Ahead of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next week, the first teaser trailer for Vox Lux has arrived online. The original feature hails from writer/director Brady Corbet and marks his second feature film as a director, following 2015’s The Childhood of a Leader. This film is far more ambitious, as it is told in two halves: the first takes place in 1999 and revolves around a pair of teenage sisters named Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) who compose and perform a song following a traumatic experience, catching the attention of a passionate manager (Jude Law). The second half of the film takes place in 2017, with Celeste (Natalie Portman) now a mother to a teenage daughter and a bona fide pop star, struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals.

Cassidy, who had her breakout role opposite George Clooney in Tomorrowland, pulls double duty as both the young Celeste and Celeste’s own teenage daughter, which is a fascinating casting choice. You’ll see none of that in this teaser, however, as it’s mostly just a taste of what’s to come as we follow Portman’s character The Wrestler-style on her way to the stage.

This is certainly one of the more curious titles playing at TIFF, and it doesn’t have a distributor so if critics take a liking, this thing could find a home quickly. Sia wrote original songs for the feature and Scott Walker composed the original score, which adds another layer of intrigue.

Interestingly enough Rooney Mara was originally in line to lead the film, but she subsequently dropped out. This is a juicy role, however, and I can’t wait to see what Portman does with it. Watch the Vox Lux teaser trailer below and look for our review out of TIFF on Collider in the next week or so.

Here’s the synopsis for Vox Lux from TIFF:

Actor Brady Corbet's second feature as writer-director tracks its heroine's path from the tragedy that defines her adolescence to the adulation that circumscribes her adulthood. Starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, Vox Lux is both a riveting character study and a perceptive survey of the cultural shifts that have shaped a generation.

 

The film begins in 1999 with teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin), who have survived a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song at about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe — while also launching a career.

 

The sisters draw the attention of a passionate manager (Law) and are rapidly catapulted into fame and fortune, with Celeste as the star and Eleanor the creative anchor. By the film's second half, set in 2017, the now 31-year-old Celeste (Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own (Cassidy) and struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.

 

Portman gives a bravura performance as a woman accustomed to exploiting her personal chaos, while Law is both endearing and disturbing as the father figure who also wants in on the party. But keep your eye on Cassidy, who is outstanding in her poignant double role.

 

"I'm a private girl in a public world," sings Celeste in one of her hit songs. Vox Lux is a story about our present moment, when the lines that once divided private from public — and real-life horror from entertainment — seem to have dissolved.

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Image via TIFF