Lady Macbeth is a British drama directed by William Oldroyd. Despite the name the film has nothing to do with Shakespeare’s tragedy, but is instead based on the novel “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by Nikolai Leskov. It stars Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, and Christopher Fairbank.
Rural England, 1865. Katherine (Pugh) is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age, and his cold, unforgiving family. When she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on her husband’s estate, a force is unleashed inside her so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
An earlier performance put Pugh on Oldroyd’s radar. “I’d seen her in Carol Morley’s The Falling, and been really impressed with her performance – it was so open and honest. Straight away it was clear we’d found someone with the right spirit for Katherine. Florence gives an incredibly strong and confident performance – she has a great instinct and very good technique.”
A technique that Oldroyd used during the production was a chronological shoot, which he brought over from his time in the theatre world. “Because my background’s in theatre, I’m used to unpacking a play from the beginning and working through it in order – which meant being able to shoot chronologically was really important to me. Our editor was assembling scenes on set in order, and we could see at the end of week three what was missing and what we could lose because the story was going in a particular direction.”
Lady Macbeth is rated 18A.
