Mona FastvoldS “The will of Ann Lee“Tells the story, through Hymna Music and Koreography, about Shaker’s founder when she tries to create an ecstatic utopia. Fastvold and her husband, producer/co -author Brady Corbetshot Venice Competition premiere back-to-back with “The brutalist” in Hungary.
As the Corbet-directed Oscar-winning film From last year, the filmmakers also shot the “will of Ann Lee” on a budget (here, $ 10 million) and on film cameras (35 mm, blown up to 70 mm for maximum effect). On one occasion, they took the role and crew aboard a completely operational 19th-century vessel they found in Sweden, as Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried) takes her followers (including Christopher Abbott as her husband, Lewis Pullman as her brother and Thomasin McKenzie as her assistant) from pre-industrial manchestra.
Seyfried, Fastvold, Corbet, Composer Daniel Blumberg (Oscar winner for “The Brutalist”), choreographer Celia Rowlson Hall (“Vox Lux”), producer Andrew Morrison and more for the film was convened at the Venedig Film Festival Monday. “The Brutalist” won the best director here last year, which makes Fastvold’s second film as director in the Venice competition (after the 2020s “The World to Come”) to one of the festival’s hottest acquisition titles.
Makes no mistake that the film is massive, emphasizes practical, practical filmmaking, from customer malgorzata Karpiuk that designs most garments by hand to Blumberg and Fastvold who work from actual shaker hymns to create the songs.
When asked why she wanted to be so big for the story of Ann Lee, Fastvold said: “Well, I thought she deserved it. Not all of you? Don’t you think Ann Lee deserved something that was grandiose and wonderful? How many stories have we seen about male icons on a large scale? How many stories again and again?
A journalist in the room asked Corbet and Fastvold how they decide who will direct a project versus just write and produce it (they shared writing and produced tasks on “The brutalist” as well). Corbet, who kept its shades indoors, spoke.
“We are convinced that you can only serve one champion at a time. Mona finally had this movie, which is something that is obviously very important to us, and something we have talked about publicly quite a lot,” he said. “She came to me and said, ‘I want to make a movie about Ann Lee.’ We were huge fans of the design, the furniture is absolutely fantastic architecture is significant, especially in the northeastern part of the United States.
He continued, “When I have a project I work with, I take it to her and say, ok, that’s what I do next. We just go back and forth that way.”
Corbet, who directed the second unit of the film, continued, “I work for my director. It’s not because I think a director is always right. It is because a director is always consistent, and that continuity of the vision is important to me. I am not interested in watching films that are a delicious.
Corbet then turned to producer Andrew Morrison, co -founder of the production company Kaplan, Morrison, who also ruled “The brutalist.” Asked How he got “Ann Lee” Off the Ground for $ 10 Million, He Said, “The Goal (Was) For (Mona) to have Complete Creative Freedom, For Her To Get To Actualize Her Vision Without Any Sort Of Obstruction In Her Path. How Do You Make a Movie Tht That’s a musical, with no Constraint and Also About a celibate religion that not many people were familiar with before? it was challenging, and we had to find partners who believed in and supported it.
“It was a pretty performance, because as you can imagine, the elevator lift for a shaker musical was not the easiest to come from the ground,” Corbet said.
