On a cold Thursday night in New York, the distinct smell of Miu Miu-branded popcorn filled the air of the ornate, high-ceiling screening room at the Village East by Angelika theater. The occasion? Directors, actors, editors, stylists, and friends of the brand took a welcome break from New York Fashion Week’s runway festivities to celebrate the 31st edition of Miu Miu Women’s Tales, the brand’s platform for women-directed short films. Mona Fastvold, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker of The Testament of Ann Lee, debuted her wildly imaginative and thrilling surrealist film Discipline to the crowd on February 12.
The movies featured in Miu Miu Women’s Tales series are often boundary-breaking, experimental, and cerebral. What they always have in common are underlying themes related to the experience of being a woman, girlhood, and the complex nature of femininity under the patriarchy. Fastvold’s work was no different—her short showcased life-size puppets, each with their own masked human caretakers, all dressed in Miu Miu. They acted out daily rituals, from dining to exercising, leading up to a moment of opposition and freedom starring Amanda Seyfried, who also stars in Ann Lee.
Fastvold’s Discipline has musings on control, societal conventions, restraint—and even the woman as doll and vice versa (one of fashion’s most ubiquitous themes, especially recently). When asked about whether the doll-meets-woman theme was intentional, Fastvold told W she always leaves interpretations of her work up to the viewer.
“The film was written for the garments, truly,” Fastvold said at the event. “The main inspiration is the pieces of clothing, and the shoes. I started writing from that place. I was looking at that garment and thinking about what it represented for me.”
Fastvold collaborated with choreographer Celia Rowlson Hall to hone the lifelike, sweeping motions of the puppets. After the film’s debut, Fastvold, Hall, and Hailey Gates (all of whom have directed their own Women’s Tales pieces in the past) shared the stage for a Q&A.
“My main inspiration is: female surrealist photographers throughout time,” Fastvold said. “I was also looking at the history of puppeteering…part of me thought for a while, ‘Should I try to get a lot of real puppeteers to work with me?’ And then I thought, ‘No, I am more interested in this relationship between the puppets and the puppeteer than just having puppeteers create the illusion of movement. I like the idea of playing with it as a duet.”
Hailey Gates, Mona Fastvold, and Celia Rowlson-Hall, all wearing Miu Miu.
Courtesy of Miu Miu
Who would the trio like to see direct the next Women’s Tales? “Elaine May, because she is so brilliant and funny,” Gates said. Hall chose Andrea Arnold and Fastvold picked Claire Denis. “These are our heroes,” Hall added. “We love every single film they’ve made. These are our masterclasses.”