Acclaim for the Scottish play as new version is unveiled at film festival
IT WAS the cry of all hail Macbeth at the Cannes Film Festival, as a new film version of Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” was unveiled to huge acclaim.
Competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or, and starring X-Men’s Michael Fassbender as the treacherous warrior Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as his manipulative paramour Lady Macbeth, leading trade paper Variety called it “scarcely improvable … a Shakespeare pic for the ages”.
Already set to be released in the UK in October, a prime slot in the awards season, the film now looks set to be a strong contender at next year’s Oscars, with veteran Academy Award campaigner Harvey Weinstein overseeing the release in America. All of which is good news for the Scottish tourist board, with hopes that the film’s use of the Isle of Skye will fuel a boom in visitors.
At a press conference, Australian director Justin Kurzel paid tribute to the Scottish landscape that inspired his production. “Doing an intimate play like this in Scotland in winter was extremely difficult but extremely important,” he said. “There was something about being in Scotland that completely defined this film.”
It meant Fassbender and Cotillard were forced to brave the elements. The actor endured “freezing” temperatures for one scene where he is seen bathing, top off, in a stretch of water.
The French actress came a cropper, according to Kurzel, when she plunged into a bog hole. Cotillard downplayed the “rough” conditions, however. “The wind, the cold, the hail served the story,” she said.
For Cotillard, who won an Oscar for her work in La Vie En Rose, working in Scotland was the realisation of a childhood fantasy.
“I’ve always dreamt about going to Scotland. In fact, ever since I was a child.”