With the Venice Film Festival on the horizon, we’re getting some first looks at their upcoming lineup of features, including new images from Mona Fastvold‘s new film, “The Testament of Ann Lee.”
The historical drama that employs a musical angle as well, starring Amanda Seyfried alongside Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott. We now have first-look stills that were released by Vanity Fair in their profile on the upcoming project.
Seyfried plays the titular Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shakers in the mid-18th century, and explores the heartbreaking events of Ann Lee’s life, including the birth of her four children, who tragically died in their infancy (not entirely uncommon at the time). She would not only grieve these losses in quick succession, but also develop the rebellious and strict “Christian sect that advocated for total celibacy, the abandonment of marriage, and female leadership.”
As pointed out above, childbirth is a huge part of the movie, and Seyfried adds that they were determined to get that right with VFX, “It was really important for us to get the best prosthetics we could possibly get for birthing vaginas. It’s definitely not a joke, but we had a lot of vaginas on this—because we were capturing something relevant to so many millions of people. We had to do it right, and had to do her life justice.”
“The Testament of Ann Lee” is set to debut at the Venice Film Festival and is currently seeking US distribution. However, we assume the latter will change once the movie starts getting reviewed by critics after the festival screening.
Speaking of Seyfried, we’re also keeping our fingers crossed that director Cameron Crowe (“Almost Famous”) considers her for his upcoming biopic of beloved Canadian folk singer Joni Mitchell (already starring the iconic Meryl Streep), after the actress covered Mitchell’s song “California” not too long ago on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Check out those first look stills from “The Testament of Ann Lee” below.
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