Returning to the Lido a year after launching The Brutalist, Mona Fastvold is back at the Venice Film Festival with her latest feature as director, the Amanda Seyfried-starring The Testament of Ann Lee. World premiering in competition Monday afternoon, the movie received a 15 1/2-minute ovation.
After the screening at the Sala Grande was met with enthusiasm and more than a few “woos,” Seyfried was in tears and being comforted by her co-star Tomasin McKenzie. She also joined Fastvold in reenacting some of the Shaker dance movements seen in the film.
Fastvold co-wrote Ann Lee with her husband, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet. Both produced the pic, which stars Seyfried as Ann Lee. Born in the northern English city of Manchester in 1736, Lee was the charismatic leader of the religious movement that came to be known as the Shakers, known for its ecstatic singing and dancing that involved shaking. Persecuted in England for her loud form of worship and challenging the doctrines of the established church, Lee left for America in 1774 with a small band of followers, where she continued her mission to convert people to the Shaker movement.
Corbet walked up and down the row after the lights went up, clapping in support of his wife’s movie, which was seen by a full crowd at the theater that included Kaia Gerber and Paul Dano.
In his review of the film, Deadline’s Damon Wise wrote, “This strange and oddly visceral film… captures the group’s enduring appeal by joining in with all that crazy, puritanical abandon, and the result, like any religion, is suitably divisive. Like, really divisive.”
During a press conference earlier today, Fastvold said her desire to explore Lee’s life had partly been born out of her perception of the religious leader’s way of leading and how it chimed with her own style on set.
“Obviously, it’s interesting talking about female leadership right now but I think for myself, personally, trying to make a movie, or create a piece of art in a business which is very male dominated… I’m always trying to create a culture on set, a community on set that is a bit different, a culture that is nurturing, that is kind, that has a lot of empathy,” she explained.
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