“Tragedy Of Macbeth”, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, to open 2021 New York Film Festival

A black and white adaptation of Shakespeare Macbeth will launch the 59th New York Film Festival.

Macbeth’s tragedy, directed by Joel Coen and starring Oscar-winning Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, will premiere at Lincoln Center on September 24. The press release calls it “a work of austere chiaroscuro and incantatory rage … an anguished film that gazes open-mouthed at a painful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition.”

Coen said in a statement, “The New York Film Festival has been a place where I have watched films as a member of the public and shown them as a filmmaker for almost 50 years. It has been a real privilege and a pleasure to behold. ” open the Festival this year with The tragedy of …“He and his brother Ethan Coen recently created The Ballad of Buster Scruggs at the 2018 festival, and also showed Inside Llewyn Davis in 2013, There is no country for old people in 2007, and the miller’s crossing in 1990.

In an interview last year, Coen revealed that McDormand, his wife, asked him to direct the Scottish play for the stage. According to The Film Stage, “I’m really not a director, so I [didn’t do it]. But when I saw her in a production that she did “- she was in a production featuring Berkeley in 2016 -” it got me thinking about the play and it made me want to work with her on the piece because I was so impressed with what she was doing with the role of Lady Macbeth, so I thought it would be an interesting thing to work together and do as a movie. So when I started to think about it in terms of film, it became more accessible to me, intellectually, and that’s where it started. “

“In Joel’s adaptation, we explore the age of the characters and our adaptation, the Macbeths are older,” McDormand explained in the same interview. “The two Denzels [Washington] and I’m older than what is often called the Macbeth. We are in menopause, we are past the age of childbearing. So this puts pressure on their ambition to have the crown. I think the most important distinction is that this is their last chance at fame. “

Washington is no stranger to Shakespeare – he played Richard III in a production of Shakespeare in the Park in 1990 and Don Pedro in the 1993 film by A lot of noise for nothing.

“We look forward to welcoming audiences to the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center again this fall, and what a way to do it!” said Eugene Hernandez, director of the New York Film Festival. Last year the festival had to pivot during the pandemic, he noted, “our festival traveled to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and across the country through our virtual cinema. we’re back to our Upper West Side home, but you’ll also find us exploring new places and new ways to connect with moviegoers in person, outdoors, and online – stay tuned. listen! “

NYFF festival passes are now on sale until Friday, July 30; NYFF tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 7 (Film at Lincoln Center members will benefit from early access ticket sales opportunities). Last year, the New York Film Festival screened films including Small Ax, Nomadic country (which ultimately won numerous Oscars, including Best Picture), Time, and Gunda.