Macbeth

Director: Béla Tarr
Year Released: 1982
Rating: 2.0

Oh, that Hungarian minimalist: this is Tarr's two-shot quickie adaptation of Macbeth recorded on (pretty ugly) video and made for television. As far as Macbeth adaptations go it's nothing that's going to make scholars or film fans rethink the story in any way, and Tarr being Tarr it's relatively bloodless, unlike the crazed Polanski version back in the early seventies. Tarr converting film to what's essentially Close-Up Theatre - the actors generally pressed against some castle wall and breathing deeply into each others' mouths - is the real point of interest here, and it's intriguing to see him have his characters so 'expressive,' considering a lot of his career has been based around characters suppressing their feelings.