A satire with an impressive cast, continually bathing in political absurdity, skin-deep feelings, strange phenomena and offbeat, even ribald humor…
The least we can say is that Canadians Guy Maddin and his sidekicks Evan and Galen Johnson hit the jackpot with the cast they were able to assemble for Rumors. From Cate Blanchett to Charles Dance, including Roy Dupuis, Alicia Vikander and Denis Ménochet, this high-caliber international cast already had enough to attract attention.
Paradoxically, what stands out even more is that all these beautiful people agreed to dive headfirst into a production continually bathed in political absurdity, skin-deep feelings, strange phenomena and offbeat humor, even even saucy. All with all the enthusiasm necessary for the success of such an enterprise.
Rumors invites us to accompany the heads of state of the G7 during their annual summit, which this time takes place in a gazebo newly built in the heart of the German countryside.
While the group tries to agree on the empty phrases – but no less reassuring and unifying – which should form the official communiqué which will be presented following these few days of “hard” work, the presidents and other prime ministers suddenly find themselves left to their own devices in the wilderness, without there being any trace of a soul living for miles around.
Then, the French president’s legs seem to soften, while his American counterpart plans to rest one last time in the middle of the woods rather than save his skin. It is then up to the intrepid Prime Minister of Canada Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis) and German Chancellor Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett) to take matters into their own hands.
Their escapade will lead in particular to the discovery of an immense brain with revolutionary thoughts, an ancestral ritual leaving little room for the imagination, and a heroic crossing of around ten meters on a raft in the heart of darkness, piece epic Celtic music to back it up.
Despite its disparate ideas, its frequent breaks in tone and its dramatic impulses that are impulsive to say the least, this feature film is nevertheless executed from a sufficiently homogeneous guideline, around which all the elements end up finding an unusual way of coming together. complement while always sowing a little more confusion.
Far from the more experimental approach of Guy Maddin’s previous creations, the essence of Rumors is surprisingly not so much a matter of form. The film has rather an assumed amateur side, suggesting that the trio at the helm had total confidence in the means of their performers, just as they were able to reciprocate what had been previously put on paper.
This long wandering in the middle of a quest for meaning could only ultimately lead to a vibrant declaration meaning everything and nothing, delivered heroically by all the parties concerned in the face of a panorama as indecent as it was apocalyptic.
Certainly, Rumors is the kind of proposition whose character may seem a bit too abstract and elusive and will not be the cup of tea of certain spectators. On the other hand, fans of the cinema of creators fond of absurd humor like Quentin Dupieux will certainly find what they are looking for.
And even though everyone can’t help but wonder, at one point or another, what exactly are they watching, Maddin, Johnson and Johnson punctuate their political satire perfectly with through an avalanche of pearls of dialogue, delivered with all the conviction desired by men and women of states convinced of being unable to resolve or advance the slightest issue like no politician before them.
