The more Bucking Fastard revealed itself to me, the more I could feel my heart swell with fondness for it.
Written by Kenza Bouhnass Parra
Between a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its New York premiere at the New York Film Festival, Master Herzog’s latest film, Bucking Fastard, stopped by the Toronto International Film Festival.
Werner Herzog, revered director and particularly masterful documentarian, is back with his first fictional film in seven years. Loosely based on the true lives of twins Greta and Freda Chaplin, Bucking Fastard explores the deep but unusual connection that runs between two sisters, Jean and Joan Holbrooke, played by real-life sisters Kate and Rooney Mara, who speak at the same time, love the same people, and dream the same dreams. A very special film that irrevocably charmed me.
Admittedly, Bucking Fastard does not appear as instantly accessible. It takes a minute for the viewer to settle in, grasp the sisters’ communication system, and fall in line with their rhythm. It is quite a difficult screenwriting task to invite the audience to join what first appears as a peculiar world and buy into the authenticity of a relationship, while establishing both on the other side as the only life the « sisteres » have ever known — as they are fondly nicknamed in the film, an oddity that is at the core of who they are and how they grew up. But the film cleverly opens on a scene where an unknowing audience also discovers the sisteres. The familiarity immediately established within the sisters’ relationship, surrounded by the surprise in other characters, which mirrors the general sentiment the audience is feeling, makes for a charmingly gauche entrance into the siblings’ worldview. We feel disconcerted, as does the in-film audience, but the sisteres are not tipped out of their balance. And it turns out soon enough, the film isn’t either. Choosing to trust Herzog’s vision, I let myself be carried away with it, probed and amused, and let the film unmask itself to me slowly but sturdily. Akin to a frightened cat, Bucking Fastard is at first cautious about approaching a stranger and revealing too much of itself too quickly, but once that sense of trust is established, it ends up abandoning itself and throwing its affection to whoever is up to the challenge of receiving it, very much like the sisteres.
The more Bucking Fastard revealed itself to me, the more I could feel my heart swell with fondness for it. And it has only grown ever since. Operating on a very different tone from one might expect reading a brief synopsis, tenderness is at its very core. A deep empathy for its protagonists pierces through the screen as the artifice of the gimmick fades away and the true exploration of the film becomes apparent : the search for one’s identity and sense of belonging. Rooney and Kate Mara are enchanting, working in unison for their first on-screen collaboration, with as much of a natural chemistry as one could anticipate from not only sisters, but also marvellous performers. Jean and Joan are brought to life through the relationship, but also, and I might even more importantly, in tiny moments of individuality where specks of their own persona pierce through.
A highlight of the film is found when a lover of the sisters attempts to challenge them, wanting to bring out that individuality by detaching them from their unison. Such moments are what make Fucking Bastard truly sing, when the opposition is explored, but their kinship remains unbreakable. It is in that unity that they feel whole, and in that unity that I find myself utterly charmed and experience again on my already planned future rewatch.
Bucking Fastard will be screened at AFI Fest on October 21.
Photo: TIFF
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