The Shaking Quakers might sound like a ’90s rock band from the state of Georgia but it’s actually an accurate description of the late 18th-century religious sect we now know simply as the Shakers. Contrary to the image presented by their immaculate furniture, the Shakers were quite a messy bunch, given to involuntary expressions of rapture, a very physical and even sensual act that’s entirely antithetical to their sexually uptight dogma. Needless to say, their obsession with celibacy didn’t catch on, and may explain why the Shakers all but died out in recent times. This strange and oddly visceral film by Mona Fastvold 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.
It begins with the early life the group’s founder, Ann Lee, born in Manchester in 1736 and the second eldest of eight children. Ann, seldom seen without her loyal brother William, is pious from the get-go, promising her heart to God. The catalyst comes when Ann, played now by Amanda Seyfried, attend a salon at the home of Jane and James Wardley, founders of The Wardley Society. Recently estranged from the Society of Friends — aka The Quakers — the Wardleys are busily espousing their own gospel, positing that for his Second Coming, Christ will take female form, something described in the book of Revelation as “[a] woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.”
Ann is about to take this to heart. After marrying Abraham (Christopher Abbott), a local blacksmith, she gives birth to four children, all of which die in infancy. As the film’s narrator tells us, Ann Lee sees this as God’s judgment on her, and “with nothing left to lose, she boldly turned her suffering into evangelism.” This is bad news for Abraham, for whom religion is a kink, lightly whipping Ann while tut-tutting about original sin during their highly formal lovemaking sessions. In an ingenious case of “hold my beer.” Ann then takes his hypocritical moralism to the next level, refuting sexual behavior of any kind, renouncing “fornication” even for the purposes of reproduction.
As her notoriety grows, drawing unwanted attention from the police for disrupting regular Christian gatherings, Ann decides to take her brood further afield; to New England, where “their hearts and minds are spoiled.” So it happens that, in 1774, Ann charters a boat to the New World, taking a violent sea passage that very nearly wipes out the movement overnight. Reaching New York, Ann uses her gut instincts to find accommodation and, more importantly, patronage, meanwhile sending a three-man party upstate to find a plot of land where they all can settle. Again, Fastvold indulges the sublime, deadpan nonsense in all of this, resulting in some of the film’s few outright comedic moments.
The last third of the film deals with the settlement there and Ann’s frequent travels to spread the word, a project that, just as it did in England, riles the authorities and invites brutal retribution. This, really, is the key to the movie; though it follows a very simple trajectory, the story that accumulates is just how much women bring to religion and how little they get back in return. Ann Lee is something of a footnote in today’s history books, especially when one considers how much fame was afforded to Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith. It also wryly pokes fun at the importance of sexuality; it’s telling that a sect that tried to shut it out entirely is now pretty much a museum piece.
Reuniting three of the main factors of the success of The Brutalist — Fastvold plus composer Daniel Blumberg and writer-producer Brady Corbet — The Testimony of Ann Lee plays like a light yin to that film’s dark yang, telling a similar but much warmer story of troubled genius, social torment, and escape. Though she’s clearly some kind of fruitcake, Ann has optimism, compassion and life, which Fastvold reveals in a series of mesmerizing musical numbers taken from real Shaker scriptures. It also helps to have Amanda Seyfried in the leading role; showing a whole new side to herself, Seyfried makes for a very credible messiah, and an earth mother with a great natural gift. But for what? Fastvold’s wryly witty saga leaves us to work that out for ourselves.
Title: The Testament of Ann Lee
Festival: Venice (Competition)
Director: Mona Fastvold
Screenwriters: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Jamie Bogyo
Sales agent: Charades
Running time: 2 hr 17 mins
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