"Lady Macbeth" is a British 1.5-hour film from 2016 and this is the first full feature film by director William Oldroyd. It is based on a novel from the 19th century and for writer Nikolai Leskov it is probably at this point the most known adaptation of one of his works. Said adaptation comes from Alice Birch and for her it is the first career effort too, so really a great deal of "rookieism" to this work and for that the outcome is surprisingly positive. A lot of that has to do with lead actress Florence Pugh who was apparently only 20 when this was made and with her great portrayal here, I am genuinely curious what the future brings. I am positive we can expect a lot of quality from her in the coming years, probably decades. Her looks aren't hurting either. She really gives a defining performance when it comes to period piece femme fatale characters. I am glad to see this movie already received a great deal of awards recognition since its release. Looking at the first showings abroad at film festivals, it took far too long for this film to finally reach Germany.
A lot of what made this film so good is what happens below the surface: the subtlety, the hidden and the characters' shades make it a strong watch. It's tough for me to believe that neither the director nor the writer have come up with a full feature movie yet. Extremely positively surprised as a consequence. Now I want to talk a bit about the title of my review as this stroke me as one of the film's most important aspects and biggest strengths. Of course we don't know much about the character of Katherine early on, but the way she was thrown into this world that was entirely new to her speaks for itself. Discrimination, sexism and physical violence against weaker people are nothing out of the ordinary. And the more Katherine is confronted with all this abysmal stuff, the more she turns evil herself. Her first killing is already not an act of self-defense at all, it is far more intentional than the second in fact, even if you can justify both to some extent from a psychological perspective, probably not a legal perspective. The second then is probably more gruesome, but also more on the spur of the moment and not really 100% planned. And well.. the infanticide? It shows pure evil as the victim is really 100% innocent, but I'll get to that later in detail. As for the contagion of evil, there is always a personal component to it and with the protagonist's love interest, that limit is reached when it comes to killing the kid as the guilt overwhelms him eventually and he has to let it all out, even if I somehow expected a suicide too. But he is the one who can be blamed the least. He may be boastful, but he is not rotten.
And finally, another reference to the infanticide. It is the most shocking moment, but also perhaps the best moment because it shows how evil had totally conquered her by then. Graphically. And with that I don't mean the face, but I mean the fact that the camera position is in a way where we basically see her black clothes only and almost nothing of her head and it looks like a black spirit creature kills the boy, the personification of evil. Sure that's free to interpretation too, but it is what ran through my head that very moment. I also somewhat like films with realistic happy endings and I think from that perspective the film is a winner too because it did feel pretty authentic. Pay attention to how absolutely everybody is a loser here. Some died, some lost their privileges, some went to jail and the central character ends up alone, at least for a while, and she said at one point she hates being/eating alone, so the cat may be the only company to stay for her for a while. All in all, a good film with occasional moments of greatness. Yes it is sometimes tough to stomach, but without having read the book this is based on, I would say here we have the prime example of a film that proves that there are actually strong novel adaptations out there if you just approach the matter open-minded instead of whining à la "no no all films based on books suck". This one you really wanna see, a definite thumbs-up from me.
A lot of what made this film so good is what happens below the surface: the subtlety, the hidden and the characters' shades make it a strong watch. It's tough for me to believe that neither the director nor the writer have come up with a full feature movie yet. Extremely positively surprised as a consequence. Now I want to talk a bit about the title of my review as this stroke me as one of the film's most important aspects and biggest strengths. Of course we don't know much about the character of Katherine early on, but the way she was thrown into this world that was entirely new to her speaks for itself. Discrimination, sexism and physical violence against weaker people are nothing out of the ordinary. And the more Katherine is confronted with all this abysmal stuff, the more she turns evil herself. Her first killing is already not an act of self-defense at all, it is far more intentional than the second in fact, even if you can justify both to some extent from a psychological perspective, probably not a legal perspective. The second then is probably more gruesome, but also more on the spur of the moment and not really 100% planned. And well.. the infanticide? It shows pure evil as the victim is really 100% innocent, but I'll get to that later in detail. As for the contagion of evil, there is always a personal component to it and with the protagonist's love interest, that limit is reached when it comes to killing the kid as the guilt overwhelms him eventually and he has to let it all out, even if I somehow expected a suicide too. But he is the one who can be blamed the least. He may be boastful, but he is not rotten.
And finally, another reference to the infanticide. It is the most shocking moment, but also perhaps the best moment because it shows how evil had totally conquered her by then. Graphically. And with that I don't mean the face, but I mean the fact that the camera position is in a way where we basically see her black clothes only and almost nothing of her head and it looks like a black spirit creature kills the boy, the personification of evil. Sure that's free to interpretation too, but it is what ran through my head that very moment. I also somewhat like films with realistic happy endings and I think from that perspective the film is a winner too because it did feel pretty authentic. Pay attention to how absolutely everybody is a loser here. Some died, some lost their privileges, some went to jail and the central character ends up alone, at least for a while, and she said at one point she hates being/eating alone, so the cat may be the only company to stay for her for a while. All in all, a good film with occasional moments of greatness. Yes it is sometimes tough to stomach, but without having read the book this is based on, I would say here we have the prime example of a film that proves that there are actually strong novel adaptations out there if you just approach the matter open-minded instead of whining à la "no no all films based on books suck". This one you really wanna see, a definite thumbs-up from me.