Lady Macbeth (Leskov) & Beatriz at Dinner

We finally got around to watching both films. This Lady Macbeth (as I mentioned in a recent post) isn’t the Shakespearean version, but based on a novella published by Nikolai Leskov in Dostoevsky’s Epoch. Woman in unhappy marriage, adultery, then more adultery, then consequences. Profoundly Russian (and French!) The film is minimalist in its approach, which works beautifully. We both liked it.

Salma Hayek’s Beatriz at Dinner is also an interesting proposition. It takes place in a setting very similar to Sotogrande, in a house very similar to the ones we know, with people very similar to the ones we’ve spent our lives surrounded by. At a certain point I stopped the film and asked Mike if we were those people. He said no, because we make a conscious effort to be nice. But wouldn’t those people think precisely that? That they’re so nice they even invited the healer to dinner. To sit at the same table, no less! Anyway, the film is intense all the way through. You’re never really sure what’s going to happen next. Definitely worth seeing.