Broken English
PRESENTED BY
From chart-topper to tabloid fodder and back again, the legendary British rock balladeer Marianne Faithfull reflects candidly on her storied past.
Plucked from obscurity by the manager of The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull had her first hit in 1964 with ‘As Tears Go By’. She was 17. Hers would be a monumental career spanning six decades, punctuated by both high-profile love affairs and highly publicised struggles with drug abuse, anorexia and homelessness. But, for all its wealth of archival materials, Broken English is no conventional rock doc. Here, in a playful but sincere twist, the husky-voiced chanteuse is interviewed by a record keeper (George MacKay, Rose of Nevada, MIFF 2026) at the fictional Ministry of Not Forgetting – a bureaucratic institution overseen by none other than Tilda Swinton – while luminaries such as Courtney Love and Beth Orton chime in with their own reflections.
Directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard have specialised in immersive, form-defying documentaries built around musicians, from Nick Cave in 20,000 Days on Earth (MIFF 2014) to Emiliana Torrini in The Extraordinary Miss Flower (MIFF 2025). This inventive portrait of a legendary singer-songwriter is suffused with a particular, unanticipated pathos: Faithfull died in January 2025 while the film was still in production, making the rendition we see of her 2018 track ‘Misunderstanding’ – accompanied by Cave and Warren Ellis – her final recorded performance.
“Broken English is not just a documentary about Faithfull, it’s a film which is fully infused with her distinctive spirit – it is free, candid and rebellious to the core.” – Screen Daily
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