Broken English
Review by Ryan Michael Painter
Standing outside the Broadway Centre Cinemas the person behind me turns to a stranger and says, “Did you know that Marianne Faithfull was Mick Jagger’s longtime girlfriend?”
I close my eyes to keep them from rolling out of my skull. I hope Broken English isn’t just about Faithfull’s time with Jagger.
Sadly, we don’t get to choose our legacy and there would be considerable interest in a film that focused entirely on their relationship.
As an American who was far too young to frequent the British tabloids in the 1960s, I wasn’t even old enough to appreciate her reemergence in 1979 with Broken English.
No, I was introduced to Faithfull in the mid-‘90s via her performance of “Who Will Take My Dreams Away” from the Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet film The City of Lost Children. I tracked down the soundtrack and the compilation Faithfull: A Collection of Her Best Recordings. For me, Jagger was an interesting footnote. Not a headline.
99 Minutes
Written by Iain Forsyth, Jane Pllard, Ian Martin
Directed by Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth
Synopsis:
The filmmakers introduce us to the Ministry of Not Forgetting, a fictitious research facility where Tilda Swinton and George MacKay begin an inquiry into Marianne Faithfull’s life and career. The British iconoclast is a willing interviewee — sharp and witty. Her dynamic presence is complemented by rich archival footage and several moving performances by the singer herself, as well as Beth Orton, Courtney Love, Nick Cave, and Suki Waterhouse. Broken English is a playful and wildly original portrait of a musician who refused to conform. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.
Had I read the film’s synopsis I would have known that Broken English wasn’t just about Jagger. I would have been further comforted if I had noticed that the film was directed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth. Pollard and Forsyth directed 20,000 Days on Earth, a Nick Cave documentary that I saw at Sundance in 2014. That film features one of my favorite cinematic moments that finds Kylie Minogue sitting in the back seat of a car driven by Cave.
20,000 Days on Earth wasn’t a traditional documentary. There was a wonderful sense of magical reality that allowed a poetic license that matched its subject.
For Broken English Pollard, Forsyth, and co-writer Ian Martin created the Ministry of Not Forgetting. This allows the filmmakers to speak directly to the audience through Tilda Swinton, who runs the fictional organization, and to a lesser extent George MacKay, who interviews Faithfull.
The presence of the Ministry of Not Forgetting blurs the line between truth and fiction. And yet, if you put a camera in a room does everything it captures become a performance? Will we be able to agree on what we see? How subjective or unbiased are documentaries?
Broken English is at least honest. Much has been written about Faithfull; Broken English allows her the lend her voice to the way she is remembered and that proves to be an insightful and often entertaining journey.
Mixing archival footage, new interviews, and a variety of artists performing her songs, Faithfull is painted as a complex, resilient woman who created an incredible body of work.
Did you know that Marianne Faithfull was more than Mick Jagger’s girlfriend?
Regardless of your response, Broken English invites you to consider more than the salacious headlines.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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