Rumours is a 2024 comedy horror film written and directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira, Zlatko Burić, and Alicia Vikander.
Rumours had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2024. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
Plot
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World leaders meet at the G7 at a German hotel but get lost in the woods whilst trying to compose an innocuous joint statement on an unspecified global crisis. Beset by thick fog and menaced by a giant brain and boneless bog bodies dug up by anthropologists, they navigate the tortured passions among them. All seven national leaders survive the ordeal and return to the hotel, where the Canadian PM reads their grandiose and meaningless statement to an empty world going up in flames and one bog body that convulses and explodes.
Cast
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Cate Blanchett as Hilda Ortmann, the Chancellor of Germany
Roy Dupuis as Maxime Laplace, the Prime Minister of Canada
Denis Ménochet as Sylvain Broulez, the President of France
Nikki Amuka-Bird as Cardosa Dewindt, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Charles Dance as Edison Wolcott, the President of the United States
Rolando Ravello as Antonio Lamorte, the Prime Minister of Italy
Takehiro Hira as Tatsuro Iwasaki, the Prime Minister of Japan
Zlatko Burić as Jonas Glob, the President of the European Council
Alicia Vikander as Celestine Sproul, the President of the European Commission
Production
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A German-Canadian production from Square Peg. Producers on the film are Liz Jarvis for Buffalo Gal Pictures, Philipp Kreuzer for Maze Pictures, and Lars Knudsen for Square Peg.[6] Cate Blanchett joined the cast in October 2023.[7] In January 2024, Alicia Vikander and Charles Dance joined the cast.[1] Principal photography took place in Hungary in October 2023.[8] Filming locations also included Winnipeg in Canada.
Release
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The film was selected to be screened out of competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 18 May 2024.[9] It was also selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024, where it screened under the World Cinema section.[10]
Reception
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On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 119 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site consensus states "A brainy satire that has a ball turning the supposed adults in the room into helpless children, Rumours spins a one-joke premise into a sophisticated riot."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[12]
The film was named as a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2024,[13] and Roy Dupuis was named as a finalist for Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film.[14]
The film was named to TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list for 2024.[15]