Surprisingly, Joel Coen's dark and pure Macbeth sets off with a bang in the race for the Oscars

After thousands of performances on the stage and a dozen adaptations to the cinema, including the very recent by Justin Kurzel with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in 2015, there are still many blind spots to explore in

Shakespeare's

.

Joel Coen, whose first achievement without his brother Ethan, captivated spectators and critics at the 59th New York Film Festival.

He unveiled in preview

, sublime, sensual and disturbing reinterpretation in black and white of the play of the Bard.

Shot for Apple TV +, which will be released for a few weeks in theaters in the United States on Christmas Day and then put online on January 14, the film brings together Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the skin of the regicidal Scottish general and his ambitious wife.

This role of Lady Macbeth could earn a new Oscar nomination from the recently awarded actress for

.

Already winner of three statuettes, if she won a fourth Frances McDormand would be on par with the legendary Katharine Hepburn.

To read also Frances McDormand: "I will do this job until my last breath"

It was McDormand who gave the idea to her husband Joel Coen to embark on the adventure.

Having played Lady Macbeth twice in the theater, the first time at age 14, Frances McDormand initially imagined a stage setting.

After several years of hesitation, Joel Coen finally preferred the cinema.

Filiation with the version of Orson Welles

Visually flamboyant feature film despite its purity, the play of light and shadow are omnipresent, especially on the face of Macbeth, royally interpreted by Denzel Washington.

Throughout the film, whose dialogues remain very faithful to Shakespeare's pen, daylight passes through columns, alcoves or loopholes, creating symmetrical chiaroscuro effects.

Corey Hawkins, Moses Ingram, Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Harry Melling, and Denzel Washington presented their film at the New York film festival on Friday.

Jamie McCarthy / AFP

Where some directors have opted for grandiloquence, Joel Coen chooses a minimalist decor, drowned in the mist.

Paying tribute to black films, its version evokes in particular that of Orson Welles, according to the specialized press.

However when asked which version of Macbeth had inspired her the most,

and

co-author

quoted a master of 1920s and 1930s cinema, Dane Carl Dreyer - who did not adapt Shakespeare's play - and he also referred to the German expressionism of Fritz Lang and Murnau.

Unlike Denis Villeneuve or Christopher Nolan upset by the hybrid and simultaneous exploitation of their works in theaters and on streaming platforms, Joel Coen sees a logical continuation in the history of the seventh art: “

”.

And to conclude: "

".