Macbeth & Film
Take out Film Clip Analysis wkst
#4 & #5 = 2 Adaptations of Macbeth Act 1, sc 1
Adaptation: the transfer of a written work (in part
or whole) to the screen or the stage.
Analyze Orson Welles’ opening scene (1948)
Now, Analyze Polanski’s Adaptation
Opening Macbeth
Consider the 2 directors’ choices for Act I, scene i
-What do the 2 adaptations of this scene have in
common?
-How do they differ?
How do these choices affect your understanding of
Macbeth?
To Adapt = to interpret
-Each director puts his own spin on the
original text
-creates a “vision” of the text through the
specific techniques they choose to use.
-each establishes the setting, mood,
characters (witches), plot (foreshadows
conflict), and theme (supernatural vs.
humans).
EQ: How do directors’ choices affect our
understanding of literature?
-Take out Journal Entry #1
-with a partner, share the movie scene you
analyzed.
-How do the director’s choices affect the way
you perceive the
story/setting/characters/themes?
Consider this song/poem...
-Translated from the Japanese
-Appears in Akira Kurosawa’s Macbeth
adaptation (Throne of Blood, 1957)
-NOT found in Shakespeare’s original text, but
VERY relevant to major themes
-Kurosawa = interpreter / translator
Fold a blanks sheet of loose-leaf. Write….
Kurosawa
PBS
mise-en-scene
shots
editing
lighting/visual
effects
What part of the plot did you just see?
Plot Structure:
Exposition - establishes background, setting; introduces
major characters, sometimes foreshadows coming
conflict (Act 1, sc. 1)
Rising Action - develops conflict/complications (Act 2)
Climax - turning point, crisis, moment of highest tension
(Act 3)
Falling Action - results or effects of the climax (Act 4)
Denouement - “tying up loose ends”; leads to resolution
(Act 5)