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The primary half of “The Testomony of Ann Lee” captures the non secular awakening of the eponymous Shaker founder (Amanda Seyfried) and her journey to proselytizing and persecution in Manchester, England. The dramatic arc of the movie’s first half — full of the ecstasy of God’s embrace and the agony of imprisonment — is informed by musical numbers, tailored from the Shakers’ ecstatic worship, dance, hymns, and music (watch the video above to be taught extra).
Co-writer and director Mona Fastvold, whereas a visitor on this week’s episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, mentioned how these scenes have been shot with all the large filmmaking bravado of a studio musical; however staged in deliberately confined areas.
“Every part is lit with lots of of candles. There’s a lot smoke and sweat and human beings pressed collectively in small areas,” mentioned Fastvold of the Manchester scenes.
It’s a visible language that dramatically evolves within the movie’s second half, as Lee leads a small group of devoted followers throughout the Atlantic in quest of non secular freedom within the new world.
“We needed there to be this breath of one thing contemporary, new, totally different, a lightness to it,” mentioned Fastvold. “We needed this concept, this hopefulness of what might be in America to be communicated visually.”
The darkish, muted Manchester shade palette shifts to embrace the large open house and colours of the American panorama (shot in Hungary and Sweden). Because the body widens, the pacing slows, and the Shakers’ motion pauses, what Fastvold captures is how, out of the expanse of America, the Shakers begin to discover construction. A construction rooted of their devotion to work.
“[Work] was a part of their worship too, it wasn’t simply music and dance,” mentioned Fastvold. “As they got here to America, the faith grew, and Ann Lee’s ideas round faith have been that you might pray by creating, by constructing a chair, by creating an object, or these stunning packing containers — these have been all moments of prayer.”
That non secular follow would result in the well-known Shaker aesthetics, most notably seen in furnishings, but additionally wood packing containers, staircases, banisters, and structure. The foundations for this grew out of the ten years, 1774-1784, Lee led the Shakers to put down roots in Albany County, however the faith wouldn’t attain its peak — each in numbers (roughly 6,000) and design aesthetics — till 50 years after Lee died. A timeline Fastvold determined to compress for her movie.
“I needed to inform the story of Mom Ann, however I additionally needed to usher in one thing that we all know and acknowledge as American design,” mentioned Fastvold. “It’s a quote within the movie, ‘Work day-after-day as if it was your final day on earth, or, as in the event you had a thousand years to reside.’ And that’s why their design nonetheless lives on and actually is the primary inspiration for American design. Shakerism — these clear strains, and the chairs, the staircases, and the homes — is admittedly what all the pieces is constructed on, even IKEA truly could be very impressed by Shakers. The wonder and the simplicity and the way one thing functioned effectively — I feel that’s why we’re nonetheless so drawn to them, as a result of somebody was spending all their time having a non secular expertise creating a bit of design.”
For the secular Fastvold, Lee’s discovering non secular function within the act of creation was partially what drew her to inform the story of the unconventional (rooted in gender equality) utopia she got down to construct in America. It was additionally one thing she and her filmmaking collaborators drew upon for inspiration. Defined Fastvold, “What’s it that drives you to work that onerous, to create one thing that you just simply wish to exist? I simply need this film to exist, I would like it to exist in a very particular method. You’ll be able to name it insanity, you’ll be able to name it religion, or a type of faith, but it surely’s that deep want to create one thing of magnificence.” Fastvold additionally needed Shakers’ discovery of their craft to be mirrored within the evolution of her movie’s visible language.
“[As their] concepts and their faith start to develop extra, we’re shifting into the Shaker aesthetics,” mentioned Fastvold. “So by the [film’s] the tip level all the pieces is so refined, so clear, so pristine.”
Manufacturing designer Sam Bader and his staff hand-painted set extensions for each their units, which have been constructed with the digicam in thoughts, so Fastvold may create compositions that immersed the viewers within the Shaker design as they constructed their communal areas and houses. Fastvold and cinematographer William Rexer additionally switched movie shares, so the grain was finer and the picture extra pristine. And as Shaker aesthetic takes maintain, the faith’s expression by motion and music returns to movie, however with much less ecstatic and extra refined actions. The dance, like the faith, discovering a tighter construction and oneness with its atmosphere.
To listen to Mona Fastvold’s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.
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