Lady Macbeth (2016)

Directed by

William Oldroyd

Genre

drama film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 29m

Rated

R

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 823 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In Victorian England, a young woman trapped in a repressive marriage takes extreme steps to gain freedom with her lover. The story follows her calculated removal of family members who control her.

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What happens

Lady Macbeth is a 2016 British period drama feature film set in North East England during the Victorian era. It tells the story of Katherine Lester, a young woman who rids herself of controlling in-laws to live with her workman lover and secure her place in the landed gentry. The film stars Florence Pugh as Katherine, Naomi Ackie as her maid Anna and Cosmo Jarvis as her lover Sebastian. Paul Hilton plays Katherine's husband Alexander Lester. And Christopher Fairbank plays her father-in-law Boris Lester. The film is based on the 1865 novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. Lady Macbeth is the debut feature film for writer Alice Birch, director William Oldroyd and producer Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly. With backgrounds in the theatre, Birch and Oldroyd wanted to make a different kind of British period drama. A lavish production, typical of the genre, was not possible on their micro budget. The story was moved from European Russia to Northumberland, England. Birch focused on the crime part of the novella, set in and around the family's house. By changing how that ended, she eliminated the punishment part, set elsewhere. Oldroyd's research suggested that the North East was more racially diverse in the 19th century than is generally realised today. Colour-blind casting resulted in actors of colour in four key roles: Anna and Sebastian in the principal cast and two newly landed gentry characters who led the supporting cast. This added the element of race to the themes of gender and class from the novella. Lady Macbeth was a minimalist production. The Lesters's house was represented by a small number of sparsely furnished interiors at Lambton Castle in County Durham. And the characters had few costume changes. It was filmed in September–October 2015 using mostly natural light and wide master shots of scenes that were often formally composed in a static frame. The film has an expressionist soundscape of people in the house and nature on the surrounding estate. The only music is an eerie theme after each murder committed by Katherine. Lady Macbeth had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2016. It first went on general release in the United Kingdom on 28 April 2017. The film received positive reviews and two European accolades At the 2017 British Independent Film Awards, it won accolades for Pugh and Ackie's performances, the screenplay, cinematography and costume design. Lady Macbeth has grossed US$6.4 million worldwide. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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