the shadows into the sets.
All men else I have avoided thee, but get thee back, my soul is too much charged with blood of thine already.
(Thunderous knocking)
♪♪
Frances is brilliant, obviously, and passionate.
Denzel Washington: I love her. She's a beast
and so am I.
So, it was a great, uh, we wouldn't even call it a battle because it was a concert.
It's just two forces coming together,
I was getting ready to say for good,
but not for good, for evil.
But, we did it well.
I don't think it gets better than working with Bruno as a DP.
Stefan Dechant: What Bruno brings to it is just this incredible cinematic history.
Stefan Dechant: I mean, he's a walking encyclopedia.
Denzel Washington: I had a wonderful relationship with the cinematographer
Denzel Washington: because he couldn't beat me to work.
If he was there at five, and I'm like, "Man, I've been here two hours."
Denzel Washington: I would do those speeches and soliloquies just over and over.
Our collaboration with Bruno was far closer this time than it was on, on the last movie
because he was involved a lot more in the, in the post process.
Well, it was fun working with them
and they, they were fabulous.
He would bounce ideas off of us and ask things that he would like to try out
Michael Huber: and see what stuff looks like.
So, it was a, kind of, an ongoing process. I said "Oh, why don't we do this or that?"
Alex and Michael, uh, the East Side Effects guys,
Lucian Johnston: they have a collaboration with Joel and they've been,
Lucian Johnston: I think this is like their third or fourth movie with him.
Lucian Johnston: On this movie, we started turning stuff over to them almost immediately.
And that really, really helped us because there are so many sequences in the film
Lucian Johnston: where it's, kind of, a conversation with the VFX department.
Lucian Johnston: We couldn't finish cuts of scenes until the VFX were, kind of, at a certain place.
Lucian Johnston: And so the VFX had to, kind of, inform the edit of certain scenes.
Lucian Johnston: So, we had to, kind of, go back-and-forth with them a lot, and they really made that easy.
Ahh! (Grunt)
You remember in the apparition room, with the three witches are talking to him?
The cauldron is, obviously we didn't have water on set.
So the cauldron is totally visual effect.
Alex Lemke: Working together with the DP, Bruno Delbonnel, was a great experience.
Alex Lemke: For me, this time was the first one where he was actually able
Alex Lemke: to work completely in a sound stage.
Alex Lemke: Which he's known for, because he likes to control the lighting
Alex Lemke: to the nth degree.
So, here, he could really shine and show us what he's capable of.
Bruno Delbonnel: We tried to do as much in camera as we could.
Bruno Delbonnel: It was not like bringing multiple cameras and like 3D thing.
Bruno Delbonnel: It was just like, no, one camera then we sort it out
later in post.
And, I think there ended up being over like 400 VFX shots.
Lucian Johnston: Which, for a film of this size, is a lot.
Some are very complex.
The end, the crows and everything, is all visual effects.
They did an amazing job.
(Cawing)
♪♪
The opportunity to work with Joel and Frances on this project, in particular,
Denzel Washington: was one I couldn't miss.
To follow Joel and to see how he works and
the level of concentration and preparation was a sight to see.
So, it was one of the best experiences I've had.
Stefan Dechant: As an auteur, Joel surrounded himself with these other artists
Stefan Dechant: that wanted nothing more but to participate in his creation of this world.
And I think that as an audience member, I hope that you see that.
I'm really proud of it. I think it's enormously, uh, beautiful.
I feel like I've done my job well.
It was very special.
The time to worry about flying is when you're on the ground.
If you don't trust the pilot, don't go.
Denzel Washington: We were flown around by the most brilliant pilot
Denzel Washington: in the business, Joel Coen.
Denzel Washington: And a brilliant co-pilot, Frances McDormand.
So, I knew I was in good hands and I felt free to try anything.
♪♪