Marianne Faithfull recalls in a new film on her life taking LSD with Mick Jagger the night before a major television interview.
The British singer and actress — who died on 30 January this year at the age of 78 — made the admission in Broken English, a new documentary about her life and career which premieres on Saturday (30.08.25) at the Venice Film Festival.
She says in the film: “The night before I did this (controversial TV) interview, Mick (Jagger) and I had taken LSD, and maybe that affected me.
“But I think that some of my opinions and all that caused a lot of trouble – that I talked too much, too openly, and eventually what happened was that they came down on us.”
The documentary also revisits the aftermath of the 1967 police raid on Mick’s Rolling Stones bandmate’s Keith Richards’ Sussex home, where Marianne was famously found nude under a fur rug.
She reflected: “It never occurred to me that the powers that be would ever do something like that, walk into Keith’s house and arrest us.
“I think Mick worried. He was quite straight… I really was like(a rock ’n’ roll rebel.)
“I was very anarchic.”
The film on Marianne, directed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth, draws on archival material and new interviews.
Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton narrates sections of the project, while actor George MacKay interviews Marianne in her final years.
In one exchange, Marianne also spoke about her encounters with famous men, including Bob Dylan. Recalling a moment shown in D.A. Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary Don’t Look Back, she said: “A lot of tension. He was coming on to me. There was Joan (Baez.) I worshipped her.
“Bob said to me, ‘I’ve been writing poem about you’.
“That’s what he was typing. Well, it was probably completely made up.
“If I had a dollar for every cute man who's told me, ‘This song, this poem is about you, darling, I’d be rich’.”
Asked who some of those other men were, she replied: “I can’t remember,” before smiling.
The film also shows Marianne discussing her songwriting partnership with Mick and Keith Richards.
She explained Sister Morphine, the 1969 single later released by the Rolling Stones, began with Mick playing a melody at home.
She said: “It started as a lovely tune that Mick was annoyingly playing around the house all the time, so I decided to write lyrics for it.”
Broken English features live performances of Marianne’s songs by Beth Orton, Suki Waterhouse and Courtney Love, as well as contributions from Thurston Moore and members of Portishead and My Bloody Valentine.
It concludes with Marianne’s final filmed performance, singing her 2018 track Misunderstanding alongside Nick Cave.
