Richard Burt

"Something Wicked this Way Comes": Joel Coen's Macbeth and the Aesthetics of Film Trailers

The Trailer as an Autonomous Work of Art

Joel Cohen official (first) trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) shot by shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBj_yleyrLE

Trailer 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pVjNOVHr3k

Length of the trailer or teaser? 01:39

Total number of shots? 94

Timestamp of the last shot from the film 01:20

Shots in the trailer not in the film TWO

Shot 29:40 Huge cliff; Lady Macbeth standing on the edge

Shot 54 1:00 Ross swinging his sword, slight pause as he is about to behead Cawdor

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Give timestamps for each shot

Number of shots of the director? TW0 00:22 / 01:26

Number of shots of the film title? ONE 01:24

Number of shots of actor titles? ZERO

Number of shots of logos? FOUR 00:09-00:10 /1:27-29

Number of shots of blurbs? FIVE 00:32 / 00:38 / 00:47 / 01:02 / 01:06

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What does the trailer show? What does it not show?

The crown Shot 01: 01

The weird sisters

Macbeth (alone)

Duncan (murder; corpse)

The grooms

The two / three murders

The execution of the former Thane of Cawdor

Banquo and Felance / Banquo's murder / Banquo's ghost

Lady Macbeth (alone; sleepwalking scene; corpse)

Ross

Lennox

Donalbain

Macduff's castle surprised; his wife and child murdered

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the same scene

Macduff (his defeat of Macbeth)

Malcolm (crowned)

Young Siward's (defeat in a duel with Macbeth)

Birnam wood moving

Second visit to the weird sisters

Soundtrack: All of the music is taken from the film. The trailer is punctuated by percussive sounds: knocking, footsteps; loud thuds). The frenetic pace of the trailers builds to a climax (01:19) when Lady Macbeth puts her finger to her mouth and then we see Duncan's hand in close up bleeding. A knock accompanies its landing. (See hand and blood dropping on the floor in a pool of blood at 33-4 timestamp; pitch gets higher until bowl sollls in the corner 0:54; thud at blurb 01:00. Music teheme continues until 01:18. a bell ringsat carries into next shot then thud as a drop of blood hits the floor at 1:20. Fade to black music begins as credits roll and ends with apple logo thud at 1 27.So the trailer leaves us with a question: who's hand is that?

First thud at first Apple logo. SOmething wicked this way comes precedses it in three shots; bell rings twice at 11; another thud at 13 for the dagger door handle; then footsteps of Macbeth; hitch pitch starts at 17 with King thaou shalt be; second thud with first blurb; another thud at 25 if we should fail; Macbeth finger over his lips 30, high pitch continues until Duncan calls out as Macbeth is about to murder him, then thud with second blurb; new music starts at 33 shot of close up a hand, the same shot at the end of the trailer, the first time after we've seen Macbeth assualt Duncan, then a blurb, then the hand. So there are two thuds, like knocks. Like the film, with the pervesive kocking at the gate.

Macbeth putting his finger to his lips is rhymed by Lady Macbeth.

38:00 new music theme starts, thud stops at 54 with bowl and a yell by Macbeth

Also a yell from Duncan

are you a man?

music continues at Ross about to behead the Thane 1:00

Ivan's Childhood Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky • 1962 • Soviet Union
Starring Nikolai Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, E. Zharikov
https://www.criterionchannel.com/ivan-s-childhood