The Testament of Ann Lee

 

Mona Fastwold: The Testament of Ann Lee (US/GB 2025). Amanda Seyfried (Ann Lee).

Le Testament d'Ann Lee

US/GB 2025

    FICHE TECHNIQUE

Sociétés de production : Annapurna Pictures, Mid March Media, FirstGen, Mizzel Media, Yintai Entertainment, Kaplan Morrison et Intake Films

Producteurs : Andrew Morrison, Joshua Horsfield, Viktória Petrányi, Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet, Mark Lampert, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Gregory Jankilevitsch et Lillian LaSalle

    Réalisation : Mona Fastvold

Scénario : Brady Corbet et Mona Fastvold

Photographie : William Rexer

Format : 35 mm – couleur – 2.35:1 – released on 70 mm and digital

Décors : Sam Bade

Costumes : Malgorzata Karpiuk

Musique : Daniel Blumberg

Montage : Sofía Subercaseaux

    DISTRIBUTION

Amanda Seyfried (VF : Marie-Eugénie Maréchal) : Ann Lee

Lewis Pullman : William Lee

Thomasin McKenzie : Mary Partington

Stacy Martin : Jane Wardley (en)

Christopher Abbott (VF : Damien Ferrette) : Abraham Standerin

Tim Blake Nelson : le pasteur Reuben Wright

Scott Handy (VF : Alexis Victor) : James Wardley

Matthew Beard (VF : Cyril Descours) : James Whittaker

Jamie Bogyo : Richard Hocknell

Viola Prettejohn : Nancy Lee

David Cale (VF : Michel Dodane) : John Hocknell

Esmee Hewett et Millie Rose Crossley : Ann, jeune

Benjamin Bagota et Harry Conway : William, jeune

    Loc: Budapest (Hungary) and Göteborg (Sweden).

    Durée : 130 minutes

Budget : 10 000 000 $

Langue originale : anglais

Genre : drame, biographie, musical

Société de distribution : Searchlight Pictures

    DATES DE SORTIE :

Italie : 1er septembre 2025 (Mostra de Venise)

Canada : 9 septembre 2025 (festival de Toronto)

États-Unis :

25 décembre 2025 (sortie limitée en salles 70 mm)

23 janvier 2026 (sortie nationale)

Royaume-Uni : 20 février 2026

France : 11 mars 2026 – distributeur : The Walt Disney Company France

Finlande : 20 mars 2026 – distributeur : The Walt Disney Company Nordic

    Vu 21 mars 2026, Majestic Bastille, 4 bd Richard-Lenoir, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

SYNOPSIS

Dans les années 1770, Ann Lee quitte l'Angleterre pour New York et fonde l'Organisation de la Société Unie des Croyants dans la Deuxième apparition du Christ (United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing), encore appelée les Shakers. Prêchant l'égalité des sexes et l'égalité sociale, Ann Lee est vite vénérée par ses fidèles comme l'incarnation féminine du Christ. Sa quête pour construire une utopie va cependant connaitre de nombreux tourments.

AA: Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee is a historical drama, a tale of a religious sect, a true story and a tale of unrest.

The canvas is magnificent. William Rexer shoots in glorious 35 mm in the scope format.  The passion in colour invites comparison with great oil paintings.

The Testament of Ann Lee rises to a select group of great films about religious movements. It is a tale of sound and fury, the eternal combat between the spirit and the flesh, the ordeal of being called into a higher existence while irrevocably chained to the earth.

Jacques Audiard turned his gangster picture Emilia Pérez into an opera, and Mona Fastvold turns her religious saga into a musical. It is a bold solution but justified by the insight of transcending the ordinary and reaching into the beyond.

Geographically, the voyage extends from Europe to an America before the Revolution. The range of human experience from the carnal to the sacred is equally amazing.

Amanda Seyfried gives a shattering performance as Ann Lee. She deserves to be mentioned among the great performers of religious revivalists, such as Barbara Stanwyck in The Miracle Woman (inspired by Aimee Semple McPherson) and Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis). In Nordic countries we have a cinematic legacy of our own in this subject which I discussed a month ago having seen Jon Blåhed's Raptures (SE/FI 2025).

As a sociologist and an Émile Durkheim devotee I am endlessly fascinated by the subject of religion and society. Religion is a grand mystery, for Durkheim the social fact. The Testament of Ann Lee is all about this mystery and that fact.

The film may also be a case of what I call "the pandemic phlegmatic syndrome". All ingredients are first class: the extraordinary performances, the visual experience and the religious soundtrack. There is nothing wrong. Only an irresistible conviction is missing.