I have mixed feelings about this film. Though aesthetically brilliant, with subtle lighting à la Vermeer or in the style of Hammershoï, I don't understand the reasons for the changes from the original Russian novel by Nicolai Leskov. No problem for the change of country: at the end of the XIXth century, life for women in Russia or country England may have had a lot in common. But why so many black characters? To show that the oppression white women suffered from was worse for non-White women? And why the young boy who arrives later , who is a nephew in the novel, becomes a mixed-blood ward, the natural son of the husband? Everything suggested before that the husband had very low or non existent sexual performances. Why this unexpected twist? It brings only confusion. Unless it is made to satisfy some hackneyed norm of political correctness... The same with the conclusion: in the novel, the lovers are arrested and sent to prison where Katherine eventually continues her criminal career.
Review of Lady Macbeth
