The Testament of Mona Fastvold
Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee (co-written by The Brutalist’s Brady Corbet) is in competition at Venice.
Synopsis:
Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. Depicts her establishment of a utopian society and the Shakers’ worship through song and dance, based on real events.
Fastvold is a genius at creating atmospheric films that allow the actors to underplay everything until the circumstances of the character’s proximity reach a fever pitch and get violent, like in her debut film, which premiered at Sundance, The Sleepwalker (2014), starring Christopher Abbott and future husband Brady Corbet (trailer).
Her sophomore film, The World to Come (2021), which premiered at Sundance and Venice and was acquired by Bleecker Street, harnesses a similar style: a raw, understated historical western that allows the score by Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) to do most of the heavy lifting. The fire comes both literally and in the form of a smoldering illicit romance (trailer starring Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott, and Casey Affleck).
The Testament of Ann Lee, which also stars Abbott, seems like she has inverted her understated style of cinema to create something more bombastic, although still contained within the 18th Century. That should make her still moments even more punchy.