Ozymandias<\/a>-esque monologue as Swinton speaks into a digital voice recorder, a preamble concerning what it means to remember and to forget. Remembering and not forgetting, according to the Overseer, are two very distinct functions of cognition. The act of remembering is a probabilistic problem, one that updates likelihoods based on degrees of belief. Not forgetting is an objective application of information, an act only achieved by the recollection and acknowledgement of actual, hard truth.<\/p>\nRegardless of one\u2019s awareness of the film\u2019s subject matter before walking into it, the first act of \u201cBroken English\u201d might lead one to assume it is a sci-fi, avant-garde film rooted in retrofuturism. The Overseer and the Record Keeper (George Mackay, \u201c1917\u201d) speak to each other only through grainy closed-circuit monitors, modern technology notably absent from their persons. The first few minutes are captured cinematically without a break in tone until they introduce their test subject: Marianne Faithfull. The year is 2025, and Faithfull, best known for her folk-pop music career in the \u201960s and her romantic relationship with Mick Jagger \u2014 a tiresome identifier to which the Overseer says \u201cfuck that\u201d \u2014 is 78 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The legacy of Marianne Faithfull has been buried beneath decades of false narratives driven by the viperous, misogynistic press surrounding her \u201cpromiscuity\u201d and battles with drug addiction, a precedent case in popular culture echoed by the media\u2019s abuse of Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears. It is this pollution of fact that makes Faithfull not just the ideal candidate, but the only candidate for the Ministry of Not Forgetting. In the Overseer\u2019s words, \u201cWe choose Marianne precisely because her data set is broken.\u201d To perfect the art of not forgetting, one must reject the idea that history can be categorized and quantified without feeling or acknowledging bias. This process begins and ends with the human source of intrigue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBroken English,\u201d despite being confined to a fictional setting in the presence of fictional characters, is a documentary. These fictional elements, rather than distracting from Marianne, provide us with tunnel vision for her. The figures who facilitate the inquiry into her life are elusive strangers, unable to insert themselves into her story, creating a space where storytelling and investigative journalism meet to serve a shared purpose. The Record Keeper presents Faithfull with archival footage and audio recordings, some unreleased and the existence of some unknown to Faithfull, engaging in a compelling dialogue rather than an unfeeling examination. We are brought close to Faithfull\u2019s face as she admires and contemplates relics of her past, some of them ugly and painful, others visibly moving her stoic countenance. We laugh and grimace with her, hanging onto her every word, inevitably finding ourselves in complete awe of her candor, intellect and wit.\u00a0<\/p>\n