Considering the fact that Carey Mulligan has for ages been attached to the long-gestating, going-nowhere adaptation of “My Fair Lady” alongside Colin Firth, we all knew there was at least some spark of musical talent in the actress. It now looks like we won’t have to wait too long some to see evidence of that with Mulligan set to perform a musical number in one of our most anticipated films for the remainder of 2011, Steve McQueen‘s “Shame.”
Baz BamigBoye reports that Mulligan will perform the John Kander and Fred Ebb classic “New York, New York” in a nightclub scene which will see her “purr her way through the number about waking up in a city that doesn’t sleep.” We originally thought the extravagant apparel worn by Mulligan in the film might be hinting at an unhinged character but the fact she’s a stage performer of some kind would make just as much sense.
McQueen’s follow up to the brutal “Hunger,” “Shame” was penned by McQueen with Abi Morgan and stars Michael Fassbender as Brandon, a young man living in New York City trying to overcome his sexual compulsions, with things getting complicated when his younger sister (Mulligan) comes to visit him. James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie also co-star.
In the film’s TIFF Programmer Notes, Cameron Bailey excitingly writes that it is “a portrait of a man in descent, but it paints that portrait obliquely. Fully in control of every detail of image and sound, McQueen steers away from obvious character motivation and towards sheer emotional impact.” He also adds that Fassbender’s performance “matches [‘Hunger’] with a psychological pitch that is as intense as it is affecting” while Mulligan “turns in a ferocious performance that demands a full reconsideration of how we might have pegged her.” Excited yet?
The film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in just over a week’s time before moving onto the Toronto and, of course, New York Film Festivals. No U.S. release date has been set but the film will hit theaters on January 13th in the U.K.
