Genre defying portrait of Marianne Faithfull, made with her full involvement and led by Tilda Swinton; celebrates six decades of fearless reinvention and enduring artistry.
Director: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Runtime: 96
Fest Year: 2026
For six decades the British press has belittled Marianne Faithfull as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend or the woman found naked at the Rolling Stones party. Thirty-five albums, one Grammy nomination—none of it could quite dislodge the tabloid version of Faithfull. Following their reinvention of the rock star portrait film, 20,000 Days on Earth (2014), directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard take a genre-expanding approach to Faithfull’s profile. The film unfolds inside the Ministry of Not Forgetting, a fictional bureaucracy where Tilda Swinton presides as Overseer. George MacKay, as the Record Keeper, conducts a freewheeling interview with the real-world Faithfull, looking back at years of archive footage. Scripted vignettes and covers performed by the likes of Beth Orton and Courtney Love punctuate Faithfull’s unvarnished testimony. Faithfull, Nick Cave, and Warren Ellis breathe life into the film’s breathtaking ending. (YF)