It was at the Venice Mostra that we let ourselves be won by the fever of the first solo film of Mona Fastvold, co-cenarist of the monument The Brutalist. Grandiosis, the performance owned by Amanda Seyfried force respect. American actress and singer, Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers sect, one of the churches of Protestantism of the XVIIIe A century that experienced an astounding rise as its brutal decline a few decades later. These followers followed the young preacher of abstinence and fervent advocate of gender equality in this masterfully interpreted initiatory journey that you were already passionately told about in our Cine balance sheet.
Pied against nature
Austerity without common measure, whatever the branches of Protestantism, the cult of Ann Lee was passionately driven by work and frugality. Abstinence is provided until all procreation is refused. To resonate with God, one must renounce the pleasure of the flesh. These followers and preachers convulsed together in the same collective momentum. A pure and perfect faith, almost totalitarian, crosses the Shakers. In the first stages of initiation, individuals are seen melting into the mass. The bodies sneeze, the breath accelerates until the crowd no longer allows us to distinguish beings. Despite the prohibition, the choreographies give the impression of almost copulatory synergy, as if only the warmth of these bodies swirling towards the same expiatory objective: to resonate with God.
The worship of the Shakers requires the most total dedication. First persecuted in Manchester, the followers of the « Shakerism » had to search for the new promised land outside the Atlantic. His most ardent practitioners gave up sexuality, not without difficulty. Some crazy scenes delight with an irony barely veiled in Mona Fastvold's film. Even reproduction, the foundation of any religion destined to spread, was considered fornication. Sex in all its forms is therefore a taboo, a sacrilege that must be kept religiously at a distance. It is certainly this renunciation that condemned this branch of Protestantism to extinction and the stalking of the clergy, not very led to the idea that the cult does not convince the Protestants to renounce the key of any religion. It is said that at the beginning of the XXIe century, there would be only three Shakers left in the village of Sabbath Lake.
Shake your booty
In this godly community, all elements of life are governed by religion. This is the asceticism to which these fanatical believers who followed Ann Lee on his journey to New England took part. Convinced of being touched by the grace of God, the one who called himself « Mother Ann » by his faithful, claimed to be in communion with Christ. The filmmaker chooses to take the perspective of Ann Lee, without abandoning herself to a more critical approach to these illumines, in the literal sense of the term. The historical qualifier, often attributed to the film, is to be taken with a certain distance.
Without ever falling into the gross proselytism of The Passion of Christ and Mel Gibson's traverses – We're on the opposite side and it's not the object – The Testament of Ann Lee is depriving himself of his character's identification as if he wasn't completely comfortable with the distance imposed by historicality. When the camera takes the pulse of the collective trances and ritual dances of the Shakers, the rhythm wraps up and this show of communion fascinates as much as it terrifies the spectator, upset by the contagious effect that the synchronous respirations of the group produce. Hard to resist. One is as naturally kept away from this sect, while being inexorably bewitched by these trances, which make the Testament of Ann Lee an almost musical comedy with a captivating charm. The film also owes much to the power of its OST performed by Daniel Blumberg and Amanda Seyfried in person. The actress thus confirms her most complete dedication. Until exhaustion, however, this power of attraction-revulsion did not reach the apotheosis that the beginning of the film would appear. Like a failed act, The Will of Ann Lee leaves the viewer in an unfinished state of jubilation.
You won't give birth
This is the whole paradox of the fascination and ambiguity of the troubled character of Ann Lee: Mona Fastvold suggests that the predictor, unable to give birth, would have fired her cuti after years of repeated miscarriages. These birth scenes declined under all the seams form still lifes that immediately grab the viewer. What constitutes the most brilliant success of the Testament of Ann Lee It also becomes its main pitfall. If we are a time saved by this feverish staging, the film does not manage to unravel its stakes as well as it manages to introduce its character. From trances to trances, the staging ends up being caught at its own trap. The vital momentum of these followers is breathless in the last third of the film, while keeping the viewer at a certain emotional distance.
Undoubtedly caught up in the mix of genres where historical film, spirituality and musicals each stand at a distance without ever completely succeeding, Mona Fastvold does not completely perform her gesture. Ironically, this enticement of the film also reflects that of a religion that could only extinguish. A sin that is freely forgiven so much the film succeeds in ending the most secular of us. Like the cobra that captures our attention, a simple step aside is enough to get us out of the state of confusion in which he has precipitated us. The charm fades, the hypnosis of the first moments then gives way to a brutal awakening that contrasts with the initial ritual. However, with this second film with a millimetre composition, Mona Fastvold offers us a remarkable show. The power of his scenography, the beauty of his photograph bathed in light-obscurity and the masterful interpretation of Amanda Seyfried are total successes that make the Testament of Ann Lee One of the most hypnotic films of the year.
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