Mona Fastvold
23 connections found
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Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Directed by Lars von Trier
influenced The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Themes
En otros, el sufrimiento y la exaltación mística evocan la crueldad emocional del cine de Lars von Trier, particularmente en Dancer in the Dark.
Like “Dancer in the Dark” (2000), it’s not interested in the musical genre as escapism but as an emotional immersion, means of expression for cracked personalities and a discomforting experience.
On first watch, the film it reminded me of the most was Lars von Trier’s cursed digi musical, Dancer in the Dark (2000), in the way it juxtaposes the pain of human suffering with the levity of music and dance.
En ciertos momentos, la intensidad de las ceremonias recuerda al fervor inquietante de The Witch de Robert Eggers o a la dimensión ritualista de Midsommar de Ari Aster.
…the vision is akin to MIDSOMMAR, when Florence Pugh’s Dani screams and heaves in synchrony with members of the commune…
…or the group sharing of emotions and breathing from “Midsommar” (2019) among many other images that are normally associated with witches…
It’s like The Witch meets Andrei Rublev meets “Rhythm Nation.”
…spiritually rapturous character portraits from the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev), Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life), or Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc)…
The Testament of Ann Lee is "The VVitch plus The Brutalist", which was Fastvold and Corber's immediately-preceding collaboration (Corbet directed that one), and I'm kind of astonished by how much the two films feel like companion pieces.
One would be right to draw connections between The Testament of Ann Lee and The Brutalist (2024), cowritten by Fastvold. Ann’s epic voyage is rooted in the same earnest, earth-shaking desire to create a better world, a trope touted inThe Brutalist. This new film is perhaps a harsher look at what stakes are at play in this unmistakably American pursuit.
Where “The Brutalist” was an examination of the crumbling American dream through the prism of architectural self-immolation, “The Testament of Ann Lee” sees its own horrors in the westward journey to build a monument towards devotional endurance in a more chaotic physical fashion.
Recently learning that Brady Corbet, who made the wildly over rated pretentious Oscar bait film THE BRUTALIST, some how makes me understand what happened - except that when ANN LEE works it's light years ahead of THE BRUTALIST.
After the success of The Brutalist, they’ve co-written the screenplay again, but now Fastvold is in the director’s chair, and there’s a certain similarity in tone between the two films. Both challenge, surprise and confront.
He won an Academy Award for his work on Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (which was co-written by Fastvold, and Corbet returns the favour here)…
Period lesbian love stories have been a thing of late, kicked off by Todd Haynes’ “Carol” and continuing with such titles as “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” and the recent “Ammonite.”
From “Carol,” “The Handmaiden,” to “Ammonite,” and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” these stories are refreshingly owning the spotlight at a rate unseen before.
Critics — and this one speaks from experience — should be careful about relating every restrained sapphic romance to the likes of “Carol” or a Céline Sciamma movie.
The last few years have brought a blossoming of sensational lesbian period-romances, including Carol, Wild Nights With Emily, The Handmaiden, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and Ammonite.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
influenced The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Themes
…spiritually rapturous character portraits from the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev), Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life), or Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc)…
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Visuals
Think of the famed Star Gate sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, but instead of consciousness-warping interstellar travel, it’s Old English disciples of the cloth donning grubby muslin and jerking along to druidic chants.
If Lars von Trier cut his dramatic dissonance and dreary outlook with the literarily lively indie-folk of the Decemberists on a distaff and specifically religious Tommy, it would resemble The Testament of Ann Lee.
Like “Equus” (both the stage play and the 1977 Sidney Lumet film), this depicts how a steady stream of religious imagery, and a sharp contrast to it, creates an inner disturbance.
The film feels like director Fastvold watched some of films from Peter Greenaway I keep going back to NIGHTWATCHING) and then tried to replicate or riff on the style, but did so without giving us characters.
Fastvold stages the worship in sequences that would normally be part of a horror movie like “Antichrist” (2009) with people emerging out of the woods in a strange way…
…spiritually rapturous character portraits from the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev), Terrence Malick (A Hidden Life), or Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc)…
(On a lesser plane, I’d also include Rose Glass’ Saint Maud.)
For those who enjoyed the interpretive dance elements of CYRANO to express yearning, THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE takes that physicality of expression to a whole other level.
Between last year’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Song Sung Blue, and The Testament of Ann Lee (the best of the bunch), musical biopics show no sign of slowing down, especially not after Antoine Fuqua’s Michael.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Directed by Todd Phillips
influenced The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Themes
The last time I reviewed a film like this, for this very site, it was “Joker: Folie à Deux” (2024), which I also loved.
Unlike the crowd-pleasing Sinners or the jukebox musical Song Sung Blue, The Testament of Ann Lee is a music-centric film that’s a hard sell.
Unlike the crowd-pleasing Sinners or the jukebox musical Song Sung Blue, The Testament of Ann Lee is a music-centric film that’s a hard sell.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
Directed by Kogonada
influenced The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
Themes
2025 was the year of the theater kid with films like “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” (2025), and this movie continues the trend of just going for something regardless of how cringey it may be.
His farewell to the flesh scene is a blink and miss it casual moment that feels organic without being prurient unlike most films with male same sex scenes that look as if they are closing the deal on a house sale (looking at you, “The Choral”).