Venice Film Festival Reclaims Marianne Faithfull’s Legacy in Broken English

Venice, Italy — September 1, 2025: The Venice Film Festival is serving as the stage for a powerful artistic reclamation, as filmmakers Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth unveil Broken English  a genre-blending tribute to the late British singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull. Premiering out of competition, the film boldly challenges the narrow public perception that has too often defined Faithfull by her past relationships rather than her rich artistic legacy.

Best known to many as the former girlfriend of Mick Jagger, Faithfull was a prolific artist who released over 30 albums, despite battling the pressures of fame, addiction, and misrepresentation. Through a mix of archival footage, interviews, and a fictional narrative device called the "Ministry of Not Forgetting", Broken English reexamines her life and career with urgency and empathy.

Marianne was an artist’s artist... but public perception had been frozen and stuck,” said co-director Jane Pollard. “And I think that were it left to AI, broken data is just going to stay broken.”

Set within a stylized bureaucracy devoted to memory and cultural preservation, the film features Tilda Swinton as the enigmatic ministry overseer, while George MacKay plays a record keeper and interviewer, guiding the audience through Faithfull’s layered story. The film uses real interviews recorded in the years before Faithfull's death at age 78 in January 2025, confronting how the media has long fixated on her turbulent past rather than her enduring artistry.

When Marianne died, so many of the obituaries ran with the headline: ‘Mick Jagger’s ex-girlfriend dies,’” said Forsyth. “Would you want to be defined for a lifetime by a fairly fleeting relationship you had in your youth?”

Broken English, named after Faithfull’s 1979 comeback album that marked her return after years of homelessness, also includes her final musical performance. In an emotional scene, she sings “Misunderstanding” from her 2018 album Negative Capability, accompanied by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis a moment made all the more poignant as she sings while battling the effects of long COVID.

“The physical feat of it  to remove her oxygen and sing was incredibly moving,” said MacKay.

Though Faithfull passed during production, the directors affirm that the film remains 99% true to their original vision. More than a tribute, Broken English is a call for cultural reevaluation, urging viewers to reconsider how female artists are remembered, and how AI and media algorithms often freeze or distort legacy.

I hope this film can begin a conversation,” Forsyth said, “not just about Marianne, but about how we treat women artists in the media which, in 50 years, has really not changed that much.”

Broken English screens out of competition at Venice and will not compete for the Golden Lion, but its message of remembrance and artistic justice is echoing loudly through the Lido.