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Friday 11 January

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth has the refined trappings of a tasteful period piece with the vicious, beating heart of a brutal psychological thriller. Inspired by Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, this is a film noir in the guise of a Victorian costume drama. Set deep in the English countryside in Co. Durham, it features characters in crinolines, waistcoats and top hats – and yet deals with some extremely primal emotions. Katherine (Florence Pugh) is first spotted as a bride in a white veil, looking miserable on her wedding day. Her husband Alexander (Paul Hilton) is a brutal man, the son of a wealthy and very creepy mine owner, Boris (Christopher Fairbank). But when both of the oppressive men in her life are forced to leave the family’s remote estate on business, Katherine takes the opportunity to begin exploring the outside world – which prompts an awakening inside her. She is defiant, wilful, carnal – and with a capacity for plotting and subterfuge that makes her at times seem more like Myra Hindley than the Jane Eyre archetype she first appeared to be. (Running time 88 minutes rating 15)