VENICE, Italy — Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” starring real-life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara as siblings who speak and act in unison, premiered Thursday at the Venice Film Festival to a standing ovation of nearly seven minutes, The Associated Press reported.
The 83-year-old German filmmaker said the idea traced to twins Greta and Freda Chaplin, who spoke in unison and became British tabloid figures decades ago, but the story became pure invention once someone suggested casting the Maras instead of actual twins. Herzog said he wrote the script in five days. The Maras play Jean and Joan Holbrooke on a literal and spiritual journey; Orlando Bloom plays the object of both sisters’ affections, with Domhnall Gleeson also in the cast. It is the first time the sisters have appeared together on screen.
“At first it was very daunting, the idea that we were going to be playing the same person,” Rooney Mara said. “But I think we found pretty quickly that having a lifetime together and all this history and a childhood of playing together, there was just this unspoken world between us.” Kate Mara likened speaking in unison to something musical. Herzog cut a planned two-week rehearsal to five days and told them he would meet them in Ireland “in front of my camera.”
Herzog dedicated the film to the late David Lynch, saying he wished Lynch could have been the first audience. The picture is competing for the Golden Lion after Herzog declined a non-competition Cannes invitation; it does not yet have a U.S. release date. Trade coverage timed the Sala Grande ovation at about six and a half to seven and a half minutes as Herzog wiped away tears and blew a kiss to the crowd.
Sources: AP News; The Hollywood Reporter.
