RUMOURS © Rumours 2024 (directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson)
Rumours, a trio-helmed sureal G7 adventure
A director and screenwriter whose imagination knows no bounds, Canadian Guy Maddin embodies fantastical, freewheeling countercultural cinema. Often experimental, his films are rooted in a poetic visual aesthetic that regularly pays homage to the silent films of the 1930s. Years after the presentation of his short film, The Heart of the World (2000) at the Directors’ Fortnight, the director presents—for the first time—his film Rumours in the Out of Competition section of the Official Selection.
At their annual G7 summit, the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies get lost in the woods at night while attempting to draft their provisional statement.
For Rumours, Guy Maddin teamed up with two trusted partners—Evan and Galen Jonhson—who collaborated with him on his previous feature film: The Green Fog (2017), a haunting tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Like Maddin, the brothers also come from Winnipeg, a city to which Guy Maddin dedicated a vibrant, dreamlike declaration of love in the form of his faux-documentary, My Winnipeg.
The star-studded cast of this new absurdist, sureal comedy includes Cate Blanchett (working with the filmmaker for the first time) as the German Chancellor, Denis Ménochet as the President of France, Charles Dance as the Prime Minister of the United Stated, Roy Dupuis as the Prime Minister of Canada and Alicia Vikander as the President of the European Commission. What better way to add some extra spice to a bold adventure dealing with contemporary political issues?
In the words of the film’s co-executive producer, Ari Aster (Midsommar ; Beau is Afraid):
“Rumours is stupid and hilarious and wonderful, and it features the best cast ever assembled. The spirit of Buñuel and Monty Python and overwrought ’70s television is alive and strange”
