Broken English

Broken English is a bold documentary portrait of the inimitable singer, songwriter and icon Marianne Faithfull.
A survivor, provocateur and true original, Marianne has spent more than six decades defying expectations — releasing over thirty-five albums while constantly reinventing herself. Made with her full involvement, Broken English is an intimate and unflinching exploration of a fractured yet unbreakable life shaped by fame, creativity and relentless public scrutiny.
The film unfolds within the Ministry of Not Forgetting — an imagined, cinematic institution where memory and mythology collide.
Broken English is a genre-defying act of resilience and rebellion — Marianne Faithfull’s final fearless declaration, her defiant swan song.

What truly matters when telling someone’s story? This is a question that guides all our work — but especially this film. Broken English isn’t just a film about Marianne Faithfull — it’s a film of her, made with her.
We wanted to create something that fizzes with Marianne’s inimitable creative spirit; to try to live up to the artist we came to know in the last few years of her remarkable life.
Like Marianne herself, Broken English couldn’t be rooted in realism. The Ministry of Not Forgetting is, of course, pure invention. But behind this fiction lie greater truths. The film lives in a liminal space, shaped by memory and churned through the mill of imagination. We sought to translate Marianne’s innate theatricality into a distinctive cinematic language: an alchemical fusion of stage and screen, tapping into the magic of both.
Archive plays a vital role — not merely as documentation, but as a kind of electronic séance, summoning many versions of Marianne to join together and speak. Working in this semi-improvised, exploratory way means surrendering to the unknown. This demands exceptional collaborators on both sides of the camera. It was Marianne who led the way — with her searing honesty, riotous wit and endless complexity. Always eager to work, to create, she remained defiantly true to herself until the very end.

PRODUCTION 1:
Rustic Canyon Pictures - Beth Earl
Elsley Court 20-22 Great Titchfield Street
W1W 8BE London, United Kingdom
E-mail: info@rusticcanyonpictures.com
Web: http://rusticcanyonpictures.com
Social Media: rusticcanyonpics – Instagram

PRODUCTION 2:
Phantoscopic - Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
South Wing, Somerset House, Strand
WC2R 1LA London, United Kingdom
E-mail: hello@phantoscopic.com
Web: http://www.phantoscopic.com

WORLD SALES 1:
Cinetic - Jason Ishikawa
26 Broadway, 14th Floor
NY 10004 New York, United States of America
Tel: +1 (212) 204-7979
E-mail: jason@cineticmedia.com
Web: http://cineticmedia.com
Social Media: cinetic_media – Instagram

WORLD SALES 2:
Global Constellation - Fabien Westerhoff, Leo Teste
Tel: +44 79 8452 3163
E-mail: sales@filmconstellation.com Web: filmconstellation.com

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION:
I Wonder Pictures - Andrea Romeo
Via della Zecca, 2
40121 Bologna, Italia
E-mail: romeo@iwonderpictures.com

PRESS OFFICE:
Manlin Sterner - International Rescue
Tel: +46 76 376 9933
E-mail: manlin@manlin.se
Ulteriori addetti/additional press officers: Charles McDonald - charles@charlesmcdonald.co.uk

ITALIAN PRESS OFFICE:
Stefania Collalto - Echo
Via G. B. Morgagni, 33
20129 Milano, Italia
Tel: +39 3394279472
E-mail: collalto@echogroup.it