Hollywood

Venice 2025: ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ is a Cinematic Revelation

by Alex Billington
September 1, 2025

The exhilaration of majestic cinema once again at the Venice Film Festival. Following last year’s masterful The Brutalist (here is my 10/10 review), filmmakers Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold are back again at Venice this year with their latest work. The Testament of Ann Lee is the third feature film directed by Norwegian filmmaker and actress Mona Fastvold, who is married to Brady Corbet. They co-wrote both of these films together and this one is also shot on film just like The Brutalist, and they both worked with the truly one-of-a-kind composer Daniel Blumberg to create the scores for both of these films. Other than that, these films couldn’t be more different. The Testament of Ann Lee is actually a musical, featuring a few truly transcendent, mystical musical sequences of dancing through the forest and around their land. It’s the story of a religious leader and the creation of the religion she believed in, known as the Shakers, but it’s also the story of emancipation and escape and freedom from oppression. Unquestionably of the best films of the year – it’s extraordinary in every single way that cinema can be extraordinary. I need this soundtrack to listen to.

The Testament of Ann Lee, also known as simply Ann Lee, is the story of a real woman named Ann Lee – starring Amanda Seyfried in the lead role as this woman. Born in Manchester, England in 1736 during a time of the Evangelical revival in England, she married young and became pregnant. After 4 pregnancies, all of her children died before they turned 1 year old and this destroyed her. After this experience she turned to religion, helping create what is now known as the the Shaker Movement, preaching about the second coming of Christ as a woman – she came to be called Mother Ann. They were initially known as “Shaking Quakers” because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. After being attacked by the English church at the time, her followers packed up and got on a ship and headed to the new colonies – America. There they settle in and establish a new home on a plot of land they find by taking a boat up the Hudson River. Of course it is a story about someone creating a religion out of completely made up beliefs (let’s be honest), however it’s also about a woman breaking free from the the shackles of the dominant religion and creating a new series of rules & ideas to live by – some of which were quite utopian & beautiful, including a love for the land and equality among all people of all kinds. It shares her life’s story in such a uniquely magical, transcendent way.

Ultimately this film isn’t really about religion or cults or how to get people to believe in nonsense. The story presented includes these things happening, but that’s not really the deeper meaning of this film. As someone who usually despises films about religion, I was delightfully lost in how much this is anything but. There are even moments where it seems Mother Ann herself (or at least Amanda Seyfried as Mother Ann) knows she’s spouting complete bullshit, but it doesn’t matter, because her whole point is staying true to the dogma of her Shaker religion – namely rejecting marriage and sex and so on. For obvious reasons – considering her early life at the time. At first, Ann Lee’s divine decision to create this religion is more of an of-the-times-she’s-in example of fabricating something to allow her to escape the patriarchal, misogynistic hell (of being forced to pop out babies) she was living in England at time. This was right around when a group of people fled to a new land to create what is now America to escape English religious persecution, so it makes sense she would try this, too. Eventually it also becomes a tale of how America is a rotten place as well. Aside from all of the slavery and racism and violence, she soon learns how much Americans (even in the late 1700s) actually hate others and don’t really want anyone else to be able to practice their own religion(s). Especially one that goes against their own views and is as blasphemous as the Shakers with their belief that marriage and sex is bad.

All of these layers of commentary, even more beyond just these two aspects, are beautifully worked into this magnificent piece of art. And it’s so mesmerizing and enchanting to get totally lost in and swept away by all the magic (and music and singing) of this film. Right from the start with a haunting musical opening with women dancing through the forest, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, right up to the final days of Ann Lee as her colony in Niskayuna grows and her religion spreads, this is an bewitching film that showcases all of what makes cinema so special. It’s fun and clever and cinematically exciting. It’s about more than what it seems to be about. It’s carefully crafted, enhanced by the storytelling choices. As with The Brutalist, you can tell every single person involved in making this is fully in sync with the vision & the artistry of the filmmaker and everyone gave it their all to make this so magical. Best of all, Amanda Seyfried is absolutely outstanding leading the film preaching a best-of-her-career performance. Her complete devotion to this character, to the performance, to delivering emotion from the depths of her soul to make it believable, is astonishing and she absolutely deserves all the awards & accolades coming her way. She’s matched by supporting turns from Lewis Pullman, Thomasin McKenzie, David Cale (my favorite character), and Christopher Abbott.

Aside from the enchanting cinematography (shot by DP William Rexer on film) and wonderfully accurate period costumes & sets and all of the riveting performances, the music in this also swept me off my feet. All of the songs are incredible. Which I was not expecting, especially based on this story. And that score, THAT SCORE my goodness, Daniel Blumberg is quickly becoming one of my favorite composers up there with Göransson and Zimmer and Desplat. I cant wait to get a copy of this soundtrack. Of course all of the musical numbers are inspired by real Shaker hymns and chants, infused with modern composition. It’s a musical that doesn’t really feel like a musical, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. The musical numbers are integrated right into each scene as if this what the Shakers would be doing at this moment anyway right in the middle of their work day, dancing as part of their daily chores & religious activities. This film absolutely deserves its place in cinema history alongside The Brutalist. These films are two defining modern cinematic experiences and I believe we’ll still be talking about both of them, and both filmmakers, for decades to come.

Alex’s Venice 2025 Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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