Filmmaker Joel Coen adapted the Shakesperean staple Macbeth about the ambitious Scottish king and wanted the film, instead of looking like a traditional play, to take on a more theatrical look. The filmmaker’s first solo movie, he chose to shoot in a stark black and white, a classic expressionist look. 

The film itself will be an A24-Apple Original movie and is set to star Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as Lord and Lady Macbeth, respectively. The film will open in theaters on December 25, prior to its streaming release. 

Production designer Stefan Dechant worked closely with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who prepped with Coen for almost 18 months before shooting began. Dechant explains the contrast between “where the shadow and light fall” is what created the stylized sets, “going back to abstraction, we started painting in the shadows.” Images within the sets reference the austerity of director Carl Theodor Dreyer and Charles Laughton’s influential 1955 noir The Night of the Hunter and even the opening of David Lean’s Oliver Twist, which includes a thunderstorm.

For the castle design, Dechant explains that Coen never wanted the castle, but the idea of one to represent the flavor of texture over color, as he had always enjoyed the idea. His work focused on creating shapes and differentiating environments made up of simple blocks and structures within Gothic arches. The film lacks established shots which allowed for a lot of geometric shapes without a lot of embellishment. When it came to creating the arches, he darkened them and painted shadow lines, always allowing Delbonnel to give the final approval. There was nothing flashy about the filming of the movie, all ornamentations, carpets, torches, and flashy chandeliers were removed. 

“It’s an homage to the language and Shakespeare.” Delbonnel says the lighting patterns he chose were on occasion unreal: “Sometimes the light doesn’t follow any natural reason. It’s a shape that either follows the lines of emotion or was in contradiction with it.”

The costumes within the movie also stayed simple, costume designer Mary Zophres stayed within Dechant’s idea of clean lines with small or no embellishments within her designs, choosing instead to go with textured pieces and fabrics. Beginning with Lord and Lady Macbeth’s silhouette for the foundation, she allowed that influence to take over the other characters keeping it both masculine and powerful. The colors remain in black and white, which she felt could add depth because Joel didn’t want magentas and purples, but instead something calming and soothing. No distractions on set. 

Delbonnel allowed for a lot of compelling close-ups, “Denzel and Frances have fantastic faces, and their presence is almost scary but so powerful.”

The Tragedy of Macbeth will come to theaters on December 25, 2021.