McGuffin presents 'Marianne Faithfull: Broken English'

About McGuffin presents 'Marianne Faithfull: Broken English'

SELLING FAST!

McGUFFIN PRESENTS AN EXCLUSIVE WALTHAM FOREST SCREENING OF A FORTHCOMING UK CINEMA RELEASE

On Saturday 7 November 1964 singer Marianne Faithfull performed at the Granada Walthamstow as part of a legendary concert featuring some of the greatest musical stars of the decade - a roll call of artists who helped define the creative and cultural peak of British pop music.

At this point Marianne Faithfull was one of the UK’s newest, coolest and brightest stars with her debut single hitting the charts in both the UK and USA. With the voice of an angel and demeanour to match, she would soon become established as a key figure of the era with parallel careers as an actress and model and a high profile relationship with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. The ultimate 1960s It Girl, by the end of the decade her future seemed one of seemingly limitless potential and success.

What followed was a spectacular fall from grace which left her homeless, penniless and begging on the streets of Soho to appease her drug addictions.

From ethereal pop princess to vilified 1960s counterculture casualty, Marianne Faithfull became her own cautionary tale of rock and roll excess.

What followed next was even more astonishing… a stunning career revival at the vanguard of British New Wave and a personal renaissance as a uncompromising and indestructible female music icon. With a singular and mature voice of resilience, warmth, experience and hard-won wisdom, Marianne Faithfull ascended to an exalted position of high priestess to the alternative music scene where she remained unchallenged throughout her final four decades.

‘BROKEN ENGLISH’ is a beautiful but unflinching new feature film which tells her full story for the first time. Directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (BAFTA winning directors of ‘20,000 Days on Earth’), the film was created with the full cooperation of Marianne Faithfull in the days before her death last year. It contains her final filmed interviews and a farewell musical performance (with Nick Cave), captured exclusively for this release.

Accompanied by a wealth of previously unseen archive footage, the film revisits Marianne Faithfull’s tumultuous life from her Hampstead birth and early convent school origins to the heady days in the eye of the Swinging Sixties hurricane and on through the years of desperation to her phoenix-like rebirth and final battles with illness and approaching mortality. 

With unconventional linking sequences presented by Tilda Swinton (filmed in a specially convened Ministry of Not Forgetting, an imaginary cinematic institution where memory and mythology coalesce) and guest appearances by Beth Orton, Courtney Love, Derek Jacobi, Zawe Ashton and George Mackay, ‘BROKEN ENGLISH’ is a truthful, defiant and loving final testament to a unique voice and irrepressible survivor/personality.

‘BROKEN ENGLISH’ will screen for one night only on Saturday 21 March from 8.15pm at Forest Cinemas Walthamstow, 267 High Street, London E17.

THIS McGUFFIN EVENT WILL BE THE ONLY WALTHAM FOREST SCREENING OF ‘BROKEN ENGLISH’ DURING ITS RUN IN UK CINEMAS.

Advance booking is essential for this performance. Demand is expected to be high so EARLY BOOKING is strongly advised.

Full programme information at www.mcguffin.co.uk