Rumours (15)

A global crisis compels the G7 leaders to convene in the German town of Dankerode to draft a unified statement. Sylvain Broulez, President of France, is joined by Cardosa Dewindt, Prime Minister of the UK, Tatsuro Iwasaki. Prime Minister of Japan, Antonio Lamorle, Prime Minister of Italy, Maxime Laplace, Prime Minister of Canada, Hilda Ortmann, Chancellor of Germany, and the President of the United States, Edison Wolcott. Undead creatures rise during this important gathering.

LondonNet Film Review

Rumours (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

Politicians are sometimes accused of speaking a lot but saying very little. The easy disposability of modern political discourse is one of the prime targets of a hallucinogenic satire directed by experimental Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin and brothers Evan and Galen Johnson. Set in the German countryside during a Night Of The Living Dead-esque reanimation of mummified human cadavers dating back almost 2,000 years, Rumours convenes members of the G7, the seven-strong political forum of some of the world’s most advanced economies, to allay fears about an unspecified global crisis.
..

When leaders come under attack from marauding bog people, who furiously self-pleasure to the point of physical combustion, politicians initially assume these shadowy figures are activists with a muddy agenda: “Protesters, if a little unconventional.” As the film loosens its fingertip grasp on reality, Evan Johnson’s script mines sporadic humour from one character collapsing with exhaustion and whispering, “I’m having an energy crisis!” and a surreal sequence anchored to an artificial intelligence chatbot that entraps paedophiles. The theme of the G7 summit is regret and the filmmaking trio of Maddin, Johnson and Johnson might regret not drawing more blood from sustained attacks on an impotent political elite, who excel at crafting hollow, ambiguous soundbites and gossiping about each other’s personal lives.

Leaders of the G7 gather in Dankerode, hosted by the perfectly pant-suited Chancellor of Germany, Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchett). They have been tasked with drafting a unified statement to clearly address the current situation. “But not so clear that we put ourselves in an awkward position,” adds Hilda.

Following a media photo opportunity with the mummified body of a recently excavated bog person from the Iron Age, Hilda hosts an al fresco dinner in a specially constructed gazebo with Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis), Prime Minister of Canada, Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Prime Minister of the UK, Sylvain Broulez (Denis Menochet), President of France, Antonio Lamorte (Rolando Ravello), Prime Minister of Italy, Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira), Prime Minister of Japan, and the President of the United States, Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance). Guttural screams reverberate through the evening air and discombobulated leaders discover they are under attack from magically revived bog people.

Rumours is an oddity that might have tumbled from the imagination of David Lynch, with outlandish narrative detours including Alicia Vikander’s bewildering entrance at the midway point. Blanchett is preened to perfection as a natural born leader whose lustful longings could prove her undoing while Dance pointedly evokes a current US statesman and speaks with an English accent for reasons that the script deliberately sidesteps. An oppressive score composed by Kristian Eidnes Andersen teases menace in some dimly lit scenes and overwhelms others. Ultimately, I was just as dazed and confused as the characters.

– Sarah Lee