FINAL ADVICE

You now have everything I could possibly give you (short of writing the assignment for you!)

Remember, as a high ability class, a certain degree of the preparation comes from you. You should have been spending time re-reading the key scenes, rewatching the film, and finding differences/similarities between the two representations of Lady Macbeth.

High ability students such as yourselves should be able to have a good go at a task like this even without any of the notes or film analysis sheets that I have given you, so you are more than prepared.

Don't stress.

This assignment is worth 12% of your English Literature GCSE - just to put things into perspective. The exam you sat in the summer was worth 50%!!!!

Well done to everybody who came back for over an hour after school today to work on notes. You are all stars.

For those who couldn't make it, here is what we discussed.

Intro - Talk about how things have changed between 1606-2006 - Attitudes towards women - The rise of suffrage - Women in 1606 not even allowed to act - the confines of theatres - modern day effects etc.

Talk about anything that you see as being relevant to the different portrayal of LM. Talk about mental illness and how that is viewed as different now.

Then - Go on to focussing on your set scenes in turn. Try to write about 5 PEE paragraphs for each scene. The mark scheme says that you have to comment on:

LANGUAGE - What LM and other characters say, and how this is different

FORM - What sort of language they use/formality/power/who speaks most

STRUCTURE - How the play fits together, which bits are added, taken out etc.

Now not all of your points will fit into LANGAUGE, FORM or STRUCTURE. That is ok, but just make sure you comment on all of them quite a lot in your essay. FOCUS ON LANGAUGE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT YOU INCLUDE LOTS OF QUOTES (But you knew that already!)

As for timings, you have 2 hours in total to do this, meaning it will probably be spread across 3 lessons.

For tomorrow's lesson simply focus on the intro and the first 2 set scenes. If you get on to commenting on Act 5 scene 1, you are rushing it - so spend time writing some fantastic notes for this over the weekend.

Now - over to you. Do your best and don't stress :)

NW

Film Analysis Act 5 Sc 1

Act 5 Scene 1

1:14:50

Lady Macbeth is shown wide eyed and smiling brightly as she reminisces about her baby. She is wearing very little make-up and looks natural (which might make her look less manipulative and more trustworthy/pitiful).

When talking about the procedure in the hospital, she says ‘They cut me open.’ This generates sympathy for LM, but also puts into our minds the idea that she has been hurt before. This is not like in the original script at all where LM merely talks about her crimes as she is sleep walking.

1:15:18 “Some night Joe and I sat looking at him in his little box.” This adds a totally human element to the two characters. The fact she refers to them by their first names, and the scenario we imagine them in, looking after their sick child, means we can feel nothing but sympathy for them as a couple.

In a modern setting, this couple would have received counselling for their grief – not like in the original script where the audience would not find sympathy in their hearts at all.

“…all hooked up with tubes.” LM begins to cry at the memory of her trauma, evoking more sympathy.

“We didn’t go to sleep.” – an interesting comparison to the original text. In the original text LM is sleep walking in this scene. Here, she is merely dillusional and thinking back to this sad time when she could not sleep. Sleep is used as a powerful image here to show her mental state.

1:15:30 – “I held him once” – Sympathy for LM again.

1:15:45 – Begins to smile again when she says “he put his little mouth to me” – interestingly, LM looks at her happiest when she is reminiscing about being a mother, a role which (in this version) she has been robbed of. Little is made of her role as a mother in the original.

1:15:50 – “and then he died” – followed by a very long/dramatic pause to allow us to feel sympathy for the character.

1:16:00 – “The size of the coffin: It was so small, it made me laugh.” shows us the deteriorated mental state of LM.

All this time, the director has chosen to have LM deliver this monologue whilst the camera angle is panned in close to her face which makes the scene seem very personal and upsetting. At this stage, the camera pans out, and we realise that LM is actually standing at the front of the restaurant, again emphasising her mental state.

The sympathetic and confused reactions of the onlooking customers signifies the sympathy they feel for her loss/worry (despite the fact that we know she is a criminal) – totally different to original.

Onlookers are blurred to signify the fact that LM has lost contact now with the outside world and is completely introverted.

Camera pans out to show a distant and lonely shot of LM.

Film Analysis of the interim scenes...

These parts do not correspond to our key scenes, but may be worth mentioning anyway...

Doesn’t apply to any set scene but is relevant for the character of LM

47:40 – LM leads police press conference.

52:40 LM sings ‘Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz’. Shows how materialistic she is.

53:00 – 1:04:00 – Macbeth gradually becomes more power hungry and starts showing signs of going a bit mad. He also confesses to taking drugs and tells ‘Banquo’ ‘I’m just a bit wired’ when he begins to act strange.

1:08:44 – M goes crazy at the feast. He says to LM ‘Why won’t you look at me? You look at yourself in the mirror, but you won’t look at me.’ ‘Am I worse than you?’

It also becomes obvious that LM has been coaching him what to say.

1:09:00 – LM remains calm as M has a breakdown

1:10:20 – LM partly blames M for the breakdown of the relationship ‘ We were together once but then you stopped talking to me.’ Implies that the murder hasn’t bothered her, but the fact that he is shutting her out is.

