E X T E N S I O N MACBETH ON SCREEN The first great adaptation was Orson Welles black and white Macbeth in 1948. Under Welles direction, the tragedy becomes an expressionist masterpiece1 about a predestined, ambitious man who believes in evil prophecies. The protagonist is a superstitious man in the hands of fate and Lady Macbeth is only a woman obsessed with power. All the tragedy takes place in a very disordered state in which nature itself is furious ( Fair is foul and foul is fair ). Throne of Blood, directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1957, is a black and white movie which transfers the plot of William Shakespeare s play to medieval Japan. Kurosawa follows the events of Macbeth quite faithfully, but his protagonist is less evil than Macbeth and his wife is even worse than Lady Macbeth.The film creates a ghostly world of haunted2 forests, desolate landscapes and magic encounters with an evil spirit that predicts the protagonist s fall. In 1971, Roman Polanski, a childhood survivor of the Holocaust, directed Shakespeare s work. This adaptation is a masterpiece of violence, dark incantations and ghostly presences. The title character has a hypnotic, menacing and intense look, and seems perpetually tormented, both before and after getting the crown. The massacre of Lady Macduff, her children and servants by Macbeth s soldiers appears cruelly authentic, a sort of representation of Polanski s personal tragedy. In this film Polanski shows his pessimistic view of man s innate3 cruelty and ambition. 1. masterpiece: excellent work of art. 2. haunted: visited or inhabited by ghosts. 3. innate: natural. 71