Macbeth (Pauli Pentti 1987)

Macbeth / Macbeth. FI 1987. PC: Villealfa. P: Aki Kaurismäki. D+SC: Pauli Pentti - based on Shakespeare's play (1606). DP: Olli Varja. M: Mikko Mattila, Tapio Siitonen (synthetizators). Verdi: Aida. "Love Me Or Leave Me" performed by Mari Rantasila (voc), Eero Raittila (piano). ED: Timo Linnasalo. Starring Markku Valtonen (Macbeth), Pirkko Hämäläinen (Lady), Antti Litja (Dunkku / Duncan), Pertti Sveholm (Bankko / Banquo), Paavo Piskonen (porter). 66 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 September 2008. - In the presence of Pauli Pentti interviewed by Markku Varjola. PP had known Aki Kaurismäki since the school days, both always avid film buffs. There was the playful idea of a Shakespeare trilogy, of which Aki directed Hamlet Goes Business, and Pauli, Macbeth. The third project, Mänttäri's Lear, never got off the ground. It was a consciously downgraded project. Markku Valtonen as Macbeth was famous from the Sleepy Sleepers (soon to be transformed into Leningrad Cowboys) and the Radio City show Pullakuskit (Bun Drivers). - Deadpan modernization turning the Macbeth plot into the present-day gangster world in Finland, shot in Helsinki, Savonlinna Opera Festival, and London. The anti-realistic gangster ambience is based on the films of Melville and Godard. The blunt dialogue is intentionally comic and made the audience laugh in the right places. The men carry sunglasses at all times. - The Lady goes mad and walks into the sea. Macbeth has been warned that the Pihlajasaari island will attack him, and finally, a vessel masked as a forest approaches. - This is one of the Villealfa films which had a similar ambience with the later Tarantino films (his company called A Band Apart, both companies' names are tributes to Godard).