TOIL AND TROUBLE (THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH)
Yet here he is directing Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in another movie version of 'Macbeth'.
It is a rare solo project for the Oscar winning director of 'Raising Arizona,' 'Fargo' and 'No Country for Old Men'.
And by going it alone without his brother Ethan and taking on a classic Shakespeare text, the stakes seem all the higher.
There have been numerous movies over the years that have brought Shakespeare's celebrated tragedy to the big screen from the silent era to the present day.
J Stuart Blackton, DW Griffith, Orson Welles, Roman Polanski and Justin Kurzel have all been involved in film adaptations from 1908 to the present day.
Ken Hughes was the first to realise its potential as a gangland drama with the 1955 adaptation 'Joe Macbeth' - a route also taken by William Reilly in his 1991 Mafia version 'Men of Respect' and Vishal Bhardwaj in his 2004 Mumbai crime story 'Maqbool'.
Sande N Johnson also adapted it into a teenage street gang tale in the 1966 movie 'Teenage Gang Debs'.
Akira Kurosawa famously turned Shakespeare's play into the acclaimed 1957 Japanese historical drama 'Throne of Blood'.
There have been Malayalam and Bengali movies based on the play too, as well as a 2001 William Morrisette film set in a fast food restaurant called 'Scotland, PA'.
Add to that list the many TV productions of the play in Britain, the US, Hungary, Russia and Australia.
It's easy to understand why filmmakers keep returning to the play, as it is a gripping tale of ruthless ambition, corruption, greed, paranoia and the abuse of power.
It's also very versatile and can be adapted to many settings from a crime drama to a boardroom drama to the backstabbing world of politics.
However with each version comes an added pressure to do something really striking and distinctive.
Working from his own script, Coen has gone for a rich visual approach that recalls the black and white films of Carl Theodore Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, German expressionists like FW Murnau and Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and a particular Coen favourite, American film noir.
Collaborating with the French cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, each shot is exquisitely framed.
Eschewing the penchant for natural settings in recent movies of the play, Coen and Delbonnel have chosen to shoot it instead on digital cameras in vast sound stages.
And for that reason, contrasts to and comparisons with Orson Welles' 1948 film are inevitable.
Similar in length, Coen's version is less grungy and grimy than Welles' movie.
There is a crispness to the imagery and in the telling of the story, Coen also takes a more conservative approach to the delivery of soliloquies which in Welles' movie were turned into internal monologues or voiceovers.
However 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' isn't a typical Shakespeare adaptation.
In fact, it's a curious mix of traditional and modern styles.
Most of us should know the story of Macbeth by now.
Washington plays the Scottish noble who at the start of the play excels in battle alongside Bertie Carvel's Banquo.
Brendan Gleeson's king Duncan and his heir, Harry Melling's Malcolm are informed by Ralph Ineson's Captain of the heroism of Macbeth and Banquo in the defeat of the treacherous Thane of Cawdor and his Norwegian allies.
Returning from battle, Macbeth and Banquo stumble upon Kathryn Hunter's Witches who prophesies that Macbeth will get the Thane of Cawdor's title and eventually become King.
They also predict subsequent generations of Banquo's family will one day inherit the Crown.
Reunited with Duncan, Macbeth is delighted to be given Cawdor's title but and sends word to his wife, Frances McDormand's Lady Macbeth of the witches' prophecy.
However he smarts at Malcolm being declared Duncan's heir.
With Duncan and his entourage inviting themselves to Macbeth's castle, opportunity knocks for their hosts to plot their way to the throne by murdering the King.
While the plan succeeds, the crown sits uneasily on Macbeth's head as he begins to wonder how he can prevent Banquo's prophecy from coming true.
He also starts to fear Malcolm returning from England where he has fled after Duncan's murder and assembling troops to claim the Scottish throne.
The activities of Corey Hawkins' Macduff also begin to arouse suspicions.
There are many ways to interpret a text as rich as 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.
On this occasion, Coen allows his cast to deliver their lines in their natural accents and what this means is you get a mismash of acting styles.
Carvel, Melling, Ineson, Hunter, Miles Anderson as Lennox and Alex Hassell as Ross deliver pretty much traditional English theatrical renderings of their characters as if they are in RSC or Old Vic productions of the play.
Gleeson also fits into this mould, with his Irish brogue giving his version of Duncan a distinct Abbey Theatre or Gate Theatre feel.
Washington, McDormand, Hawkins and Moses Ingram as Lady Macduff's American accents give the play a more modern twist.
But therein lies the problem for Coen's adaptation.
Because as accomplished as it unquestionably is visually, the contrasting acting styles sometimes jar.
Some viewers might like the contrast in styles but I found it distracting.
Washington's rendering of Macbeth, in particular, as a cautious, thoughtful warrior in the first half of the film, is a bit too low energy and mumbly for my tastes.
As a result the famous dagger speech and the banquet apparitions don't quite have the impact they should.
In many ways, Washington delivers a classic Denzel Washington everyman performance and while that has a certain charisma, it also bleeds some of Macbeth's big moments in the play dry.
It's also at odds with McDormand and most of the cast's more traditional Shakespearean approach and the chemistry with the lead actress feels a little off kilter at times.
Gleeson, Hawkins, Melling, Carvel and Ingram deliver decent performances, while Hassell is particularly eye catching as the scheming Ross.
Kathryn Hunter turns in a remarkable physical performance as the Witches, her body contorting in such a way that it augments the sense of macabre.
Her appearance as an Old Man later in the film, however, is less successful and unfortunately veers into Monty Python silly voice territory.
There are many things nevertheless to feast upon in this adaptation - not least a wonderful sequence when Hunter's witches appear in the castle with a new set of predictions and also a stunning evocation of their prophecy of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane.
Ultimately, though, Coen's 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' feels very much like David Lowery's recent Arthurian legend tale 'The Green Knight'.
It's beautiful to look at and wonderfully atmospheric.
Coen's film is so gorgeous it's wasted in a streaming format and undoubtedly loses out if viewed on a TV, smartpad or smartphone.
It really ought to be seen on the biggest screen possible with a great sound system.
Like Lowery's movie, though, for all its beauty, it doesn't quite engage the soul in the way it should and it doesn't quite come up to the mark of Welles, Kurosawa and Kurzel's versions.
And that's a damn shame.
('The Tragedy of Macbeth' was released in some UK and Irish cinemas on December 26, 2021 and was made available for streaming on AppleTV+ on January 14, 2021)
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