Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

 I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your work in my classes in the first semester.  We certainly ended things on a very positive note and I really enjoyed seeing your final scenes and monologues and I wish you all the very best next semester.  If you still have things you need to do, remember that you have Wednesday or Thursday to finish off.  Check the posted report cards on Monday after 3!

I saw the new Joel Coen version of "Macbeth" last night (and was up long after my normal bedtime!)

I liked a lot of it and disagreed with some of it, but I am respectful of his attempt and pleased that Macbeth still puts "bums in the seats".  It is such a terrific play with such great characters and such a terrific jewel of a plot.  We've done it twice here at SLSS and the two productions were very different, so I'm sure that Joel Coen would do that, too, if he was going to direct it again.

It is in black and white and it looks fantastic.  The use of mist and crows and locations (like the castles of Dunsinane and Fife and the battlefields) and the old man's shack are really evocative and also Coen's use of camera angles, like looking down from the heights and through doorways and windows is really effective.  The witches (performed by one actor -- Kathryn Hunter) were really scary and creepy and weird and I loved how they resembled crows and then, perhaps, were crows.  The scenes from the battlefield and the fight scenes were staged really well and the attack on Fife, the murder of Banquo and Duncan and the fight between MacDuff and Macbeth were terrific.

Denzel Washington (Macbeth) and Frances McDormand (Lady Macbeth) were good, but I think they took a wrong tack here (obviously, Joel Coen and the actors would disagree with me) by weakening Macbeth and making him seem too crazy too soon.  Frances McDormand was good when Lady Macbeth was strong, but in the sleepwalking scene, I think you should pity her and I couldn't.  It seemed rather mechanical.  I did think of something I would do now, if I were doing it again -- I think when she ends the scene with "what's done cannot be undone; to bed, to bed, to bed", she should lie down right there as if she thinks the floor is her bed.  She should curl up in the foetal position and then the doctor and nurse could help her stand up and lead her off stage.  In the movie, they staged some of this on a long flight of stairs and it could have really worked for her to try to curl up on a step when she longs for sleep.

You guys from English 11 -- I would urge you to see the film, if you can.  It is fun to see scenes that you've performed and know the story and see how other people have decided to do it.  Of course, I would urge everyone to see it!

Okay, I am going to get to work now.