Original title: Amanda Seyfried in Tears During ‘Testament of Ann Lee’ World Premiere at Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival hosted a world premiere on Monday afternoon for Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, delivering something close to a religious experience. The audience responded to the film, which stars Amanda Seyfried as founder of the radical religious sect the Shakers, with TK. The cult-like group, which formed as an offshoot of Quakerism in Manchester, England in 1747, got its name from worship practices that included trembling, dancing and speaking in tongues. Lee espoused gender and social equality while believing herself to be the female incarnation of Christ, and its members practiced celibacy. The Shakers ended up fleeing to America to escape persecution, ultimately settling near Albany, New York to build their utopia. The Testament of Ann Lee, which Fastvold directed from a script she co-wrote with her The Brutalist partner Brady Corbet, also stars Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, J