1:10:45 – LM is watched by M in the shower. He sees her covered in blood. Image of blame from director.

1:12:00 -  LM starts to look bothered/out of control when the customers leave the restaurant. Ie, when the restaurant gets out of control.

Film Analysis Act 1 Scene 7

Act 1 Scene 7

30:30 – She is shown as caring towards M, bandaging his hands and looking after him.

30:46 – “You’ve done this. You’re a knifeman Joe, you know how it feels.”

M protests, but LM replies with “It’s all set up. You do this, and we win EVERYTHING.” There is no emphasis on fate. She very much sees this now as ‘winning’.

31:00 – Talks about her baby. I know how it feels to have a baby feed at my breast’ ‘There was a smile wasn’t there?’ Makes us feel sorry for her. They are portrayed as a struggling young family.

Macbeth seems ‘persuaded’ by her crying over the baby. After this, the scene cuts.

33:00 – ‘IN another life I’d make a pass at you’ ‘In another life I’ll let you’. Implies that she uses sex to influence Duncan. Also, it could be implied that there is more to their relationship than friendship. Not something we see in the original.

‘Bewitching woman.’ Duncan. ‘Bewitching’ is when someone has the ability to influence you in an almost supernatural way. It is an interesting comparison. In the original text, LM is ‘in league’ with evil spirits. In this version, she ‘bewitches him’ him sex/flirting.

Because of Duncan’s attempts to flirt with LM, the audience sees him more as ‘deserving’ of his death. Perhaps this makes us more sympathetic towards LM/M?

35:00 LM summons M to the murder by ringing him on his phone. This replaces the ‘bell’ which we see in the original text. Giving LM more control over the situation.

36:15 LM goes to great lengths to ‘set up’ the foreign dish washers so that it will look like they have killed Duncan. This shows huge plotting on the part of LM. She had to have all of this in place well in advance.

38:00 M’s famous soliloquy where he considers whether or not he should be doing what he is doing does not feature in this film. This means that LM is shown as being far less outwardly persuasive towards M.

In the original script, we do not see/witness the murder so this whole scene gives us a different perspective on the characters involved

39:00-41:00 – Crucially, M decides he can not go back in to Duncan’s room to finish the job. LM actually goes in and takes part in the crime, meaning that she is portrayed as being far more involved/to blame than in the original script.

41:40 – M says that the police will know that the second knife ‘didn’t go into’ Duncan. At which point LM gives him a knowing look and says ‘Remember, we’re in this together.’ She is portrayed as being more evil, plotting and calculating here than the original LM. She has actually gone into Duncan’s room and stabbed the corpse to make it look more convincing.

42:00 She is shown to be totally psychopathic when she says ‘It was easier for me’ and smiles/kisses M.

Film analysis - Act 1 Sc 5

This is my analysis of the section of the film which roughly corresponds to Act1 Sc5

You have this already - and it does not exactly correspond...

Act 1 Scene 5

3:30 – 4:00 – Relationship between M and LM

10:15 – 11:00 – M is annoyed by Duncan even before LM’s intervention

11:00 – 11:30 – Duncan flirts with LM implying a flirty relationship.

14:00 – “Michelin stars” – M looks bothered and looks to LM for comfort. This is before she even knows about the predicition.

15:50 – Duncan ‘predicts’ his own demise by announcing he will stay in the guest room and jokes that ‘he won’t see anything of the following day’. LM looks disapprovingly.

16:30 – ‘Run over by a bus’ – LM appears in the doorway to wintess Duncan’s comment that if he goes under a bus, the restaurant will be M’s. At this point, LM still hasn’t said anything but her facial expressions show that she is thinking about the matter.

17:15 M and LM are both equally annoyed about the restaurant going to Duncan’s son. ‘He is more like a hairdresser than a chef’ LM ‘Everything we’ve built is gonna go to a hairdresser’ M

‘I hate the injustice’.

LM reminds him that Duncan will get all the glory and asks ‘Are your going to let that go?’

She flirs with him and rubs noses as she persuades him – use of sex.

Both are drunk (drinking from hipflask)

19:00 Macbeth seems happy with his working conditions. LM tells him that Duncan is paying him in ‘charm and blarney’. She tells him to his face that he is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’ to wind him up. ‘What kind of man is it?’

Always whispers in his ear.

19:37 – M challenges her physically and goes to pull away, but she seduces him.

20:00 – LM implies to M that they should kill him. M never actually speaks. It is assumed they both know what she means.

21:15 – forces Macbeth to sack workers even though he does not want to. Shows power

25:40 – She is very nice to Duncan and acts like she is really supportive of him.

28:00-30:00 LM makes M more angry by sending Duncan out to meet guests when the food is ready to go. She engineers a reason for M to dislike Duncan. Not what she does in original.

Note writing session tomorrow after school

Self explanatory really! I will stay behind after school in L25 to help with pointing you in the right direction with your notes, for anyone who is struggling to get started.

Try and let me know during the day, and pass the message on.

NW

A song...

:)

Nirvana - All Apologies (Unplugged)