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Macbeth (Restored Version)

 

 

Produced, Written, Costume Design and Directed by Orson Welles


US 1948 / Drama / Tragedy / Period / 103 min / Black & White / Monaural / 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / PAL /  English  Language


Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy McDowall, Edgar Barrier, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Peggy Webber, John Dierkes, Keene Curtis, Robert Coote, William Alland, Lionel Braham, George 'Shorty' Chirello, Brainerd Duffield, Jerry Farber, Morgan Farley, Archie Heugly, Charles Lederer, Gus Schilling, Lurene Tuttle, Christopher Welles

This fully restored release of Macbeth is the original version produced and directed by Orson Welles. In a bid for commerciality, the studio later trimmed the film by twenty minutes and redubbed the Scottish accents employed the Welles and his cast. This tampering with his work would come as no surprise to a director growing disillusioned with Hollywood. From the ominous opening encounter with the witches to the fateful marching of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane, Welles captured the very essence of the play. With typically expressive use of camera, lighting, and sets bordering on the surreal, he created one of cinema's greatest adaptations of Shakespeare.