Coen premieres a stark ‘Macbeth,’ with Denzel and McDormand

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Joel Coen, in his first solo outing as a filmmaker, premiered a strikingly stark, black-and-white adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, at the New York Film Festival on Friday. “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which on Friday night was to open the 59th New York Film Festival, isn’t a mud-and-blood adaptation set on medieval Scottish fields, but a minimalist, noir nightmare, boxed in an academy ratio square frame and filled with austere black-and-white imagery of shadow and fog. The film will be released in theaters on Dec. 25 by a24 and debut on Apple TV+ in January.