Sisters Rooney and Kate Mara have said they drew on their instinctive closeness for their new film, Bucking Fastard, which sees them talk and move in unison for almost their entire time on screen.
Filmed in Ireland and Slovenia, Bucking Fastard was called “unique in cinema history” by its director and writer, veteran German filmmaker Werner Herzog, ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Bucking Fastard is loosely inspired by the real-life story of Freda and Greta Chaplin, twins from northern England who gained public interest in Britain in the early 1980s for their synchronised movement and speech.
“It reignited a lot of childhood energy in us, which was really special,” Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Carol) told AFP and other journalists in Venice about her experience filming with her sister and Herzog.
(L-R) Kate Mara, Werner Herzog, Rooney Mara, and Orlando Bloom at the Bucking Fastard premiere at the Venice Film Festival
“It felt really… I don’t want to say effortless, but it really made sense. We kind of found our own language or our own rhythm with it,” older sister Kate Mara (House of Cards, The Martian) added.
Bucking Fastard, which is in the running for Venice’s top prize, is a whimsical drama that sees the sisters fall in love with the same man, played by Orlando Bloom, setting off a spiral of unsettling encounters with other people.
The cast also includes Irish actors Domhnall Gleeson, Simon Delaney, and Hugh O’Conor.
“It’s unique in film history in a way… It’s unique that two sisters are playing as one,” Herzog told reporters, adding that he had written the screenplay in five days with the Mara sisters in mind.
(L-R) Kate and Rooney Mara’s new film is in the running for Venice’s top prize, The Golden Lion
Critics called the eccentric production a “strange tale of sisterly devotion” (Screen Daily), “cluttered, ripely bonkers fantasia” (Variety), a “silly, pointless drama” (The Guardian), and “destined to polarise… either you’re on the train, or you want to get off it fast” (IndieWire).
Irish producer Kieran Corrigan is among the makers of Bucking Fastard, with locations including Dublin’s Pigeon House and Capel Street and Naas, Co Kildare.
A release date is yet to be announced.
Herzog was awarded a lifetime achievement prize last year at Venice, where he premiered his documentary Ghost Elephants about the search for an elusive elephant herd in Africa.
Source: AFP