Callow, Simon.
Orson Welles
Volume 2. New York: Penguin, 2007.
This is an extensive and excellent biography and filmic study of Welles’ work. The chapter on
Macbeth
is useful for production narratives as well as filmic study.
Davies, Anthony.
Filming Shakespeare’s Plays.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
The chapters on
Macbeth
and
Throne of Blood
are wonderful—Davies is so insightful.
Galbraith, Stuart IV.
The Emperor and the Wolf
. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2001.
Really this is a book about the relationship between Kurosawa and Mifune, and its dissolution. It’s filled with biographical details about both men and includes explanations and analyses of all of their films.
Garmonsway, G.N., tr.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc., 1994.
This is a wonderful book for students of Old English—it contains very little about Macbeth but I have it here to give students a feel for Medieval UK. The writers are simply scribes who take down every year’s news, but their voices are very human and unembellished.
Jorgens, Jack.
Shakespeare on Film.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977.
This book contains useful chapters about both
Macbeth
and
Throne of Blood—
filmic explanations and analyses which help with film language and the meanings of both pieces.
Lady From Shanghai
. Dir. Orson Welles. Perf. Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Columbia Classics, 2002
This is a wonderful piece. I expect students to love it.
Leaming, Barbara.
Orson Welles.
New York: Penguin, 1986.
I read this book for fun—Welles was an outrageous and I feel highly sympathetic character.
Macbeth.
Dir. Orson Welles. Perf. Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O’Herlihy, Roddy McDowall. DVD Lees 2004.
This is a restored version of the film, but it does not contain the commentary that a criterion edition would.
McDonald, Keiko. “Noh into Film: Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.”
Journal of Film and Video
39, No. 1 (1987): 36-41.
This was a fascinating piece about the history of Noh theater and its meanings. It does a lot to elucidate both the film and Asaji’s performance.
Mifune
. Dir. Stephen Okazaki. Narr. Keanu Reeves. DVD Strand 2017.
This is a good documentary about Mifune. It contains some anecdotes about the filming of
Throne of Blood
and a great deal of biography about both Mifune and his relationship with Kurosawa.
Naremore, James.
The Magic World of Orson Welles.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
The section on
Macbeth
includes commentary on Welles’ politics and the ways in which he is both liberal and dictatorial and I found it very interesting.
Prince, Stephen.
The Warrior’s Camera.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
An expert on Kurosawa, Prince addresses Kurosawa’s excision of Shakespeare’s words from
Throne of Blood
and its cultural signification.
Seven Samurai
. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Perf. Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. DVD Criterion 2016.
Shakespeare, William.
Macbeth
. London: Routledge, 1989.
I like the Arden edition for its translations and commentaries and contains the pertinent pieces from Holinshed as well as other sources contemporaneous with Shakespeare.
Throne of Blood.
Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Perf. Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada. DVD Criterion 2014.
The criterion edition includes a great pamphlet with pieces by Donald Ritchie among others as well as audio commentary by Michael Jeck and the small documentary,
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create.
Tribble, Evelyn (2005). "When Every Noise Appalls Me": Sound and Fear in Macbeth and Akira Kurosawa’s
Throne of Blood, Shakespeare
, 1:1-2, 75-90, DOI: 10.1080/17450910500135743
This is a fantastic article about the sometimes overlooked aspect of sound in film and physical reactions to sound. Tribble’s explanation of both pieces is really compelling.
