Rumours
In this film by Guy Maddin and collaborators, the G7 summit goes off the rails, when the ultra-rich — crooked to the core — are devoured by zombies. Produced by Ari Aster and starring Cate Blanchett!
Surrealistic horror comedy Rumours throws the world’s greatest leaders in the middle of perfect chaos. The G7 summit gets out of hand when the heads of state stray into a foggy forest and must face weirdly grotesque obstacles: ancient zombie-like swamp creatures dug from the ground and massive brains.
Canadian director Guy Maddin, known for his original and experimental films, has already done multiple collaborations with Evan and Galen Johnson. This time, the trio has gotten a cast of well-known actors aboard their cinematic prank, the guiding star being Cate Blanchett as the prime minister of Germany. The president of the United States is played by deeply British Charles Dance, who hasn’t changed his accent a bit.
The film pokes fun at political theatre with its absurd wit and dry irony. The work, combining soap opera, B-horror, and Luis Buñuel’s late-period surrealism, presents how the leaders’ discreet charm and jargon-based rhetoric don’t waver, even when the world around them is collapsing.
Visually, Rumours relies on the appeal of strangeness; misty landscapes, dreamy props, and disturbing close-ups create a nightmarish fairytale, in which the fragility of power is revealed through ridiculousness.
Rauli Karjalainen (translated by Vilja Hynynen)
Trailer
